What is VION?
VION is an Edge Operations Platform for building, deploying, and operating IoT logic on edge gateways. It is built for system integrators who connect hardware, run control logic, and give their customers visibility — without building infrastructure from scratch.
VION is the product as a whole. The Dale SDK is the part integrators build on — a .NET SDK and CLI for writing logic blocks that run on the edge. On the edge gateway, the Dale runtime hosts those logic blocks as plugins, and Mesh bridges the gateway to VION Cloud. The Dale SDK is source-available at VION-IoT/dale-sdk; packages are published to nuget.org under the Vion.* prefix.
The Big Picture
You write logic in C#. VION Cloud manages deployment and monitoring. The edge runs the logic close to the hardware.
What Runs Where
The Dale runtime hosts logic-block plugins. Service Providers drive the physical I/O — digital, analog, Modbus, and custom protocols. They communicate through a local MQTT broker on the gateway. Mesh is the only component on the trust boundary; the Dale runtime and the service providers never speak to the cloud directly.
Logic runs on the edge — close to the hardware, with millisecond latency and offline resilience. VION Cloud handles configuration, deployment, and monitoring but is not in the critical path.
Development Workflow
Everything happens through the Dale CLI — from project creation to cloud deployment. Local testing with DevHost and TestKit means you don't need hardware to develop.
Multi-Tenancy
VION is built for system integrators — companies that develop IoT solutions for their customers. Each integrator manages its own logic-block libraries and edge-gateway fleet. Tenants are an integrator's own customers and form the data-isolation boundary; every layer of the platform (API, broker, observability) enforces the tenant scope on every request.
Terminology
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Dale SDK | The .NET SDK and CLI integrators build on. |
| Dale runtime | The edge-side host for logic-block plugins. |
| Mesh | The on-gateway bridge to VION Cloud. |
| logic block | A self-contained unit of computation that runs on the Dale runtime. |
| service property | A value a logic block exposes; readable and optionally writable through the dashboard. |
| measuring point | A telemetry value a logic block records over time. |
| service provider | An on-gateway process that drives a piece of hardware (digital I/O, Modbus, custom protocols). |
| edge gateway | The on-premise device running the Dale runtime, Mesh, and service providers. |
| VION Cloud | The cloud-side services: API, dashboard, observability. |
| Dale CLI | The CLI tool for scaffolding, building, testing, and uploading logic-block libraries. |
| DevHost | A local web UI that renders a logic-block library exactly as the production dashboard does. |
| integrator | A VION customer that develops logic-block libraries for their own customers. |
| tenant | An integrator's customer; the data-isolation boundary. |
Next Steps
- Key Concepts — design principles and mental model
- Quick Start — build and run your first logic block
- SDK Development — dive into the Dale SDK