It’s been a number of weeks, however I’m nonetheless enthusiastic about the thrill popping out of Cisco Reside U.S. in June. We hosted our second annual Cisco Reside U.S. Industrial IoT Summit and had our largest attendance up to now. Leaders from throughout the manufacturing, utilities and transportation industries got here collectively to share data, focus on know-how tendencies and challenges, and join with one another in business breakout periods.
Discussions had been eye opening, and we heard straight from prospects throughout the Industrial IoT house about their top-of-mind priorities. Many informed me how beneficial it was to interact in high-level dialogue with their friends: merely realizing they aren’t 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 informed us that, like final yr, cybersecurity stays their prime precedence. As methods change into extra built-in and related and assault surfaces enhance, organizations are in search of 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 expertise hole is a significant concern. Throughout the Industrial IoT panorama, prospects are discovering it tough to rent and retain the proper 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 vital, and we heard straight from a college associate about how they’re bridging IT/OT by a partnership with Cisco Networking Academy to coach college students in new IT/OT expertise and assist businesses rent and nurture expertise.
Networks have to be modernized to arrange for the longer term. In fact, there was loads of vitality and dialogue round how AI is driving innovation and optimization throughout Industrial IoT. Digitization is growing throughout all business verticals, and virtualization of key know-how elements 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 targeted on how growing safe and resilient entry to information in industrial edge gadgets, property and functions is vital.
Every of our breakout summit discussions provided significant takeaways as properly. Learn on for extra insights from the completely different Industries!
Manufacturing Breakout: Key Takeaways
Dependable wi-fi connectivity is vital for productiveness. Main producers want reliable, all the time “on,” lossless wi-fi applied sciences, and demand is barely 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 help 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 sensible community. As factories modernize, sustaining a safe, resilient community can imply the distinction between a traditional day or a catastrophic shutdown costing a producer tens of millions of {dollars}. A scalable, versatile, safe, and deterministic community is crucial 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 secure, dependable information assortment to assist them develop AI and ML fashions that make suggestions to optimize manufacturing, drive course of management, help 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 rivals.
Utilities Breakout: Key Takeaways
There’s a main shift taking place towards grid modernization. Power demand is rising, and utilities organizations must combine sustainability practices at scale whereas additionally enhancing safety, effectivity and reliability. To satisfy these wants, modernizing the facility grid and the distributed structure they rely on is essential.
Grid resiliency and safety is vital. Prospects informed us they really feel an urgency to speed up cybersecurity measures to maintain vital energy infrastructures secure, present entry for applied sciences like 5G and eSIMs, and discover scalable community administration and automation instruments to attenuate downtime and drive effectivity. Utilities corporations face challenges within the administration of backhaul communications and need assistance streamlining these operations. We additionally mentioned how the conflict in Ukraine has highlighted the significance of vital infrastructure grid resiliency in essentially 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 menace panorama and growing sophistication of assaults. SD-WAN gives an answer for zero-touch provisioning and the power to standardize safety insurance policies throughout all routers within the area, which minimizes the potential for human error and configuration points.
Transportation Breakout: Key Takeaways
Transportation community modernization is crucial. As billions of residents and tons of cargo are moved every day to help the trendy economic system, know-how drives the vital 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, nonetheless; 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 proper networking infrastructure that’s safe, scalable, and simplified.
Cybersecurity is at a vital level and is rising to the C-Suite. OT visibility and entry stay main challenges throughout the transportation sector as DOTs, cities and international locations modernize their networks with Clever Transportation Methods (ITS). I heard from prospects that they’re trying to make the proper 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 a few of the ways in which AI will allow them to reinforce citizen security by predicting site visitors patterns, lowering journey occasions, growing automation, and interesting in predictive upkeep to stop main accidents like practice derailments. However to reap these advantages, organizations must put money into safe, well-managed networks that may ultimately deal with a large quantity of information 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, scale back concern 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, get monetary savings, 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 business leaders to collaborate and dive into the challenges and improvements shaping the way forward for Industrial IoT was such a improbable 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 attempt to modernize their networks and put together for a extra related and data-driven future, we all know we’d not be capable of present options with out the belief of our prospects. Collectively, we’ll make progress and securely make the longer term a actuality!
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