At HANNOVER MESSE 2026, German Edge Cloud (GEC), Red Hat, and Fraunhofer CCIT will demonstrate how industrial companies can comprehensively digitize their production and, for the first time, make data consistently usable from the shop floor to the cloud. Built on Red Hat OpenShift, the system utilizes GEC’s ONCITE Digital Production System (DPS) in conjunction with Red Hat’s compute platform approach—embedded within the Edge Cloud Continuum defined by Fraunhofer CCIT. This results in a unified data and application architecture that enables real-time processing of production data, cross-site utilization, and the scalable rollout of industrial AI applications.

Previously Separate Layers Now United

Many factories have evolved over time: machines, equipment, and IT systems often operate in isolation, data exists in different contexts, and it is difficult to use it across site and system boundaries. The collaboration between GEC and Red Hat aims to unite these previously separate layers. ONCITE DPS integrates existing production environments, captures and contextualizes machine data, and makes it available as a usable database. Red Hat OpenShift, the Kubernetes-based hybrid cloud application platform, enables applications to run consistently across edge, private, and public cloud infrastructures—using containerized workloads with unified lifecycle management.

Enabler for Scalable Industrial AI

The solution lays the foundation for Industrial AI: data is processed in real time directly at the machine while simultaneously being made available for cross-domain analytics and AI models. This enables companies to implement and scale use cases such as predictive maintenance, process optimization, or quality analysis more efficiently—from individual manufacturing cells to globally connected production networks.

Edge Cloud Continuum: Using data where it delivers added value

A central component of the showcase is the Fraunhofer Edge Cloud Continuum, which the partners are jointly bringing from research into industrial practice. The approach enables applications to be operated flexibly between the edge and the cloud—depending on where they deliver the greatest added value, both technically and economically.

Time-critical processes run close to the machine, while computationally intensive analyses and AI training take place in the cloud. Companies thus benefit from greater flexibility, better resource utilization, and a future-proof architecture.

Making complexity manageable: Bringing IT and OT worlds together

In addition to data integration, GEC and Red Hat address a key challenge facing the industry: the operation of distributed infrastructures. By leveraging the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, companies can treat industrial hardware and software as “code,” enabling a more seamless orchestration of IT and OT environments. This helps reduce manual effort, increase operational reliability, and enable scalable production solutions.

From the shop floor to the “far edge” without changing architecture

With the major release 26.02 available at HANNOVER MESSE, ONCITE DPS can now also run fully on Red Hat Device Edge—a lightweight Kubernetes platform that supports workloads on small, hard-to-reach, and resource-constrained devices. This allows containerized applications to run directly close to the equipment, with low latency and high resilience even in environments with limited connectivity. Companies can thus expand their architecture step by step without fundamental system disruptions.

“Especially for SMEs”

“At HANNOVER MESSE, we’re demonstrating how AI is already being used in production today—with a clear focus on ease of implementation, scalability, and economic value, especially for small and medium-sized businesses,” says Dieter Meuser, CEO of German Edge Cloud.

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