More and more today’s industrial technicians want to be able to monitor automation systems using mobile applications. But, when a large, noisy plant facility is involved, how is a network designed to deliver reliable wireless communications? Can today’s wireless technologies provide the performance needed?

Do you have a visual map of your Ethernet communications infrastructure? Can you quickly tell which links are up and which are down on your network? Are you notified when a rogue device is added? Do you know which devices and protocols are locked down from a security perspective?

How is your organization doing relative to others in terms of how many security breaches occur on your control systems and how well you identify their sources? What about the size of your security budget versus others? Or how well you are managing the convergence of IT and OT systems?

As a network designer or engineer, you might avoid wireless solutions because you are worried that transmission interference will make network communications unreliable. Although you may have heard of recent technical improvements in industrial wireless technology, you may still be concerned about using it for mission-critical processes.

If you’re like me, when you don’t know how to do something you avoid or delay doing it. Even though I love learning new things and tackling new adventures, in the context of work, there never seems to be enough time. That means taking on a new challenge or learning best practices about a new topic is often put on the back burner.