K-PORT solution for transparent IoT device management

The K-PORT digital solution simplifies and supports the automated commissioning, care and maintenance of IIoT solutions based on devices distributed in the field. This includes, for example, digital services, predictive maintenance or AI quality control. The solution combines the services of administration, container management and remote maintenance with a secure operating system.

With K-PORT from Kontron's susietec toolset, thousands of device connections worldwide can be managed centrally and transparently. IT managers can thus ensure secure operation of the devices and have a full overview of interfaces, hardware statuses and software configurations at all times.

A hardened operating system for X86 or ARM, based on Yocto Linux, ensures security; two redundant operating system parts guarantee 100% uptime Kronton claim. A secure management interface for updates and deployment enables short-term updates of new security patches.   Security-by-Design supports remote applications With the help of K-PORT, both the time-to-market and the costs for new digital customer services can be reduced while relieving the IT department. Machine and plant manufacturers can thus monetise customer-specific applications and operators can in turn increase machine turnovers through digital services.

Due to the security-by-design concept, applications or updates are delivered with secure end-to-end encryption. New sensor-equipped IoT devices or edge devices can be onboarded and simply managed in a centralised cloud environment.

Typically, applications are deployed in the form of Docker containers on devices in the field. In addition to individualised customer applications that can be encapsulated in containers, various desktop and remote accesses such as RDP & SSH can also be managed on the platform.

The solution enables the establishment of temporarily encrypted remote connections up to machine and customer network level for services such as remote maintenance, parameterisation or data exchange. With the integrated health monitoring, important parameters such as memory and CPU utilisation, connection status or operating time temperature of the IoT devices can also be monitored continuously.