Smart, secure, fast – and a “Product of the Year”: the Balluff Asset Data Provider

As an intelligent software solution, the Balluff Asset Data Provider (ADP) makes it possible to capture and pre-process data, and to make it available to IIoT applications.

Digitization and automation are becoming increasingly important in the industrial world, and with them, so do intelligent networking between machines, plants, sensors, systems, and the cloud. This is where the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) comes into play. With its new Asset Data Provider (ADP), the sensor and automation specialist Balluff continues to drive its customers’ IIoT projects forward: the integrative software as a service solution enables the capture, pre-processing, and delivery of data at operation technology (OT) level. Thanks to edge computing, the data is prepared decentrally and reaches the relevant IT systems efficiently, securely, and in a resource-saving manner.

Breaking up data silos

“With the Asset Data Provider, our customers can extract, translate, and bundle different kinds of data even in a heterogeneous machine landscape and make them available in the corresponding IT system in a compatible format. This breaks up silos and accelerates companies’ digitization projects, without any complex customized development or manual processing,” says Artur Nonnenmacher, Product Manager Software at Balluff. Drag-and-drop features, low-code development, and a large selection of pre-defined modules also offer users with no programming experience uncomplicated and agile development and usage opportunities, including a shorter project duration and lower cost of ownership.

The fact that the data is not stored and processed in the cloud, but in the spread-out ADP edge nodes guarantees maximum data security. Additionally, users save time and costs: “Thanks to the so-called one-click deployment, proofs of concept can be rolled out, updated, and edited worldwide,” says Nonnenmacher, adding: “The ADP Cloud considerably simplifies these steps, which are often still carried out manually, as well as the entire software lifecycle management.” Furthermore, the Asset Data Provider enables central commissioning, configuration, and parameterization of IO-Link masters and devices across manufacturers.

Focusing on the PFB and automotive industries

As a smart software solution, the Asset Data Provider is used for predictive maintenance. Integrating an Enterprise Planning System (ERP) to plan, manage, and support business processes additionally improves the traceability of products in the packaging process. “Particularly customers in the packaging and beverage and food industries (PFB) as well as the automotive sector benefit from ADP, regardless of whether they are still at the beginning of their digitization journey or already scaling globally,” Nonnenmacher explains.

For Balluff, this step marks the next evolution within the industrial revolution. “Our company has been offering reliable data sources such as sensors and IO-Link for decades. With the Asset Data Provider, we are now able to select these large amounts of data across manufacturers at edge computing level, put them in the right context, and make them available at IT level,” says Nonnenmacher and adds: “This enables our customers to close the gap between OT and IT.”

About the company Balluff

Founded in 1921 in Neuhausen a. d. F., Balluff with its 3900 employees worldwide stands for innovative technology, quality and cross-industry experience in industrial automation. As a leading sensor and automation specialist, the fourth-generation family-owned company offers a comprehensive portfolio of high-quality sensor, identification, network and software solutions. In 2022, the Balluff Group recorded sales of around 567 million euros. In addition to its central headquarters in Neuhausen a. d. F., Balluff has sales, production and development locations around the globe and is represented by 38 subsidiaries and other agencies in 61 countries. This guarantees customers fast worldwide availability of products and a high quality of advice and service directly on site.