Siemens has revealed plans to acquire Edge technology from US-based defined edge computing company Pixeom. The planned acquisition is expected to help the former in bolstering its Industrial Edge portfolio by adding software components for Edge runtime and for device management.

Siemens said it would use the technology from Pixeom in the Business Unit Factory Automation, which is part of Siemens Digital Industries. With the resulting Industrial Edge ecosystem, industrial companies could use production data even more efficiently and react more flexibly to changes in conditions.

According to Ralf-Michael Franke, CEO of Business Unit Factory Automation, “Cutting edge technologies such as Edge Computing open up new scope for automation.” With Siemens Industrial Edge, the company promises an open edge ecosystem which offers benefits for companies of any size.”

Siemens said it is using Docker standard container technology: the provision of apps in the management system will therefore be just as simple as functional upgrades and updates of Edge devices in the factory from a central point.

Pixeom has sites in San José, California and Udaipur, India. The transaction is likely to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019. Both the companies declined to divulge the financial details of the transaction.