“Data gravity” might be the new catchphrase for edge computing following a roundtable discussion at the Emerson Exchange 2025 conference in San Antonio. Peter Zornio, chief technology officer at Emerson, moderated the session, entitled “From Edge to Cloud: Powering the Future of Industrial Computing.”
The goal of the discussion was to help define the modern edge and the bigger role that cloud plays in industrial operations. The industrial edge represents a sophisticated computing environment that brings cloud-native capabilities—including microservices, orchestration and zero-trust security—directly to the plant floor. As William Reed, general manager of energy and manufacturing at Dell noted, “Edge is really where I'm bringing IT best practices into an environment that has traditionally been really OT-centric.”
He further elaborated on his point, stating that the edge is fundamentally about bringing data or computing closer, which ties into a phenomenon known as data gravity—the idea that large data volumes attract more data and applications.
Cloud role increasing
The potential that this technology convergence holds for industry is significant. As Zornio said, modern cloud computing today is much more than remote operations execution software.
Today, industrial environments are utilizing software as a service (SaaS) and platform-as-a service in the cloud, added Brian LaMothe, Emerson’s vice president of cloud application development. One critical enabler of greater cloud connectivity is the ability to do zero-trust, cybersecure networking in the OT environment, LaMothe said. The other factor contributing to wider cloud adoption on the plant floor is the increasing level of orchestration, which allows for more microservices that can be run in the cloud—a significant advantage over traditional virtual machine environments, he said. “That really allows the expansion of how cloud can be used and how platforms as a service can be used to build SaaS solutions,” LaMothe added.
Emerson currently has more than 12,000 users leveraging the company’s SaaS applications, according to LaMothe. He noted that some sectors are further ahead in cloud adoption, with life sciences leading the way.
These capabilities are even extending to the world of power generation, with orchestration platforms showing potential as distribution demands increase in complexity, said Rick Kephart, vice president of technology for Emerson’s Power and Water Solutions.
While regulations currently limit full cloud capabilities in the utilities sector, the industry is becoming more open to the concept. “Had you asked me about cloud technology five years ago in power, I would have said let’s end the conversation right there, but that’s starting to change,” Kephart said.
Security can’t be neglected
Of course, security has been a concern in industrial environments, which can slow adoption. But Kephart said that’s changing along with changes in workforce demographics. As younger generations enter the workforce, the resistance to cloud adoption should diminish, he said. He cited the shift toward virtualization 10 to 15 years ago as an example.
“Then, slowly, we had another generation of decision-makers that were comfortable with that technology. They adopted it, and I think the same thing will happen with cloud technology,” he said, adding that regulations will need to change as well to speed adoption in the power sector.
Solutions providers can help ease concerns about security by being honest about the real risks while educating users on where the cloud makes sense, said Padraig Stapleton, chief product officer for Zededa, a provider of management and orchestration solutions for the distributed edge.
“I think the security concern is a real, and I think if we think we're just going to push that concern aside again to adopt technology, it's not going to happen,” he said. “But I think we need to educate them on what can be taken out (to the cloud).”
Telemetry data and software upgrades at the edge are a couple of examples where cloud computing makes more sense for many industrial users, Stapleton said.
“Those are kind of the baby steps that they're taking that are basically giving them a lot more comfort,” he added.
AI to accelerate cloud, edge convergence
Looking ahead, most of the panelists were in agreement that artificial intelligence is one of the most rapidly evolving technologies reshaping industrial operations.
“I think that's one of the areas where the ‘closed-edge’ people will actually start to become somewhat cloud people, as well, as far as being able to deploy large language models that are cloud-based and distill that information into models that can run locally,” said Kephart.
Reed agreed, saying “AI is absolutely going to dominate.”
“I think IT/OT convergence is going to be an incubator, a driver for that,” he said. “It's going to empower workers differently. It's going to create organizations that need to be agile in how they're developing and using AI both inside of the organizations as well as at the edge. And that could be anything from safety to predictive maintenance.”
