Part 2 of 5 in our Edge to Enterprise series. With a common vocabulary in place (ISA-95), the next question is where the intelligence should live. This post, first published in May 2025, made the case for the edge.
Update, October 2026: CATIM Edge IPC has grown into CATIM Nimbus, our CODESYS edge controller with advisory AI. Read what we built in Sense, Decide, Act: The Controller Is the Platform.
Legacy OT architectures were built from many multi-vendor black boxes, cobbled together into systems that worked… barely.
They also bring countless difficulties: vendor lock-in, poor scalability, security nightmares and an inability to keep systems current with modern methods.
Forward to today… our CATIM Edge node is an industrial IPC running open-architecture applications such as CODESYS (the IEC 61131-3 PLC) and local or cloud IIoT, fully compatible with modern ERP, MES and SCADA methods, with no costly external services or plugins. At its heart are the UNS (Unified Namespace) and the MCP (Model Context Protocol) architecture, which integrate legacy and modern data and are ready to connect AI engines. This brings AI right to the data point, where it is needed most for fast, smart decisions, and it keeps working when the network does not.
The Edge Gateway supports most modern upstream and downstream protocols and interfaces, and they are easy to configure for your needs. Its architecture connects into legacy SCADA as well as modern MES, ERP and IIoT systems. RFID and other technologies are also supported - see our NFC tagging products.
The CATIM Edge Gateway IPC is in limited release, ready to set new standards in the OT world for cybersecurity, cost, openness and business productivity.
The Edge to Enterprise series
- 4 Surprising Truths About ISA-95 - the vocabulary every system shares
- CATIM Edge IPC: the ultimate OT intelligence - why intelligence belongs at the edge (you are here)
- The End of API Chaos - one API for every application
- i3X vs MQTT: One Moves Bytes, the Other Moves Meaning - moving bytes versus moving meaning
- Sense, Decide, Act: The Controller Is the Platform - the platform we built on these ideas
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