Wind River Unveils Game-Changing Enterprise Linux Offering for AI and Critical Workloads

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

• eLxr Pro is the company’s commercial enterprise Linux offering to address the unique needs of cloud-to-edge deployments.
• eLxr Pro is based on the open source eLxr project, the recently launched Debian-based distribution that targets enterprise, AI, and industry-specific workloads and use cases.
• Wind River expands its industry-leading Linux portfolio, building on decades of open source leadership and delivering business-critical cloud-to-edge software solutions.

Wind River^®, a global leader in delivering software for the intelligent edge, today introduced eLxr Pro, its commercial enterprise Linux offering to address the unique needs of cloud-to-edge deployments. Expanding the company’s industry-leading Linux portfolio, eLxr Pro delivers long-term commercial support and services to the recently launched open source eLxr project distribution.

eLxr Pro enables organizations challenged with high-performance edge and enterprise needs to meet stringent performance and operational requirements for the next generation of commercial deployments across a wide range of emerging use cases for autonomous vehicles, aerospace, defense, energy, finance, medical, industrial automation, smart cities, and telecommunications. It addresses the challenges of optimizing and deploying near and far edge applications to process data closer to where it is generated, for workloads that involve remote automatic updates, containerized applications and orchestration, AI inference, machine learning, and autonomous operations. eLxr Pro is based on the open source Debian-based eLxr project, an enterprise-grade distribution powering deployments for intelligent edge, far edge device, near edge server, regional data center, and public cloud scenarios.

Enterprise supplier disruptions, such as the CentOS end-of-life in June 2024, have forced CIOs to reevaluate their Linux vendors. Current options are often either too limiting or overly complex, leading to implementations that do not meet the dynamic demands of this rapidly evolving segment. This trend is driving the demand for seamless cloud-to-edge solutions that efficiently manage complex workloads, such as rapid data processing, and AI and machine learning by reusing core operating system components and common code base and frameworks.

“There is an industry need for a true open source offering not controlled by a corporate entity, but with the option for a highly scaled, reputable business to support the distribution. eLxr Pro offers the industry a robust and differentiated option, backed by an industry-leading open source solutions provider,” said Avijit Sinha, president of Wind River. “With eLxr Pro, customers deploying next-generation near edge and enterprise server solutions are empowered to innovate using a free, open source distribution optimized for performance, security, and ease of use. They can do so with confidence, knowing it is backed by commercial enterprise support and professional services.”

eLxr Community Project

The eLxr project is freely available to users, distributed under open source licenses that encourage free distribution and modification of the software. It curates existing Debian packages, optimized for performance, hardened security, and the minimal footprint required to run industry-specific workloads. Wind River, a founding member of the eLxr project, plays a crucial role in advancing the project’s mission of making new technologies and specialized solutions accessible through a Linux distribution. Additional hardware support and expanded cloud-native capabilities will be part of the eLxr project planned cadence of releases.

eLxr Pro

Wind River's eLxr Pro delivers stability, security updates, and ongoing technical assistance, as well as services add-ons to address the needs of cloud-to-edge deployments. With unmatched industry expertise, Wind River helps customers build open source solutions with sector-specific requirements for performance, security, custom hardware features, and certifications, especially when deploying in highly regulated environments. eLxr Pro provides comprehensive long-term commercial support, professional services, and maintenance beyond the standard lifecycle available with the community-driven eLxr project. This includes a variety of service-level agreement (SLA) options with security issues resolution and defect management. These services ensure that eLxr users benefit from cutting-edge technology with open source flexibility and innovation tailored to their specific needs, thereby enhancing the reliability and stability of their eLxr-based systems.

Wind River Open Source Leadership

For nearly two decades, Wind River has provided market-leading commercial open source Linux solutions tailored for edge computing. The company’s diverse customer base spanning aerospace, automotive, defense, industrial, medical, networking, and telecommunications industries has successfully developed and deployed thousands of Linux platforms and applications, leveraging our advanced products and services.

As a founding member of key open source initiatives such as the Yocto Project, Open Handset Alliance, Zephyr Project, and StarlingX, Wind River is committed to open source principles, actively contributing leadership, code, and innovative solutions. With deep industry experience in the open source domain, the company offers expertise in supporting embedded use cases, critical applications, and diverse enterprise systems across server-based platforms.

Ecosystem

Enterprise cloud-to-edge challenges require partnerships among hardware and software providers within an open source community, which the eLxr project seeks to address. Our efforts with cloud providers, semiconductors, system integrators, hyperscalers, ODMs/OEMs, and independent software vendors aim to tackle emerging challenges such as nontraditional form factors with ruggedized components, enhanced performance, fortified security, diverse deployment environments, and processing-intensive workloads such as machine learning, computer vision, and AI inference. Together, this robust community ecosystem is well positioned to realize the synergies of the cloud-to-edge continuum.

Wind River is working closely with partners such as Intel^® to facilitate customer-driven innovation and transformation. Functional validation efforts will focus on harnessing Intel’s Quick Assist Technology (Intel QAT) for data encryption and compression aiming to efficiently handle computational needs. Additionally, the focus will be on enhancing end user experience with deep learning models using OpenVINO™, as well as leveraging Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerator technology to implement smart, reliable, and secure solutions that address the compute-intensive requirements needs of a world increasingly defined by software.

From the Ecosystem

• Advantech: “eLxr Pro running on Advantech hardware offers our customers a standards-based platform for cost-effective, fast, and secure edge solutions.” —Sven Freudenfeld, Senior Director Business Development Edge and Edge AI, Advantech
• Avassa: “The technical design and key attributes of Wind River’s eLxr Pro resonate extremely well with our own observations of what is necessary to succeed in the fast-paced evolution of the edge. The ability to place IoT and AI workloads at the edge efficiently, securely, and robustly; to benefit from container application and AI model packaging standards; and to ensure operational robustness in online and offline scenarios is what will shape the future of IT and OT at the edge. We’re pleased to be a part of the Wind River ecosystem, offering their users market-leading container application management and operations capabilities, and we look forward to scaling together.” —Fredrik Lundberg, CEO, Avassa
• AWS: “We are excited that customers can choose eLxr Linux on Amazon EC2 instances on AWS, backed by long-term support from Wind River via the eLxr Pro offering. For edge deployments, the shift-left approach allows development and testing on AWS. Wind River’s eLxr announcement aligns with our commitment to be the best place for open source.” —Andrea Ketzer, Director, Technology Strategy for Automotive and Manufacturing at AWS
• Capgemini: “The market has significant demand for an operating system made for mission-critical, high availability, and highly secure edge applications across all industry verticals. Wind River is a valuable partner in the advanced solutions Capgemini provides our clients, and eLxr Pro Linux will be a catalyst for these new critical systems.” —Jiani Zhang, Chief Software Officer, Capgemini Engineering
• Edge Impulse: “We’re excited to support Wind River and help our shared global customer base deploy the latest edge AI innovations in production both on OSS eLxr and now on professional-grade eLxr Pro. Through Edge Impulse’s platform, eLxr will have access to the latest edge AI models for the full spectrum of edge devices and use cases, from real-time object detection to anomaly inspection.” —Zach Shelby, Co-founder and CEO, Edge Impulse
• Intel: “We have had a long history of working closely with Wind River to bring new technologies like vRAN to deployment. This engagement builds on those experiences to further technologies like Gaudi, OpenVino, and QAT to drive value for customers pursuing scalable open source edge server deployments with Wind River’s eLxr Pro Linux offering.” —Pere Monclus, Chief Technology Officer, Network and Edge Group, Intel Corporation
• SAIC: “eLxr Pro offers a robust, flexible platform that complements well SAIC’s portfolio of integrated solutions. A high-performance, secure, open source solution that scales from enterprise to edge critical workloads is what our government customers require. We look forward to expanding our products and services to include eLxr-based solutions.” —Greg Fortier, Senior Vice President, Army Business Group, SAIC
• SiFive: “Wind River’s pioneering Linux work with eLxr Pro is expanding the market opportunity for companies that are engaged in the RISC-V ecosystem. This creates more opportunity for customers to focus on advancing innovation, ultimately providing more choice for end customers.” —Ian Ferguson, Senior Director, Infrastructure Markets, SiFive
• Supermicro: “eLxr Pro on Supermicro servers provides end users and independent software vendors with a unified platform for business-critical solutions, from edge to datacenter.” —Michael Clegg, VP/GM 5G & Edge, Supermicro
• ZEDEDA: “Successful edge computing projects require navigating complex, heterogeneous environments, often at massive scale, and this requires the adaptability that an open source approach offers. Wind River’s deep expertise in delivering mission-critical solutions and collaborating with operational technology teams make our partnership ideal. We’re excited to offer eLxr Pro within the ZEDEDA Marketplace, providing our customers a reliable open source option to securely and effectively bring processing capabilities closer to their data.” —Michael Maxey, VP of Technical Business Development, ZEDEDA

For fast and easy transaction and deployment, eLxr is available in the AWS Marketplace.

For more information about eLxr Pro, visit www.windriver.com/products/elxr-pro.

About Wind River

Wind River is a global leader in delivering software for the intelligent edge. For more than four decades, the company has been an innovator and pioneer, powering billions of devices and systems that require the highest levels of security, safety, and reliability. Wind River software and expertise are accelerating digital transformation across industries including automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, and telecommunications. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio supported by world-class global professional services and support and a broad partner ecosystem. To learn more, visit Wind River at www.windriver.com.

Wind River is a trademark or registered trademark of Wind River Systems, Inc., and its affiliates. Other names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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Expanding Wind River's industry-leading Linux portfolio, the eLxr Pro commercial enterprise Linux offering delivers long-term commercial support and services to address the unique needs of cloud-to-edge deployments for AI and critical workloads.