Sustainability has become an increasingly important focus for businesses of all sizes in recent years. In the industrial sector, major industries such as buildings/ infrastructure, agriculture, and transportation must work especially hard to reduce their environmental impact. While simultaneously driving better business outcomes, technology has been key to addressing this emerging concern. Tarannum Parkar, Cisco IoT Product Manager, explained in a recent webinar that to achieve sustainability goals, IT and Operations teams must work together closely. Cisco technologies help simplify IT for industrial networks. And as only Cisco IoT solutions meet the needs of both teams, it’s important for partners to understand how to maximize this technology to the benefit of the customers on their sustainability journey.
While digitization has been at the forefront of sustainability efforts, customers continue to face a number of challenges when deploying networks. The three biggest are cybersecurity, complexity, and lack of skilled resources. Besides lack of visibility over assets and risks they pose; many organizations have small teams of IT staff managing massively distributed infrastructure and using a wide variety of management tools and connectivity that hinder scalability. It is important for customers to have solutions that address these issues while simplifying the IT for industrial networks.
IoT Operations Dashboard
Cisco’s IoT Operations Dashboard is a tool that helps those in the industrial sector secure their operations, monitor and manage assets, and deliver remote access. Dan Behrens, Technical Marketing Engineer for Cisco IoT, discussed the various use cases for the dashboard, including many that are static or even in motion, or those that are extremely important to human life and safety, i.e., a traffic intersection.
As part of Cisco’s ongoing commitment to support customers, new features have been added to the operations dashboard. Cisco Cyber Vison was created to address the challenge of visibility that far too many customers experience. Behrens explained that Cyber Vision leverages built-in software sensors to identify all information about any connected assets. In addition, late last year SEA (secure equipment access) and SEA Plus were launched to allow for remote access and management. With secure equipment access, customers can run native applications on their workstations to interact with remote operations and operational assets.
Cisco Catalyst IE3100 Rugged Series
One of the newest hardware offerings that can serve industrial networks is the Cisco Catalyst IE3100 Rugged Series Switch. Albert Mitchell, Technical Marketing Engineer for Cisco IoT described the switch as “ideal for today’s industrial networking needs.” This compact rugged switch is perfect for machine builders and space constrained deployments, including connected machines, trackside/wayside cabinets, solar farms, and amusement parks. The switch itself was created with sustainability in mind; eliminating the use of unnecessary coating materials, the switch is anodized metal (anodizing saves 10.5 tons of powder coating per year), and it also comes in 100% recyclable packaging. “At Cisco, we want to ensure that we are doing our part to build a sustainable project for a better future,” Parkar said.
Cisco Catalyst IW9165 Series
After the release of a few other products in 2022, the recent release of the IW9165 completes the refresh of the IoT wireless portfolio. This new series includes the IW9165E rugged access point and wireless client, where the wireless client connects mobile industrial assets. It also includes the IW9165D heavy duty access point, a wireless backhaul that’s easy to deploy where fiber or cellular aren’t an option or aren’t feasible. DJ Cole, Technical Marketing Engineer for Cisco IoT, defined IW9165E as Cisco’s first purpose-built industrial wireless client.
Conclusion
Sustainability is at the forefront of today’s business operations. Fortunately for distribution partners, Cisco technologies are created to help customers reach their sustainability goals. To learn more about how to help simplify IT for industrial partners, watch the webinar here.
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