Digitalization enables a secure flow of data throughout the enterprise and supply chain, helping companies dramatically improve productivity, quality, compliance and profitability. It offers enormous opportunities to industrial companies and as a result, the race is on to digitalize from the plant floor all the way through to enterprise systems.
To be competitive, you must be connected. Smart Manufacturing is significantly transforming companies and their operations. But with opportunity comes increased risk. More connected operations can create more potential entrance points for industrial security threats.
Taking a holistic approach to cyber security is of paramount importance, especially in today’s rapidly evolving digital manufacturing environment. Holistic industrial security is enterprise-wide, starting at the plant level and encompassing every individual end device.
Smart industrial devices coupled to robust and secure OT networks often fall outside of the comfort zone of traditional IT managers, so you should consider vendors that can deliver both OT and IT experience. There are plenty with experience in IT, and a fair few with OT knowledge, but experience with both is not easy to find, so you need to make an incredibly objective decision.
