By Pragya Vaishwanar (Marketing Working Group Chair)
Testing, Building, and Validating Edge Interoperability with Margo
The edge is no longer an emerging concept for industrial users – it’s becoming the backbone of their next-generation operations for manufacturing, energy, logistics, and infrastructure. As organizations race to modernize operations, the edge is where competitive differentiation is increasingly being forged. Yet despite its promise, the industrial edge remains fragmented, proprietary, and operationally inconsistent. That is why the next few years will define not just how fast the market grows, but how well it matures.
According to MarketsandMarkets, edge in the global industrial market is projected to grow from USD 21.19 billion in 2025 to USD 44.73 billion by 2030, representing a CAGR of 16.1%. Broader edge computing forecasts are even more aggressive — rising from USD 23.65 billion in 2024 to USD 327.79 billion by 2033 (CAGR ~33%). This acceleration is powered by the explosion of IoT endpoints, the need for real-time analytics, latency-critical workloads, and the blending of IT and OT domains. In short: the edge is expanding faster than the industry’s ability to standardize it.
This is precisely where the Margo Initiative is stepping in with purpose. The launch of Preview Release 1 (PR1) marks a decisive turning point — the first public availability of an open-source sandbox that is ready to be used and tested. Built against the current pre-draft specification, the sandbox contains the three components of a Margo ecosystem – fleet management software, application, and (virtualized) device. And for the first time, future adopters and users can experience, build, and test Margo interoperability principles ahead of the full release in 2026.
PR1 directly addresses one of the industrial automation’s most persistent challenges: siloed, inconsistent application deployment across heterogeneous devices and platforms. By defining how industrial applications are described, packaged, deployed, and managed, the specification creates a foundation for portability and repeatability. The availability of a sandbox environment and an open community feedback loop reinforces an ethos of transparency and shared ownership — a critical factor in industrial adoption.
The release focuses on three core capability areas: application definition, application hosting, and fleet management. With early visibility into the specification, stakeholders can now evaluate packaging approaches, validate priority industrial use cases, and understand device-level expectations for running Margo-compliant applications. Future iterations will deepen fleet-management capabilities and introduce conformance testing to ensure consistency across implementations.
For industrial users and technology suppliers alike, the impact is immediate: the ability to test deployment models across multi-vendor environments, explore unified lifecycle management, and shape a standard that reflects real-world operating needs.
With edge computing growth continuing to accelerate, Margo offers a unique opportunity to get ahead of fragmentation, collaborate openly, and help shape an interoperable future for industrial automation. In essence, Preview Release 1 is a signal of industry alignment and a first step towards accelerating innovation.
Watch this space for the upcoming PR 1.