At Foundries.io we help customers from startups to large multinational OEMs, tackle the complexity of designing, building, deploying and maintaining embedded systems. As with all new companies, you hope your customers develop that moment where they realize they can’t live without your product. Apple® has done a great job of convincing a majority of us, that you need their product. At Foundries.io, that magical moment for most of our customers is when they realize what a TUF Target is and how it will forever change how they think about doing embedded development. Today our customers implement this concept with ARM and Intel SoCs running our Linux microPlatform distribution.
As with all products, the initial user experience can be a significant barrier to grasping the merits of that product. In embedded product development, customers are constantly battling new silicon and the respective software support. In my 28 years of doing embedded systems, I’ve never had a customer tell me they want to do it the hard way. I have had customers tell me, do NOT take my tools away from me. As embedded engineers, we can be very protective of how we have built things in the past. Ask my friends at IAR™ how they have been so successful over the years. That tool/brand loyalty is so strong, that customers become fans and they end up willing their way through a problem.
In the embedded Linux space, I have seen dozens of options over the years and none of them live up to the brand promise that IAR does with their MCU customers. At Foundries.io we are getting close, and most recently we delivered our next installment in helping customers reduce the complexity of their Linux development, while retaining ownership of their development process. I’m not here to tell you everything is perfect, but I will tell you we are years ahead of everybody else.
We have continued our journey to build a standard suite of tools and software that forms a highly secure platform for embedded device OEMs. With this month's v91 release of our Linux microPlatform—our secure Linux distribution, and FoundriesFactory®—our cloud native DevOps product, we have raised the bar once again. In this newsletter I thought I’d walk you through a few new features that I think are particularly interesting. As always, please feel free to comment and if you have any questions, our door is always open at hello@foundries.io
1. Fast-First-Target: Our Linux microPlatform built for your favorite silicon partner’s EVK. Ready to deploy, connect, and maintain in as little as five minutes. Our competitors and silicon partners give you a pre-built image. That’s easy! We give you an image that can connect, register with the cloud, and immediately begin taking updates. You are running in minutes and we get you over that initial hurdle, so you can start writing your dream application.
Recently, we asked you if fast builds were important to you and roughly 80% of you said ‘yes’. With Fast-First-Targets we get you over that first build and immediately developing applications. The best part… is that you don’t suffer when you need to change a build. Our DevOps tools are there and ready to work for you, allowing you to modify our distribution and rebuild in a matter of minutes. Give it a try… And tell me what you think.