OpenFog

OpenFog refers to the OpenFog Consortium and the set of technologies and reference architectures it developed to advance fog computing. Founded in 2015 by a coalition of technology companies, the organization aimed to promote fog computing as a distributed computing paradigm that extends cloud capabilities to the edge. Its work focused on enabling low-latency, context-aware processing for applications such as industrial IoT, smart cities, and other latency-sensitive use cases.

The OpenFog Reference Architecture describes a multi-layered, distributed compute fabric that spans edge devices, fog nodes (such as gateways and micro data centers), and cloud data centers. It emphasizes resource pooling, policy-driven management, secure communication, data governance, and analytics across the continuum. The architecture seeks to support scalability, interoperability, and resilience across heterogeneous technologies and networks, including software-defined networking and virtualization.

History and evolution: Founding members included major technology firms such as Cisco, ARM, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and Schneider Electric, among others. The consortium published a reference architecture, a security architecture, and interoperability guidelines to guide implementation and standardization efforts. In 2019 the OpenFog Consortium merged with the Industrial Internet Consortium to continue its work within a broader industrial internet framework, with fog computing concepts carried forward in IIC initiatives and related standards discussions led by industry bodies.

Impact and legacy: OpenFog helped popularize the fog computing model as a way to process data near the source, reducing bandwidth requirements and improving responsiveness for real-time applications. Its concepts have influenced subsequent research, pilots, and standardization discussions around edge-to-cloud computing.