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Executives focused on the operational and financial returns of digitalization may overlook an equally important benefit: improved security across the enterprise.
Digital transformation provides an advanced network backbone, which minimizes security risks while enabling scalable execution, analytics and supply-chain connectivity.
That’s why an investment in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is so compelling: it delivers insights that improves performance today, while implementing a security architecture for both today and tomorrow.
Dozens of high-profile data breaches and hackings occur annually, as cybercriminals target legacy sensors and controllers in plants, and unsecure networks between operations technologies (OT) and information technologies (IT).
These antiquated infrastructures can expose sensitive corporate and customer information. IoT investments can help: In fact, 63% of manufacturing executives report that their company’s application of smart devices and/or embedded intelligence in plants and processes improved the security of their IT systems and data.
Why? Because state-of-the-art IoT implementations offer defense-in-depth security features that support the development of advanced security strategies, policies, and procedures — including 24/7 security monitoring and cost-effective enforcement and response plans.
Digital transformation also helps organizations in successfully aligning OT and IT departments and technologies within a single, secure Ethernet network, conveniently deployed as infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
The Rockwell Automation IaaS model was developed in conjunction with Cisco and includes industrial data centers (preconfigured, scalable, virtual servers), managed security services, threat detection, infrastructure monitoring, and ongoing remote support.
IaaS helps executives to secure their companies’ systems and information today while offering agile networking options next month — or next year.
IaaS can be implemented via a phased approach that shifts networking costs from a capital expense to an operating expense — easing budget constraints.
How secure (and expensive) are your legacy systems?
More importantly, can you afford to delay a digital transformation — and the improved security it offers?
Published April 16, 2018
