EDMI Europe transforms logistics management with Red Hat JBoss Fuse
EDMI
When metering provider EDMI Europe won a major contract to provide communication hub devices and service management as part of the UK’s smart meter program, it needed to find a solution to enhance its IT capabilities. To support an expected 10 million devices over five years, it needed new logistics and repair management systems. With help from Tier 2 Consulting, a Red Hat Premier Partner, EDMI built its new IT solution using Red Hat JBoss Fuse, a flexible integration platform that has helped the company prepare for greatly increased demand by automating and streamlining processes.
Benefits
- Simplified IT management and development with unified integration of multiple systems
- Streamlined processes and improved efficiency through automation
- Gained access to local support and technology expertise
Data handling challenges from government requirements
Smart meters are transforming the supply of energy to homes by providing near real-time information on gas and electricity usage to consumers, as well as sending automated readings to the utility provider. In the UK, 53 million smart meters are expected to be installed in homes and businesses by the end of 2020.1 As part of the UK’s smart meter roll-out program, leading metering provider EDMI Europe won a contract to supply communication hub devices and service management to a major communications service provider, supporting secure data transfer between smart meters, in-home display devices, and energy suppliers. To fulfill the contract and meet UK government requirements, EDMI needed to enhance its IT capabilities to track forward logistics in its supply chain, generate related contractual reports, and communicate these reports to its suppliers and end customers. “EDMI has traditionally been a manufacturing organisation, so we haven’t had these types of stringent requirements around generating data files and pushing them to other systems for download,” said the lead solutions architect at EDMI. In addition, EDMI needed to build a triage service to process devices that are reported as faulty. To determine if a device should be fixed or recycled, data from several sources needed to be compiled, processed, and stored. With 10 million devices being delivered during the five-year contract, the triage system will need to handle hundreds of thousands of items. “Our existing solution was not fully fit to handle the increased volume of delivering millions of communications hubs,” said the lead architect. “We needed to find an alternative with a level of automation that would ensure a more efficient, streamlined approach.”
Flexible integration platform supports creation of new solutions
EDMI evaluated solutions from multiple vendors, including IBM and Red Hat, before choosing to deploy a solution based on Red Hat JBoss Fuse from Tier 2 Consulting, a Red Hat Premier Partner. “We needed a tool that would act as a gateway between our systems and third-party systems and would integrate with the existing MySQL database that holds a lot of our assets and service information,” said the lead architect. “Red Hat JBoss Fuse gives us all the functionality required without needing an army of people to deploy, manage, and maintain it.” Red Hat JBoss Fuse is a cost-effective, lightweight integration platform that offers modern enterprise service bus (ESB) capabilities to connect enterprise applications, application programming interfaces (APIs), services, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. With JBoss Fuse, EDMI can connect to its customer’s Salesforce order management system via web services, as well as the customer’s File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers and MySQL database.
To build the triage solution, EDMI used its forward logistics database, an FTP server, and a separate testing system that sends data back to JBoss Fuse. By combining that data with database information and using the IBM rules engine, EDMI can determine whether there is a true fault on a device and identify the responsible parties and next steps. Both this solution and the data communication solution run on-premise at EDMI’s offices to comply with data security restrictions. To build and deploy these solutions, EDMI created a high-level architecture for Tier 2, including use case and interface details. From this architecture, Tier 2 created a detailed design. “It was very much a joint effort, and it’s been a smooth implementation process. Tier 2 has always been on time and delivered everything it said it was going to do,” said the lead architect.
Middleware solution improves management and costs
Streamlined management and development
With the new solution, EDMI can more easily maintain its databases. Red Hat JBoss Fuse simplifies management and deployment by eliminating the code complexity associated with using multiple systems. As a result, EDMI can use fewer resources in a more efficient manner. “The main benefit of JBoss Fuse is that it gives us a standard integration architecture approach and a single point of integration with our systems, rather than point-to-point solutions that are harder and more time-consuming to maintain,” said the lead architect. “Any access and updates to our databases are abstracted from third-party systems via JBoss Fuse.” In addition, the pattern-based Apache Camel technology in Red Hat JBoss Fuse also helps EDMI and Tier 2 quickly develop, deploy, or adapt the solution using premade integrations.
Lower I.T. licensing costs
The Red Hat solution has helped EDMI control its IT expenses with a subscription-based model that offers better costs and flexibility compared to other vendors’ licensing models. “In terms of licenses and subscriptions alone, there was about a £30,000 a year difference between Red Hat JBoss Fuse and other solutions we were considering,” said the lead architect. “We also knew that we would need professional services. Working with a Red Hat Premier Partner, Tier 2, offers cost-effective support.”
Access to expert support
By using Red Hat JBoss Fuse, EDMI has gained access to expert enterprise guidance through Red Hat and Tier 2. “Part of the reason we chose Tier 2 is because they are a local, UK-based Red Hat Premier Partner that we get timely support from when needed,” said the lead architect. “We have access to the right people at Tier 2 and software support from Red Hat through the annual subscription. That accessibility is key for us and saves us time.”
Platform success leads to plans for continued expansion
EDMI plans to widen the scope of the solution beyond communication hubs to include smart meters, as well as other potential products and for other markets in the future. “We are very happy with the way the smart meter project has gone so far,” said the lead architect. “We’re confident enough in the solution that we’re expanding what we’re doing with Tier 2 and Red Hat JBoss Fuse.”
About EDMI
EDMI is one of the leading smart metering solutions providers in the world. EDMI designs, develops, and manufactures innovative and technologically advanced energy meters and metering systems for the global utility industry. EDMI has almost 40 years’ experience with millions of EDMI smart meters installed worldwide. EDMI Europe Limited is a subsidiary of EDMI Limited.
