Intel has launched a modular, edge-native software platform designed for cloud-like simplification of the development, deployment and management of artificial intelligence (AI) applications at the edge. New customers of this platform will experience faster time-to-scale and an improved total cost of ownership, according to Intel.

“The edge is the next frontier of digital transformation, being further fueled by AI,” Intel Corporate VP of Network and Edge Group Software Pallavi Mahajan said. But operating at the edges of the network is complex and challenging.

Although enterprises could find a custom solution that meets their unique application needs at the edge, those options tend to be built on closed systems and specialized hardware, which renders integrating legacy systems and adding new use cases time-consuming and expensive.

Intel’s modular edge platform, however, specifically supports infrastructure, applications and AI deployments at scale. This drives optimal edge infrastructure performance and streamlines application management for enterprises, “giving them both improved competitiveness and improved total cost of ownership,” Mahajan said.

Enterprise customers can purchase a complete solution from Intel or build their own in an existing environment. Developers can then build edge-native AI applications on new or existing infrastructure and manage edge solutions from end-to-end for any specific use case. The platform’s infrastructure management and AI application development capabilities can also integrate with existing software stacks, thanks to the platform’s open standards.

Intel’s edge platform infrastructure includes OpenVINO AI inference runtimes for edge AI and policy-based secure automation of IT and OT management. Intel’s OpenVINO allows developers to optimize applications for low power consumption, low latency and deployment on existing hardware at the edge. This makes it possible for standard hardware that is already deployed at the edge to run AI applications without expensive infrastructure upgrades or refactoring.

Through a single dashboard, IT and DevOps teams can provision, onboard and manage edge nodes – including edge servers, HMI devices and industrial controls, for example. These tasks can be done securely and remotely across day-zero, day-one or day-two operations.

With Intel’s edge platform, IT teams can access innovative AI tools for fine-tuning, application development and horizontal edge services.

The platform helps IT teams fine-tune application orchestration specifically for remote, latency-sensitive workloads, before choosing the right device to run each unique application. It also includes a low-code to high-code AI model and application development tool with hybrid AI functionality from edge to cloud.

Intel edge platform customers will also receive access to horizontal edge services like data annotation to build AI models – and vertical industry-specific edge services that use video, time-series information and digital twins to track and manage environments to improve performance in common industrial use cases.