The integration is expected to help enterprises boost performance at the mission critical industrial edge

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Nokia headquarters in Finland. (Credit: pikkuanna/Wikipedia.org)

Nokia unveiled plans for integrating the capabilities of Microsoft Azure Arc into the Nokia MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) platform with an aim to unlock the potential of mission critical applications for Industry 4.0 use cases.

Azure Arc is a suite of technologies that brings Azure security and cloud-native services to hybrid as well as multicloud environments.

Nokia MXIE, which was launched in October 2021, is a scalable application and compute solution designed to address the mission-critical digital transformation requirements of asset-intensive industries.

The on-premise edge solution is designed to speed up the digital transformation of operational technology (OT).

Microsoft telco service line CTO Keith Sutton said: “Nokia is an established leader in fully integrated industrial edge and private wireless solutions to provide features and automated management tools that accelerate OT digitalisation.

“With Microsoft Azure Arc, a wide ecosystem of applications, and our long standing work with Nokia, we can provide AI-powered insights and identify solutions to workflow issues for mission critical Industry 4.0 applications running at the edge.”

According to Nokia, the integration of Azure Arc’s capabilities will enable Nokia MXIE and private wireless solution customers to gain smooth access to the full Azure ecosystem offering on the MXIE platform.

The Finnish group said that the combination is intended to support industries such as automotive, energy, manufacturing, logistics, and government as well.

The combination of Azure Arc and MXIE will enable use cases by letting customers run applications in the conventional cloud, as well as directly on their premises, said Nokia.

By having Azure Arc running on Nokia MXIE, enterprises gain added access to the capabilities of Azure while profiting from the real-time data and on-premise, OT-centric edge processing of private wireless connected assets.

Nokia enterprise solutions vice president Stephan Litjens said: “We have built a leadership position with our private wireless networks solution and MX Industrial Edge platform in large part by working with our valued partners.

“Our extended collaboration with Microsoft will enable and enhance the performance of Industry 4.0 mission critical applications allowing our customers to tap into Microsoft Azure Arc in the cloud and on the customer premise’s edge.”