The Friedhelm Loh Group is taking over IoTOS, a start-up based in Limburg, Germany

Three Friedhelm Loh Group companies will be working together even more closely in the future: Rittal, German Edge Cloud and IoTOS, along with Bosch Connected Industry will be offering the first complete solution for integrating, harmonising and analysing industrial production data. Following the acquisition of German Edge Cloud, the IoTOS start-up now also belongs to the group. The Friedhelm Loh Group has now announced the 100% takeover.

“Data is the new raw material”, Dr Friedhelm Loh said back in 2016 when laying the foundation stone for Rittal's new factory in Haiger. The world’s most advanced automated and digitally integrated production of small and compact enclosures is currently being started up and already generating 18 terabytes of data every day. Furthermore, today Rittal, German Edge Cloud and IoTOS are now offering the first real-time comprehensive solution for edge cloud-based data management and data availability along the entire supply chain, from usage via intelligent analysis and to secure and customer-controlled data transfer in a highly efficient overall environment. All three companies now form part of the Friedhelm Loh Group. Today, the group announced the 100% takeover of the Limburg-based IoTOS. This company is complementing the services already being offered by the group by adding industrial IoT applications for the customer’s smart factory. It has been agreed that the purchase price will remain confidential.

ONCITE, the industrial edge cloud appliance product that Rittal and German Edge Cloud are offering together with IoTOS and Bosch Connected Industry, is “the answer to the question of how industrial manufacturing customers will be able to quickly and easily deal with the increasing complexity of processing production data in the future,” says Dr Friedhelm Loh, Owner and Chairman of the board of the group of companies: “With the digitalization scheme launched by VW and BMW, the automotive industry has been the first sector to demand complete data availability from the manufacturing industry along the entire supply chain. Others will follow. Medium-sized companies have to get ready for these future requirements today. With Rittal, German Edge Cloud and IoTOS, we are helping our customers do just that – and to shape the future.”

ONCITE consists of edge cloud infrastructures (IaaS) based on flexibly scalable edge cloud Rittal data centres, platforms for data analysis (PaaS) and industry-specific AI applications (SaaS) including full service. IoTOS offers software solutions, such as for networking devices and machines, as well as real-time analytics and the traceability of all components in the supply chain. “Our goal is to give our customers transparency across the entire value chain, increase their productivity, cut maintenance costs and at the same time to implement digitalized business models”, says Dieter Meuser, Managing Director of IoTOS: "We are pleased to now be part of a strong group that is a recognised leader in developing solutions for the digitisation of small and medium-sized businesses."

With Rittal, German Edge Cloud and IoTOS, but also with Eplan (Engineering) and iNNOVO Cloud (Managed Services), the Friedhelm Loh Group focuses on the integration of value chains in both industry and IT. In the future, the question will not only be about the best product and the most efficient solution in the industrial customer’s value chain. It will also be a matter of integrating the necessary data-driven processes between customers, as well as along the entire supply chain and within the smart factories in a value-adding way. Then, as Dr Friedhelm Loh says, “the future will belong to whoever has the best product and the best platform with the corresponding applications.”