Security for IoT devices has long only been a tacked-on afterthought. But then edge computing came along to supercharge the urgency for rock-solid security measures. After all, sensor data and edge computing are literally the drivers in autonomous cars and critical infrastructure where security threats could deliver debilitating, real world results.

Given this new level of seriousness in IoT data, edge computing and microcloud infrastructure, open-source projects such as the newly announced Project EVE, Linux Foundation Edge and the Home Edge Project are timely additions to security arsenals.

The nonprofit Linux Foundation recently launched its LF Edge umbrella organization to establish a universal open-source framework for edge computing, and create a common framework for hardware and software specifications, and best practices.

LF Edge merges three pre-existing LF projects: Akraino Edge Stack, EdgeX Foundry and Open Glossary of Edge Computing. But it also includes two newly announced projects: Project EVE (edge virtualization engine), contributed by ZEDEDA; and Home Edge Project, contributed by Samsung Electronics.

Project EVE is in the partner-recruitment phase. The community aims to begin releasing open-source project code in the first half of this year.

Zededa’s Said Ouissal

“By accelerating the development of cloud-native edge applications, Project EVE is paving the way for the next generation of edge applications in enterprises — from robotics to AI to predictive analytics and automation,” said Roman Shaposhnik, co-founder and VP, product and strategy,at Zededa. 

Zededa is a startup taking a cloud-native approach to management and security of enterprise edge applications ranging from self-driving cars to industrial robots.

“The enterprise edge today is, in fact, comparable to the smartphone market before 2003 — embedded systems with application-specific hardware dominated making the modern day smartphone a futuristic dream,” said Said Ouissal, CEO of Zededa. “Project EVE sets edge hardware on a path to freeing application developers to focus on innovation as Android did for smartphone app developers in the 2000s.”