Andrew Foster, Author at IIoT World

Chief Product Officer at IOTech

Andrew has spent over 25 years developing IoT and distributed real time and embedded software products. He has held senior leadership roles across Product Delivery, Product Management, and Marketing, guiding teams that delivered both open-source and commercial technologies at scale.

As a co-founder of IOTech, he helped build one of the industry’s leading edge computing platforms, technology designed to integrate, normalise, and process industrial data at the edge for mission-critical systems such as Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), smart manufacturing, and real-time control environments. He frequently presents on distributed computing, middleware, edge architectures, and IoT technologies. Andrew holds an M.S. in Computer Based Plant and Process Control and a B.Eng in Digital Systems.

July 23, 2026 · Energy

The Hidden Challenge in Energy AI: Coordination Across Distributed Systems

I started out as a control systems engineer, working in plants where everything important happened in one place. There was just one site, one control room, and one process to watch. You could stand right in the middle of it all.The energy systems being built now have none of that. A single operator’s portfolio might […]

June 22, 2026 · Energy

Real-Time Isn’t a Feature. It’s a Requirement in Modern Energy Systems

There was a time when “real-time” in energy operations meant something measured in minutes. A SCADA poll every few seconds. A historian recording values at fixed intervals. An operator watching a dashboard and making a call when something looked off. For the grid as it existed ten or fifteen years ago, that was fast enough.However, […]

May 27, 2026 · Energy

Scaling AI at the Energy Edge: Why Pilots Succeed and Deployments Stall

I’ve been involved in distributed and embedded computing for about 30 years now, and one of the things I see again and again in the energy sector is how a successful AI pilot fails to become a successful deployment. The model works. The proof of concept proves what it was designed to do. Leadership approves […]

April 28, 2026 · Energy

Deploying AI at the Energy Edge Is the Easy Part. Governing It Is the Hard Part.

The energy sector has made real progress in deploying AI closer to operations. Battery storage operators are running predictive models at the site level. Renewable fleet managers are using AI to accelerate troubleshooting and optimize asset performance. Grid-connected systems are beginning to rely on edge-based inference to make decisions that must occur in under a […]

February 13, 2026 · Connected Industry

Alarm Overload at the Industrial Edge: When More Visibility Reduces Reliability

Edge computing is supposed to make operations more resilient. Put intelligence closer to equipment, shorten response loops, and keep critical functions running even when connectivity to centralized systems is limited.Yet as edge programs scale, many industrial teams run into a problem that can quietly undermine reliability: alarm overload.The paradox is simple. More sensors, more connected […]

September 3, 2025 · Cybersecurity

Closing the Security Gap in Industrial IoT: Protecting Legacy Systems in a Connected World

Industrial IoT adoption is accelerating, driven by the promise of real-time insights, automation, and operational efficiency. Across sectors like manufacturing, energy, and smart infrastructure, organizations are connecting more equipment than ever before. But in the rush to connect, one critical reality is too often overlooked: much of the installed base of industrial hardware was never […]