Softing Industrial Automation has now announced the market launch of edgeNode Portainer – a robust industrial edge device designed to simplify the deployment, management, and updating of industrial edge applications.

Combined expertise

With edgeNode Portainer, Softing Industrial combines its expertise in industrial connectivity, OT/IT integration, and security with Portainer.io's intuitive platform for managing containerized software modules. The integrated offering is designed to lower the barriers to entry for implementing innovative IIoT solutions, enabling companies to operate industrial edge environments on a large scale.

Centralized lifecycle management for container applications

Portainer is an open-source tool environment that enables OT and IT teams to easily deploy, manage, and monitor containerized software applications. It supports both automated and manual workflows and can be used for large industrial deployments as well as for configuring individual devices. This platform uses edgeNode Portainer to provide centralized lifecycle management for edge applications. Users can deploy Docker containers or stacks, transfer updates, manage configurations, and perform rollbacks for an entire device fleet immediately after installation. This also includes the Docker containers of the Softing edgeConnector applications. They can be used seamlessly with edgeNode Portainer and enable secure connectivity to Siemens, Allen-Bradley, Modbus TCP, SINUMERIK, and FANUC controllers via OPC UA and MQTT.

Container management made simple, scalable, and accessible

"Portainer was developed to make container management simple, scalable, and accessible. The integration of our platform into a specially developed industrial device such as edgeNode Portainer is an exciting step forward. Softing Industrial has decades of experience in industrial connectivity and OT environments. Our cooperation enables users to run containerized workloads at the edge level securely, efficiently, without additional installations, and with the reliability required by the industry," said Tobias Mühlnikel, Head of Industry and IoT at Portainer.io.

Industrial-grade design for reliable shop floor operation

The edgeNode Portainer solution has a compact DIN rail form factor and operates reliably in extended temperature ranges. Users can flexibly deploy machine connectivity components from Softing Industrial or third-party vendors, or a combination of both. The device supports local and pure outbound communication, enabling reliable operation even under restrictive firewall policies.

State-of-the-art cybersecurity and compliance

EdgeNode Portainer was developed in accordance with Softing Industrial's secure development processes, which comply with the IEC 62443 standard. It offers robust cybersecurity with fast updates, transparent versioning, and patching. These features help manufacturers build secure, scalable industrial architectures. “edgeNode Portainer brings the benefits of cloud-based container management to industrial manufacturing,” says Abel Jimenez, Product Manager Industrial IoT at Softing Industrial. “It reduces operational overhead, accelerates digitalization, and provides a secure foundation for scalable OT/IT integration.”

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