Red Hat and Panasonic Connect Redefine Secure Ruggedised Computing

Red Hat and Panasonic Connect are to collaborate on redefining the capabilities of ruggedised edge computing. They are to preload Red Hat Device Edge on Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices, integrating it with Panasonic Connect. This collaboration delivers a unified platform for autonomous operations and real-time processing right where the work happens.

Masaki Takeda, Director of Mobile Solutions Business Division in Europe for Panasonic, said, “The collaboration with Red Hat brings critical value to TOUGHBOOK by delivering advanced security, consistent cloud-to-edge integration, and long-term support. In today’s complex and demanding operational environments, the security of hardware and software data is more vital than ever. Without comprehensive protection, defence investments can be rendered ineffective.

“By working with Red Hat – an organisation with a proven platform that is trusted by major government organisations and enterprises – TOUGHBOOK delivers a unified system that drives efficiency and productivity for users. Furthermore, the combined long-term support from Red Hat Device Edge and Panasonic’s hardware helps maximise ROI and deliver stable, day-to-day operations for mission-critical investments.”

Open Source to speed up deployment

Ruggedised edge computing devices are used in industries where security and compliance are paramount. Typical industries include critical national infrastructure (CNI), the defence sector, government and manufacturing. What Red Hat and Panasonic are offering is the use of open source to secure those devices.

Historically, deploying edge infrastructure required separate hardware selection, OS installation, and container orchestration setup. This required deployment, security and operations teams to integrate Linux distributions with Kubernetes before testing a single sensor.

Red Hat Device Edge changes this dynamic. It provides a pre-tested, out-of-the-box solution that includes MicroShift. This is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution derived from Red Hat OpenShift. Out-of-the-box removes the time taken to integrate solutions.

The technical architecture relies on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. MicroShift handles the container workloads with a minimal footprint suitable for rugged laptops and tablets. The system operates effectively in disconnected or remote environments where cloud reliance is a single point of failure.

Key benefits of this integration include:

• Faster deployment: Pre-validated hardware and software reduce time-to-value significantly.
• Enhanced flexibility: A reliable Linux-based footprint supports demanding, custom workloads.
• Operational resilience: Physical durability meets built-in security for extreme conditions.

Enterprise Times: What does this mean?

This is about speeding up the deployment of secure, ruggedised devices through a single, integrated solution. What also makes this interesting is that they are doing so using an open-source project as the foundation.

While the announcement details certain sectors that it is targeting, there is no customer announcement. That is a surprise. Something like this would normally come with the name of a key customer who has already trialled the solution.

What customers will now want to see is just how simple this is as a single solution. How much time will it save? How easy will it be to integrate into their existing deployment services?

This is the second announcement in the last three weeks from Panasonic about improving security in its ruggedised devices. Will this sit on devices protected with TOUGHBOOK Guard? If so, then Panasonic has moved the goalposts for ruggedised security.

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