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What is the Smart Factory Host?🔗

The Smart Factory Host (SFH) is a standardized, managed edge data center for machine builders. It provides a turnkey Kubernetes-based runtime environment right inside your customer's factory — no cloud dependency, no vendor lock-in.

With the integrated SFH DevOps Platform, engineering teams can provide, manage, and secure containerized applications at the edge with the same modern workflows they know from cloud-native development.

The Smart Factory Host offers machine builders a scalable, secure, and open platform for Industrial IoT and Edge Computing. Manage, deploy, and secure device fleets efficiently — without vendor lock-in.

Even teams without Kubernetes experience benefit from a pre-integrated runtime with built-in building blocks that accelerate development and shorten the time to production.

Key Benefits🔗

Scalable Deployment

Update apps to thousands of edge locations with a single click. Kubernetes-based orchestration scales with your fleet — without operational overhead.
Secure by Design

Built-in Workload Attestation, TLS Offloading, and isolated runtime environments protect your apps and data at every layer of the stack.
Open Platform

No vendor lock-in. Bring your own containers, your own toolchain, and your own CI/CD pipeline. SFH integrates with standard Kubernetes-native workflows.
Edge-Ready Hardware

32 GB RAM · 8-core i7 · 1 TB high-availability RAID1 — purpose-built for demanding industrial workloads right on the factory floor.

Platform Architecture🔗

The SFH ecosystem consists of two tightly integrated layers — a cloud-side DevOps Platform for your engineering team, and an edge-side Smart Factory Host that runs in the customer's DMZ.

☁️ Cloud — DevOps Platform🔗

The cloud control plane gives your DevOps team everything needed to manage the full app lifecycle:

Container Registry — Store and version your app images
Web UI — Intuitive interface for all operations
App Management — Deploy, update, and rollback with ease
Lifecycle Management — Automated version and release workflows
Log Viewer — Centralized log access across all edge installations
Event Streaming — Real-time telemetry pipeline from edge to cloud 🔗
DynDNS — Automatic DNS for dynamic IP environments

🏭 Edge — Smart Factory Host🔗

The edge runtime is deployed in your customer's DMZ — fully managed, always connected:

EDGIZER — Device & asset management, control plane agent 🔗
Reverse Proxy — TLS Offloading & routing for all edge apps
Workload Attestation — Cryptographic workload verification
Logs + Metrics + Traces — Full observability out of the box
kubeEdge + CRI-O — Lightweight Kubernetes edge runtime
SUSE MicroOS — Immutable, auto-patching operating system
Hardware — 32 GB RAM · 8-core i7 · 1 TB RAID1

Built-in Features🔗

Dynamic DNS

Automatic DNS updates for edge installations — even behind dynamic IPs. Access your apps reliably without manual network configuration.
TLS Offloading

Encrypted communication out of the box. The built-in Reverse Proxy handles TLS termination so your apps don't have to.
Workload Attestation

Cryptographic proof that only verified, signed workloads run on your edge devices. Zero-trust security from day one.
Logs, Metrics & Traces

A full observability stack is pre-integrated. Stream logs and metrics to the cloud platform, or connect to your own monitoring infrastructure.
Lifecycle Management

Structured app versioning, staged rollouts, and automated update pipelines — from development all the way to production.
App Management

Define, deploy, and manage containerized applications via declarative App Definitions. EDGIZER and kubeEdge handle the rest.

Architecture Overview🔗

graph TD
    subgraph Cloud["☁️ Cloud — DevOps Platform"]
        CR[Container Registry]
        WUI[Web UI]
        AM[App Management]
        LM[Lifecycle Management]
        DD[DynDNS]
        LV[Log Viewer]
        ES[Event Streaming]
    end

    subgraph EDGIZER["EDGIZER"]
        CP[Control Plane]
        DM[Device Management]
    end

    subgraph Edge["🏭 Edge — Smart Factory Host"]
        subgraph CS["Core Services"]
            RP[Reverse Proxy / TLS]
            WA[Workload Attestation]
            LMT[Logs + Metrics + Traces]
        end
        subgraph Apps["Your Apps"]
            APP["🚀 App Container"]
        end
        subgraph RT["Runtime"]
            KE[kubeEdge]
            CRIO[CRI-O]
        end
        OS["SUSE MicroOS"]
        HW["Hardware · 32 GB RAM · 8-core i7 · 1 TB RAID1"]
    end

    Cloud -->|"Kubernetes API"| EDGIZER
    EDGIZER --> Edge
    DD -.->|"DynDNS sync"| RP
    ES -.->|"telemetry"| LMT
    CS --> RT
    Apps --> RT
    RT --> OS
    OS --> HW

Ready to Build?🔗

Dive into the developer documentation and ship your first SFH app — or reach out to our team.

Developer Guide → Contact Us

The Edge Platform Your Factory Deserves