{"id":59710,"date":"2025-09-26T10:53:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/becolve.com\/blog\/from-the-edge-to-the-enterprise-are-you-prepared-to-manage-hundreds-of-edge-devices-without-spending-all-your-time-or-that-of-your-team\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:53:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:53:26","slug":"from-the-edge-to-the-enterprise-are-you-prepared-to-manage-hundreds-of-edge-devices-without-spending-all-your-time-or-that-of-your-team","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/becolve.com\/en\/blog\/from-the-edge-to-the-enterprise-are-you-prepared-to-manage-hundreds-of-edge-devices-without-spending-all-your-time-or-that-of-your-team\/","title":{"rendered":"FROM THE EDGE TO THE ENTERPRISE: Are you prepared to manage hundreds of Edge devices without spending all your time, or that of your team?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The term Edge is increasingly present in the world of automation. But, what is understood as Edge?<\/strong> There are several opinions and visions. From my point of view, the Edge is still what we have always known as \u201cat the machine level\u201d or \u201cat the plant level\u201d<\/strong>, but with an IoT component that we will address later. I pose an initial reflection: is a PLC or a PAC an Edge device?<\/strong> If we stick to its functionalities, everything should point to yes: capable of locally controlling the process and serving data from the process upstream. However, in practice, a PLC is not considered an Edge device in many areas. So… <\/p>\n

What Characteristics Must a Device Meet to be Considered \u201cEdge\u201d?<\/h2>\n

First of all, an Edge device should not, under any circumstances, attempt to replace the function of the PLC.<\/strong> That’s what PLCs are for, to control the process! Let them continue to do their job. Instead, we should see Edge devices as the key Gateway piece between distributed field elements and the SCADA<\/strong> of the unified control center, or in some cases, the platforms in the cloud directly. <\/p>\n

Therefore, Edge devices fulfill a series of functionalities<\/strong> that make them essential in IoT architectures:<\/p>\n