Edge to Cloud Digital Transformation with AWS IoT SiteWise Edge and Belden

Digital transformation promises manufacturers the power to measure, connect, and unlock terabytes of data from the shop floor. Yet despite the promise of lucrative returns, the gains of digital transformation still remain unrealized with almost 70% of companies struggling to implement and scale their digital solutions, finding themselves trapped in “pilot purgatory” (McKinsey Study). This can be due to a number of factors such as project scoping and budgets, but in many cases the challenge starts at the very foundation of a company’s cloud journey where issues like legacy equipment connectivity, data operations, and scalability must be resolved in order to enable digital transformation. In the world of industrial automation and smart manufacturing, the ability to capture and analyze data from a wide range of assets and equipment is crucial when implementing industrial use cases such as asset monitoring, quality detection, and analytics. While primary sensors responsible for monitoring core processes are essential, secondary sensors can provide an even deeper level of insight that unlock new opportunities for optimization and improvement. In this blog post, we’ll highlight how the integrating AWS IoT SiteWise Edge with Belden (CloudRail) allows customers to connect to brownfield equipment, collect, and contextualize industrial data.

AWS IoT SiteWise Edge with Belden

AWS IoT SiteWise Edge is now integrated with Belden solutions (via CloudRail). Belden Inc. is a global supplier of network infrastructure and digitization solutions. Belden delivers the infrastructure that makes the digital journey simpler, smarter and secure. CloudRail, which Belden acquired in 2023, simplifies the transfer of data from industrial shop-floor devices to the cloud. Secondary sensing is a non-invasive way to add edge gateways and sensors to an existing brownfield production site to enable data collection which can be used to improve operational efficiencies and productivity without impacting legacy systems and production downtime. With a database of over 12,000 IO-link sensor definitions, you can collect data and use it in AWS IoT SiteWise in the cloud in minutes. Belden seamlessly integrates with AWS services to enable companies to create an industrial data foundation and unlock the potential of their OT data by connecting the factory floor to the cloud. Belden’s solutions have the ability to connect machines of all types including over 300 industrial protocols like OPC UA, to connect to industrial sensors, smart meters and more. Belden then can normalize the data received from all the inputs and native industrial data connections, process it in a managed edge environment that offers digital twin and visualization options, and then integrate seamlessly to AWS AI/ML services in the cloud or on-premises.

Figure 1: : AWS IoT SiteWise Integration with Belden and CloudRail

As shown in Figure 1, users can connect to the CloudRail console and add CloudRail software as a data source on their IoT SiteWise Edge gateway, via the CloudRail component (docker container). This allows users to configure protocols, desired data flows, and establish their data pipeline. After the configurations are deployed via SiteWise Edge components, sensor data flows seamlessly to AWS IoT SiteWise Edge for local monitoring, storage, and access at the edge. Data from IO-link sensors is published to the MQTT broker running on SiteWise Edge. From there, data is published from the edge to the AWS cloud where users can create equipment monitoring dashboards, build AI/ML models in the cloud, monitor KPIs with applications such as AWS IoT SiteWise monitor, or use AWS IoT TwinMaker, Amazon Athena, Amazon SageMaker and many more services available in the AWS cloud, as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Integrated stack from the edge to the AWS Cloud

Use Case: Belden manufacturing facility

Together with AWS IoT services, Belden digitally transformed their own 95-year-old Richmond, Indiana manufacturing facility. The site faced several challenges: costly downtime due to unplanned maintenance and hard-to-find replacement parts, shortage of skilled workers, lack of machine connectivity, a substantial number of older, legacy machines in operation, and a high product mix. Belden’s Digital Automation Consultants designed a custom network infrastructure that could efficiently and securely connect and capture OT data from every machine to detect at-risk components. The team worked with AWS to contextualize sensor readings and connect to AWS IoT SiteWise to gain insights from the data collected. As a result, Belden realized a 5% OEE improvement and $400K annual performance increase, with a payback period of 1.25 years. This podcast covers some of that journey.

The collaboration with AWS IoT SiteWise and Belden provides a shop floor to cloud, end-to-end platform solution targeted to meet the needs of customers who may lack equipment connectivity, have limited employee resources, or experience building a strong edge data foundation, and are looking for a seamless solution to connect and scale their data in the cloud. By bringing intelligence to the edge and bridging the equipment connectivity gap, these technologies pave the way for unified connectivity, reduced integration costs, and improved decision-making for customers.

For more information please refer to the Belden Page here.