In order to further advance digitization in German industrial enterprises, the scientists of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have set themselves the task of creating a secure, open and scalable innovation system for industry 4.0. In this way, companies can use their systems and capacities in a more agile, flexible and decentralized way.

In order to jointly promote the development and operation of cyberphysical systems for industry and the research-oriented production environment for the first time, the focus is on establishing a digital cooperation and technology platform. This means that far greater synergies can be achieved by bundling competencies and linking technologies, while at the same time generating added value for industry.

Virtual Fort Knox offers an open, scalable cloud IT platform for the efficient provision of production-related software solutions, guaranteeing real-time networking of production resources. Thanks to German server centres and/or private cloud solutions, the highest level of data and operational security is guaranteed. As an end customer, services can be selected according to requirements and individual customer solutions can be determined. Thus, a new level of service orientation can be generated in the production environment.