As companies compete to get their products to market faster and cheaper, they need simple solutions to enable near-immediate implementation. However, there’s no time or budget for special tools or expensive, highly-trained engineers and electricians. Today, we’re discussing how upgrading to a specific type of I/O module – distributed control units (DCUs) – can deliver a new level of efficiency and affordable automation to smart factories.

Reliable, high-speed data transmission isn’t an option any more. And, with more data than ever before, industrial networks need to keep up with evolving bandwidth requirements. With the influx of data from smart machines, the once compartmentalized worlds of IT and OT need to follow similar standards to operate more efficiently and achieve these requirements. Due to this inevitable convergence of IT and OT and the greater demand for seamless communication across many connected devices, networks will require an increasing amount of bandwidth. Our conclusion? Full gigabit networks are the standard of the future.

Have you been feeling "cyber security breach fatigue?" We don't blame you. Cyberattacks or employee errors that cause disruption and revenue losses to industrial and critical infrastructure organizations are particularly popular in news media today. That's partly because a successful disruption within critical infrastructures can cause physical consequences that get the public's attention.

You’re sitting in traffic on the drive home but can’t see ahead to know what’s causing the back-up. You hear sirens behind you and must navigate out of the way to let emergency vehicles pass. Now your interest is piqued. You check the news when you get home and find out a tour bus had caught fire. The passengers were evacuated without injury, but you naturally wonder: what caused the fire?

As the processes and technology used in industrial settings rapidly evolve, the improved precision and efficiency of devices will need to be monitored in equally advanced ways. This need can be met with an emerging method of monitoring known as secure remote access.