Alibaba Cloud, a leading global cloud computing and artificial intelligence technology company, will integrate the Phoenix Contact Virtual PLCnext Control software solution as part of Alibaba Cloud’s manufacturing solutions, providing Alibaba Cloud’s cloud services and edge cloud infrastructure products to Phoenix Contact’s manufacturing customers in China and even Asia.

Phoenix Contact and Alibaba Cloud reached a cooperation agreement at the Nuremberg SPS Automation Expo, with Alibaba Cloud expanding its cloud computing solutions to the OT field. With the open industrial automation ecosystem PLCnext Technology launched by Phoenix Contact, users can use PLCnext Engineer for programming and access the PLCnext Store automation application store through the Virtual PLCnext Control software solution.

Virtual PLCnext Control

Thanks to the continuous development of virtualization technology, the increasing maturity of SoftPLC technology, and the continuous improvement of hardware performance, virtualized PLC is becoming the combination of the three, and Virtual PLCnext Control is thus born:

Core advantages

Virtual PLCnext Control can be flexibly deployed on various hardware platforms, including industrial PCs, edge devices, and Linux servers, reducing the cost of using PLCs for customers;

With the help of virtualization technology, Virtual PLCnext Control can achieve multi control for one machine, meeting the needs of flexible production and the flexibility of PLC deployment;

The combination of IT and OT provides users with a vast space for custom development. Virtual PLCnext Control provides a highly flexible and open system architecture that allows users to customize development at multiple levels.

Alibaba Cloud Edge Cloud Services

With the increasing demand for massive data generation, real-time processing efficiency, and industry digitization, more and more enterprises are facing challenges in market response speed, resource utilization efficiency, data security, and the IT transformation of traditional businesses.

Alibaba Cloud Edge Cloud pushes computing, storage, networking, and more intelligent services to the network edge closer to end-users and business scenarios. Through a global network of edge nodes, it provides users with lower latency, higher resource utilization, better security and privacy protection, more IT oriented and intelligent cloud services, ensuring the continuity and reliability of enterprise business and providing a soil for the growth of more industry innovation scenarios.

We are willing to work with customers and partners to open up new opportunities in the changing situation, provide new technologies, practices, and ideas for enterprise transformation and upgrading, and accelerate the leap of industrial intelligence!