Until now, trialing IOTech software meant following the usual product evaluation steps: downloading packages, sorting out dependencies, configuring infrastructure, and handling licensing. It works, but it gets in the way of what you actually want to do — which is see whether the software actually solves your problem.

So we changed the model. Our new Edge-as-a-Service Evaluation Environment gives you a dedicated, pre-configured Edge Manager instance running in our cloud. Register, receive your login details, and you’re ready to go. No downloads, no setup, no infrastructure to manage. Just the software, from a browser.

The environment comes with sample applications, but the interesting part is what you can do with real hardware. Connecting your edge node (perhaps a Raspberry Pi, an industrial PC, or a Linux VM) takes just one onboarding command. Paste it to the device’s command line and the IOTech agent installs itself and connects back. Within seconds you’re managing physical hardware from the cloud.

Deploying applications is a few clicks from there. For those new to edge orchestration, a simple web server example gives you a clean first experience before moving on to something more substantial. The evaluation includes application templates for Edge Central, our open-edge data platform, including a Chemical Tank simulation with Modbus and OPC UA sources, a time-series database, dashboards, edge rules, and cloud streaming. This is all ready to deploy and explore immediately. And it shows something documentation rarely captures: what deploying at scale actually looks like — the same application pushed to multiple nodes at once, with the ability to scale across hundreds of devices.

Watch the walkthrough video below to see it all in action, from registration to a live simulation with control rules firing in real time.