produc t s & serv ices
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D EM I LITA R IZED ZO N E WITH ZEN O N S ERVI C E G R I D
WHEN THE BROWNFIELD BECOMES A MINEFIELD Recent events haverevealed just how vulnerable industrial plants and their digital processes really are. For example, the hacker attack on the operator of the largest pipeline in the US recently resulted in weeks of downtime. With zenon Service Grid, you’ll have a powerful tool to fend off such attacks. Read on to find out how you can use this component to increase your cybersecurity.
Corporate network Apps
Gateway, OT to IT
zenon Service Grid Cell 1 client
Production cell 1 Server
Production cell 2 Standby Server
PLC zone
Server
Cell 2 client Standby Server
PLC zone
ze non S e r v ice Gr id con ne c t s t he OT w it h t he I T, a nd i s br ea k i n g ne w g r ou nd i n te r m s of s e c u r it y.
Industrial infrastructure usually refers to “brownfield applications” or, in other words, existing infrastructure that has mostly been in operation for many years. The high uptime requirements and the high investment costs mean that modernization or replacement – as typically takes place for standard IT components – is not financially feasible for this infrastructure. In contrast, new technologies and increased computing and storage capacities enable optimized operation of the infrastructure. It is absolutely essential to be able to access plant data. It is even better if sites and technologies are networked across the board and data is collected and optimized using models or simulations.
Such a virtual representation of a plant or a process is called a “digital twin”. But you don’t have to completely overhaul your infrastructure if you want to benefit from the digitalizing your operational technology (OT). There are alternatives. S E RVI C E G R I D C A N D O M O R E At COPA-DATA, we asked ourselves exactly this question and developed a solution based on zenon Service Grid. Initially, we followed approaches in IEC 62443, and in other standards, too, such as those found in NIST guidelines, all of which revolve around cybersecurity.
