Wago and Portainer are happy to announce they have entered into a strategic IoT partnership agreement. Both companies are now pursuing the aim of implementing projects for their customers that can be realized faster, easier, and in a more secure way (with regard to IT security).
Tobias Mühlnikel, CTO & CPO Portainer Edge (left to right) and Jürgen Pfeifer, Wago IoT & Cloud Partner Manager
Portainer is the software platform from Portainer.io for managing the deployment of container-based applications and administrating Edge Devices in the IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT) landscape. It is used, for instance, on industrial controls and Edge Computers. With more than 600.000 active users and over 3.4 billion downloads, Portainer is well-known in various Operational Technology (OT) and IT sectors. Portainer’s Business Edition meets the requirements of enterprises and plays a crucial role in IoT and IIoT projects.
Wago, founded in 1951, has more than 8600 employees globally and sales of 1.19 billion euros in 2021. Wago is one of the leading manufacturers for electrical connectivity technology and automation technology. Wago’s products and solutions are well-known in various sectors, such as energy technology, automotive industry, building technology and machinery and plant engineering.
The purpose of the new partnership is to offer end-to-end solutions, consisting of Wago’s hard- and software and Portainer, to common clients for their IoT and IIoT projects. Wago is contributing its excellent expertise with regard to automation technology to the partnership and provides robust hardware, like the PFC 200, Compact Controller 100 or the Edge Computer, but also software solutions, such as energy management and light management.
Portainer is a perfect match for these devices because of its lightweight Edge Agent that is able to run on devices with few hardware resources. It is Portainer’s core competency to manage container-based applications which can be Wago’s own software solutions or software products from third party vendors running on Wago’s devices. It is important to mention that Portainer won’t lead to a vendor lock-in when realizing cloud projects because it is runtime and container orchestrator agnostic at the Edge. Therefore, Portainer preserves its customer’s independence of cloud providers. Of course, non-cloud projects can be implemented using Portainer as well.
Portainer supports IoT and IIoT projects by putting special emphasis on speed, simplicity, and IT-security when managing container-based applications. In addition, Portainer also provides an enhanced device management when dealing with Wago’s devices because of Wago’s modern development regarding firmware updates via software containers.
How is Portainer’s focus on speed, simplicity, and IT security beneficial for customer projects?
When using Portainer the customer avoids spending too much time on recurring tasks. Especially the automated integration of new hardware into the existing IT infrastructure, the so-called One-Touch-Onboarding, enables the customer to distribute its applications rapidly out of a central instance. Thereby, manual process steps can be omitted, personnel costs can be reduced and the projects are able to scale. Common characteristics of OT networks, such as missing internet connection or segregations of OT and IT networks, are no obstacles for Portainer.
Moreover, Portainer offers a well-designed UI to support especially non-IT experts, like OT experts, in their day-to-day business. They do not need profound knowledge in the management of software containers so the needed IT skill level can be lowered.
Eventually, Portainer accepts no compromises when it comes to IT security. This is crucial because especially OT networks with devices that often control business-critical processes are worthy of protection. That’s why Portainer provides role-based access control for users, authentification- and authorization mechanisms as well as encryption of its own communication. In addition, the customer is able to update the firmware of the devices in an automated manner to ensure that every device is up-to-date and to close IT security gaps as fast as possible.
What is the next step of the partnership?
As the next step, Wago and Portainer are going to offer common clients bundles of hard- and software to leverage the mentioned synergies resulting from Wago’s products and Portainer. Keep yourself informed by visiting Wago’s Edge Controller and Edge Computer offering and Portainer’s dedicated Edge page.
Interested in becoming a Partner?
Visit our Become a Partner page to find out more about becoming a Partner.
COMMENTS