It’s been a couple of weeks, however I’m nonetheless fascinated about the thrill popping out of Cisco Stay U.S. in June. We hosted our second annual Cisco Stay U.S. Industrial IoT Summit and had our largest attendance so far. Leaders from throughout the manufacturing, utilities and transportation industries got here collectively to share information, talk about know-how traits and challenges, and join with one another in trade breakout classes.
Discussions have been eye opening, and we heard instantly from prospects throughout the Industrial IoT house about their top-of-mind priorities. Many instructed me how helpful it was to interact in high-level dialogue with their friends: merely figuring out they don’t seem to be alone and face comparable challenges was a consolation.
Insights from the Industrial IoT Summit
Cybersecurity stays a prime precedence. In a pre-event survey, leaders throughout all verticals instructed us that, like final yr, cybersecurity stays their prime precedence. As methods develop into extra built-in and related and assault surfaces enhance, organizations are looking for methods to achieve OT community visibility, guarantee safe distant entry, and section their operational networks. I talked to a number of prospects who additionally hope to automate safety enforcement or add zero-trust capabilities throughout their industrial networks, which underscores the significance of designing a safe community structure from the bottom up.
The workforce abilities hole is a significant concern. Throughout the Industrial IoT panorama, prospects are discovering it troublesome to rent and retain the appropriate expertise who understands each OT and IT environments and might drive collaboration between the 2. Many requested about how we will leverage know-how and automation to assist. Upskilling and investing in workforce growth is essential, and we heard instantly from a college companion about how they’re bridging IT/OT via a partnership with Cisco Networking Academy to coach college students in new IT/OT abilities and assist companies rent and nurture expertise.
Networks have to be modernized to arrange for the long run. After all, there was a number of power and dialogue round how AI is driving innovation and optimization throughout Industrial IoT. Digitization is growing throughout all trade verticals, and virtualization of key know-how parts is now a actuality. Mobility was additionally top-of-mind as extra industries look to deploy wi-fi applied sciences as a part of modernizing their networks. The dialogue additionally centered on how growing safe and resilient entry to knowledge in industrial edge gadgets, property and functions is essential.
Every of our breakout summit discussions provided significant takeaways as nicely. Learn on for extra insights from the completely different Industries!
Manufacturing Breakout: Key Takeaways
Dependable wi-fi connectivity is essential for productiveness. Main producers want reliable, at all times “on,” lossless wi-fi applied sciences, and demand is simply rising. Dependable connectivity with Wi-Fi stays a problem, however our Industrial Wi-fi Options with Extremely-Dependable Wi-fi Backhaul are enabling prospects to assist use circumstances round cell gadgets and autonomous autos like AGVs that require dependable low-latency and zero-packet loss connectivity, regardless of obstacles and RF interference.
Sensible manufacturing improvements require an equally good community. As factories modernize, sustaining a safe, resilient community can imply the distinction between a traditional day or a catastrophic shutdown costing a producer thousands and thousands of {dollars}. A scalable, versatile, safe, and deterministic community is important for improvements like {hardware} useful resource virtualization, zero-trust safety, and AI-enabled manufacturing functions.
We heard from one main producer about how Cisco’s structure is enabling protected, dependable knowledge assortment to assist them develop AI and ML fashions that make suggestions to optimize manufacturing, drive course of management, assist preventative upkeep, and allow data-driven manufacturing. We additionally heard from an EV battery manufacturing buyer who makes use of AI and ML to provide one of many greenest, most sustainable EV batteries on the planet at a 70% discount in carbon per battery made in comparison with its opponents.
Utilities Breakout: Key Takeaways
There’s a main shift occurring towards grid modernization. Power demand is rising, and utilities organizations have to combine sustainability practices at scale whereas additionally enhancing safety, effectivity and reliability. To fulfill these wants, modernizing the ability grid and the distributed structure they rely on is essential.
Grid resiliency and safety is essential. Prospects instructed us they really feel an urgency to speed up cybersecurity measures to maintain essential energy infrastructures protected, present entry for applied sciences like 5G and eSIMs, and discover scalable community administration and automation instruments to attenuate downtime and drive effectivity. Utilities firms face challenges within the administration of backhaul communications and need assistance streamlining these operations. We additionally mentioned how the struggle in Ukraine has highlighted the significance of essential infrastructure grid resiliency in probably the most hostile of circumstances.
We talked concerning the potential for SD-WAN with Cisco Catalyst Industrial Routers to safe and scale grid infrastructure with complete firewalls, particularly given the quickly evolving risk panorama and growing sophistication of assaults. SD-WAN presents an answer for zero-touch provisioning and the power to standardize safety insurance policies throughout all routers within the discipline, which minimizes the potential for human error and configuration points.
Transportation Breakout: Key Takeaways
Transportation community modernization is important. As billions of residents and tons of cargo are moved day by day to assist the trendy financial system, know-how drives the essential infrastructure that helps it; but the transportation vertical has one in every of largest know-how money owed throughout Industrial IoT. Many of those methods are funded by the general public, nevertheless; and budgets are tight. Businesses really feel an urgency to simplify, modernize and obtain a greater digital footprint at scale, however they need to make sensible funding selections and select the appropriate networking infrastructure that’s safe, scalable, and simplified.
Cybersecurity is at a essential level and is rising to the C-Suite. OT visibility and entry stay main challenges throughout the transportation sector as DOTs, cities and nations modernize their networks with Clever Transportation Methods (ITS). I heard from prospects that they’re trying to make the appropriate investments amid elevated cyberattack surfaces, exterior regulatory pressures, and cybersecurity mandates like CISA and Europe’s NIS2.
AI will remodel how cities, railroads, airports, and DOTs work together with the inhabitants. We heard from a public transportation buyer who shared among the ways in which AI will allow them to boost citizen security by predicting site visitors patterns, decreasing journey occasions, growing automation, and interesting in predictive upkeep to stop main accidents like practice derailments. However to reap these advantages, organizations have to spend money on safe, well-managed networks that may ultimately deal with a large quantity of knowledge throughout the sting, core, and cloud to drive AI and ML.
Adopting SD-WAN dramatically will increase effectivity and safety. Conventional IT environments have embraced SD-WAN for years to cut back entry expenses, enhance reliability, cut back situation decision time, and acquire richer visibility into WAN operations. Now, a few of our OT prospects are adopting Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. We heard from a rail buyer who depends on Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN as an answer for his or her operational areas to energy evolving connectivity wants, enhance visibility, lower your expenses, and enhance automation. They shared how embracing SD-WAN has made it simpler to handle mission-critical site visitors and section their networks whereas additionally driving higher IT and OT collaboration throughout its operations.
Our prospects are our companions. Bringing collectively trade leaders to collaborate and dive into the challenges and improvements shaping the way forward for Industrial IoT was such a implausible expertise, and the summit’s discussions underscored the urgency of adopting superior applied sciences to guard and join our prospects throughout all Industrial IoT sectors. As industries try to modernize their networks and put together for a extra related and data-driven future, we all know we might not be capable of present options with out the belief of our prospects. Collectively, we are going to make progress and securely make the long run a actuality!
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