Margo (Latin word for ‘edge’) is a new open standard initiative for interoperability at the edge for industrial automation ecosystems.
Margo is a blueprint for how to design modern applications and will specify how edge applications, edge devices, and orchestration software should interoperate to remove obstacles and simplify the process of building, deploying, scaling, and operating complex, multi-vendor edge environments for organizations of all sizes.
Margo’s North star is to address the interoperability pain points experienced by users in the industrial automation space when deploying applications at the edge at scale.
Organizations are facing these pain points while they are digitalizing their operations. This digitalization effort needs to be scalable, to allow future innovation through solutions like AI. At the same time, their operations need to be automated and require oversight of their heterogenous fleet of devices and applications through a single pane of glass, often referred to as orchestration planes or software.
The Margo initiative is committed to delivering the interoperability promise at the edge in an open, secure, modern, and agile way with a practical reference implementation, a comprehensive compliance testing toolkit and a standard defining the associated interaction patterns.
The strategy behind Margo is not to create “yet another standard” but to embrace and orchestrate existing & proven IT standards and enhancing these as needed, to ensure the specific OT requirements are met.
The Margo initiative has 2 working groups. The Technical working group ensures Margo’s technical oversight to deliver the interoperability promise. The working group is responsible to develop and maintain an open-source reference implementation, define and maintain associated open interoperability standards and develop and maintain a compliance framework, process and tooling. Activities also include education and training for adopters. The Marketing working group focusses on Margo’s marketing activities and is responsible to develop and maintain marketing content for project launch activities and public communications including but not limited to press release material, website content, social media, and events. Activities also include demand generation, market analysis, promotion, and branding for the project.
You can contribute in various ways to drive the Margo Initiative. It all depends on your affinity and expertise. As a developer, you can for example help building the open-source reference implementation by making contributions to Margo’s GitHub organization. If you are more interested in specifications work, we would love to have you in the team creating the open standard. If you are more looking for a governance and strategy role, you can help set the strategic directions of the Margo initiative by representing your organization on the steering committee or and in the working groups.
Click here to join the Margo initiative. Alternatively, you can also start contributing straight away to our open-source and open-specification repositories on GitHub. In both cases, we will guide you through a comprehensive onboarding process, regardless if you are a developer, a technology strategist, business leader….
Yes. Openness is one of its key pillars. The collaboration takes place in an open-source construct hosted by the Linux Foundation. Any interested party can contribute, and future Margo deliverables will be made available on a royalty-free basis. Steering and governing the initiative requires participation in the costs of the initiative though a sponsorship model.
No. Margo is not a commercial venture. Margo is hosted under the Linux Foundation and is open. The initiative focused on delivering an interoperability promise through an open-source reference implementation, an open an royalty free standard and a set of open-source compliance and test tools.
No. One can join Margo as a contributing member without sponsoring the initiative, and using the planned deliverables will be free of charge. If your organization desires to participate in the governance and set the strategy of the Margo Initiative, an annual financial sponsorship will be requested to participate in the operational costs of Margo.
The Margo initiative will operate based on an agile approach. First deliverables are envisioned to become available in 2024, and through subsequent iterations, the scope will evolve from the initial minimum viable system to the full spectrum of the interoperability promise. You can follow the advancement of the project in Margo’s GitHub repositories.
Both Margo and CESMII, United States’ non-profit institute dedicated to Smart Manufacturing, have a common goal: promote interoperability and innovation in manufacturing. “Margo’s focus on interoperable orchestration of apps and devices at the edge is complementary to CESMII’s interoperability objective to enable frictionless movement of information – raw and contextualized data – between real-time operations and the people and systems that create value in and across Manufacturing organizations. “, said John Dyck, CEO CESMII.
In particular, the Margo initiative supports this frictionless movement of information by enabling manufacturers to manage at scale their fleet of smart apps at the edge in an interoperable manner in a multi-vendor environment. On top of this interoperable infrastructure, CESMII focuses on ensuring that these apps generate, move, consume information frictionless and interoperable in the same multi-vendor reality at manufacturing organizations. Together, CESMII and Margo accelerate and democratize the adoption of smart manufacturing.
Margo is defining and documenting application patterns that address common industrial use cases and LF Edge provides open source software and infrastructure for edge computing. Margo aligns with the LF Edge’s mission unifying edge frameworks by contributing to the development of open standards and tools that facilitate edge interoperability. As part of the Linux Foundation family, Margo benefits from the collaborative environment, software and resources provided by LF Edge, helping to drive innovation and adoption of edge computing technologies in industrial settings. By leveraging the collaborative infrastructure of LF Edge, Project Margo aims to create a more unified and efficient edge ecosystem, thereby reducing the barriers to deploying and managing industrial IoT solutions at scale.
