In the world of business, an asset is generally anything that a company owns that is of value. Assets are often categorized as tangible and intangible. It is the tangible assets that the Axeda® Platform and the Axeda® Connected Product Management Applications can help you manage. Tangible assets are also called Property, Plant, and Equipment (PPE) or fixed assets. The concept of fixed in the business or accounting sense is that they are purchased for long-term, continuing use by the business. These fixed assets can be stationary (installed in one location and rarely moved) or mobile (consistently moving from one location to another). In addition, a stationary asset could become mobile, and vice versa. In the Axeda Platform, stationary and mobile assets can coexist and be managed as required.
In general in the Axeda Platform, assets are any Property, Plant, and Equipment that you want the Platform to monitor. For the Platform to monitor an asset, communication between the Axeda® Platform and the asset must exist. It does not have to be constant communication; the timing of the communication can be set up to suit the needs of your organization. In addition, assets can communicate with the Platform over a variety of communication media, including wireless networks.
Your assets might be intelligent devices, capable of running an Axeda® Gateway Agent, an Axeda® Connector Agent, or an Axeda ® IDM Agent that serves as the medium that enables communications with the Axeda® Platform. The Axeda Gateway and Axeda Connector Agents can also run scripts, process software management packages, and upload and download files. All Axeda Agents handle information for remote desktop sessions with the assets where they are running.
Your assets might be Property, Plant, and Equipment (PPE) that have tracking devices, such as an Edge device. In this scenario, the tracking devices communicate directly with the Axeda® Platform over wireless networks. The PPE and the tracking devices are treated as separate assets in the Platform. However, you can associate assets with one another. By associating tracking assets with the assets where they are installed, you enable the Platform to make data, mobile locations, and alarms sent in by tracking assets available in the Asset dashboards of the PPE being tracked.
Asset associations are also possible with assets running Axeda Gateway, Axeda Connector, and Axeda IDM Agents. For example, you might have an Axeda Gateway project that monitors three components of a complex machine. These three components can be changed out separately and come in multiple models, as does the machine. If you want to monitor the components by looking at the data for the machine, you can do that through asset associations.
When assets send data to the Axeda® Platform, the Platform logs the data and can perform multiple operations on the data. Examples of operations the Platform can perform include
o Log the data and store it in the Platform
o Display the data in displays, results lists, reports, and graphs
o Perform calculations with the data
o Evaluate the data for defined triggering events
o Send messages to or request data from assets
o Send notifications concerning data or alarms received to designated recipients
The Platform can write updates back to an asset. Updates for assets running any of the Axeda Agents include such operations as setting values on the asset or restarting the asset. Updates for the Axeda Gateway and Axeda Connector Agents also include running scripts on the asset, and deploying software packages to the asset. For tracking assets, you can set data items and send control commands. For example, you could set up a rule that sends a command to change a valve position based on an incoming data item that shows the temperature exceeds 80 degrees. When values are sent for an asset that has an associated tracking asset, the values are actually sent to the tracking asset. Updates for such assets can include requesting sensor data from associated tracking assets.
Every asset is defined within a model. Some or all assets of a model can be defined in a single asset group. User groups (and their users) are granted privileges to selected asset groups. A tracking asset or an asset that is running an Axeda Agent can connect directly to the Platform. Assets can also connect indirectly, through an asset that is running the Axeda® Gateway agent; in the Axeda Applications, these assets are referred to as managed assets. An asset that is running Axeda Gateway and managing other assets connected to it is defined as a gateway).
For information about security for assets, refer to Security for Objects in Axeda Applications and for information about security for these objects when Delegated Administration is enabled, refer to Security for Objects in Delegated Administration Units.