IoT Blog Written By Experts For Experts

Containers provide a widely used framework for the rapid development of embedded applications. A container is an enclosed environment for running a Linux® process, loosely isolated from the Linux kernel. This makes the implementation of new features and applications for a secure and connected embedded device quicker and easier. With containers, development teams avoid the need for tortuous negotiations with the operations team before deploying any new feature or application. This is thanks due to a new container being isolated from other processes on the system. Containers are expected to become even more popular in the embedded world in the future. And this means that developers are paying more attention than ever to the container support provided by their chosen development solution. This is a strong suit for FoundriesFactory®, because containers are not an add-on feature—they are tightly integrated into the whole DevSecOps workflow.

Every engineering team lead at an embedded device OEM will have experienced their version of that scene in the movie Toy Story, when Rex the anxiety prone dinosaur is urged to calm down in the face of imminent mortal danger with the advice that “this is no time to panic”. “But this is the perfect time to panic!” counters Rex. When a Common Vulnerability or Exposure (CVE) makes the headlines on CNN or the BBC, embedded software engineers have discovered their perfect time to panic. From the CEO downwards, everyone wants to know, “Are we affected?” and if so, “What are we going to do about it?”. There are many reasons to maintain a Software Bill-of-Materials (SBOM), but a security breach is the most immediate and powerful.