Unlocking Innovation on the Factory Floor: How VMware VCF Edge Empowers OT Citizen Developers

OT Modernization Challenges VMware VCF Edge: A Unified Platform for Both IT and OT Real-World Impact: The Citizen Developer Workflow The Outcome: Actual Productivity and Faster Modernization Discover more from VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Blog Related Articles Unlocking Innovation on the Factory Floor: How VMware VCF Edge Empowers OT Citizen Developers Integrating VMware Data Services Manager with Harbor for a Production-Ready Registry VCF Breakroom Chats Episode 75 - Breaking the GitOps Barrier: Continuous Delivery for Modern Apps with VCF 9 The push for application modernization isn’t just an IT department concern anymore—it’s a fundamental requirement for the modern Operational Technology (OT) environment. Factory floors, energy grids, and logistics hubs are brimming with opportunities for improvement, and the people who know these processes best are your OT experts: the factory workers, engineers, and floor supervisors. They have the knowledge and motivation to optimize their daily operations. The problem? Traditional, complex IT infrastructure has been a towering obstacle to getting their ideas off the ground. For years, operational staff have sought ways to digitize and improve their workflows, often turning to low-code development tools like Node-RED to quickly build applications. These tools are fantastic for rapid prototyping and connecting industrial systems, but they still run into challenges when it comes to deployment, security, and enterprise scale. The primary obstacles for these citizen developers include the following. Complexity of Deployment: Setting up robust, secure, and scalable environments (like Kubernetes clusters or virtual machines) is a full-time IT job, not an OT one. Lack of Unified Support: OT and IT platforms often live in silos, leading to fragmented security, inconsistent management, and painful handoffs. Security and Robustness: A quickly deployed application must run on a secure, reliable foundation that meets industrial uptime and regulatory standards. This is where VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Edge completely changes the game. VCF Edge is designed to bring the robustness and management simplicity of the core data center right to your remote or edge sites—whether that’s a factory floor, a retail branch, or a substation.