# Platform Overview
The ABB Ability™ Platform is an evolving set of common enabling technologies that are used to build devices, systems, and applications which add value for ABB, its partners, and customers. It enables the rapid creation, extension, deployment, and operation of secure industrial, cloud-based applications and utilizes reusable IT “building blocks” to empower business lines to develop digital solutions more quickly, reliably and efficiently. The flexibility and adaptability of our platform allows engineers to program it according to their specific needs.
# Newcomers
If you are a developer who wants to start their journey with the Ability Platform, or you just want to gain a good understanding of what the Ability Platform is about, we recommend you follow this path:
- Request access to the Ability Sandbox
- Go through the Getting Started Tutorial
After completing these steps, you will have a decent understanding of the Ability Platform and its capabilities.
If you're mostly interested in the Ability Platform Information Model service, then we recommend you to have a look at the Information Model Tutorial where we focus entirely on introducing you to the concepts of how to model your entities in the Platform.
ABB Ability™ Platform Community
If you need any help during your journey with Ability Platform, don't hesitate to ask about it on the ABB Ability™ Platform Community. The Ability Client Success Team monitors this forum and will answer all your questions.
# Ability Developer Portal
This site - the Ability Developer Portal (often referred to as "ADP") - is meant to be a developer guide, helping ABB Business Lines to develop their solutions on top of the Ability Platform. Use it as a reference and as a source of knowledge whenever you need to find some Ability Platform related information.
Here's a breakdown of various sections and information that you can find on the ADP:
# Generally about the Platform
This is the ADP zone you are currently viewing. Here you can find not only the Getting Started Tutorial mentioned above, but also a couple of other useful sections like Knowledge, consisting of Webinar library, FAQ and Glossary, or Security & Compliance, where you will find information on GDPR, Platform Privacy Policy, Open Source Software List, and many more.
# Cloud concepts
In the Cloud zone of the Portal, you will find the following information:
- Multitenancy features of the Platform
- Information about application authorization
- An explanation of the modeling concepts that the Ability Platform incorporates
- Details about Ability Public Key Infrastructure, which is crucial if you plan to connect devices to the Platform
- An overview of directly connected devices, which will guide you on implementing devices from "scratch"
- Various tutorials showing examples of applications that use the Ability Platform APIs
# Ability Edge
In the Ability Edge zone, you will learn a lot about Ability Edge framework, which is the recommended way of connecting devices to the Ability Platform. You can find materials about installation, configuration, and troubleshooting (and many others). We also offer the whole tutorial series about Abiltiy Edge module developent where you will build your own Ability Edge modules step-by-step.
# APIs
One of the most valuable zones of the Portals is the APIs zone. You will find there a breakdown of all APIs offered by the Ability Platform:
- Instance API
- Region API
- Global Id Generator API
- Device API
- Edge Module API
Additionally, it offers access to the API Playground, which is an interactive way of checking out the Platform's APIs.
# Operations
For topics related to Ability Operations activities, navigate to the Operations zone. Some of the topics that you will learn about are:
# Releases
Information about Ability Platform's releases can be found in the Releases zone of ADP. There, you will be able to find the latest announcements regarding Ability Platform, release notes for various components of the Platform (Cloud, Edge, Admin Portal), as well as component compatibility tables.