#Product Trends
Plug-and-Cloud: The New IoT Bus Coupler
Focusing on IoT and Industrie 4.0, Beckhoff’s presence at Hannover Messe 2016 was very much in line with this year’s key theme Integrated Industry – Discover Solutions.
One highlight was its presentation of the EK9160 IoT Bus Coupler for cloud-based control. Described as a “plug-and-cloud”, this bus coupler has been designed to transmit all control data simply, safely and cost-effectively in plug-and-play mode to all major cloud systems – including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SAP HANA – as well as private cloud systems in company networks, with no requirement for either a controller or programming.
It establishes a direct connection between Beckhoff EtherCAT I/O and the IoT. As a result, it enables standardized integration of I/O data with cloud-based communication and data services. Via an integrated web server, the I/O data can be parameterized, such as in data processing and timing, through a simple configuration dialog. The coupler then autonomously transmits the data to the cloud service.
