Have you ever left just one phone number you can be reached at with someone that will absolutely need to get ahold of you in an emergency? Probably not. When it is absolutely critical that a message reach you, you leave a second number as a back-up, just in case. Your industrial network is no different. To avoid the risk and expense of system outages and downtime, ensure your communications (and operations) keep flowing with a back-up or redundant network.

As your industrial Ethernet network develops into a communications infrastructure, monitoring and supervising it becomes more challenging. You can no longer get it done efficiently or accurately using "sneakernet" or with local workstations managing production cells. Good network management plays a key role in maintaining high system reliability. It also makes you a lot more productive when it's time to do network updates, changes and audits. Find out how one of the largest control networks ever built in the Middle East uses network management software to meet its availability and efficiency requirements.

Recently we introduced a new industrial Ethernet cable to the market with a techy name, "DataTuff TC Cat 5e Cord Sets for 600V Cable Trays". While I am not a fan of the name, I am impressed with what this puppy can do. If your application is in heavy industry, or you just want to learn about a very large and very feature-rich Ethernet cord set, I encourage you to read on.

Recently I attended the Belden Industrial Ethernet Infrastructure Design Seminar and one of the sessions that I sat in on was regarding selecting copper and fiber cable. This event has traditionally focused on networking topics but the cable sessions attracted attendees seeking proficiency in end to end systems.

Industrial Security IS the hot topic today. No one denies that the threats are out there. Further, management was probably right in deciding to assign the task and ask you to figure it out, come up with a plan and protect the company from… well, they didn’t say.