Digitization offers companies many opportunities to increase their competitiveness. In doing so, they must be careful not to risk their IT security. A new solution for secure digitization is the Cloud Edge Gateway GS. Gate.
Data has been termed as the new gold for the economy. In industry, production areas are networked across locations, huge amounts of data are generated, exchanged, and collected in the cloud. Industrial analytics can be used to extract important information for business success.
When the next breakdown of a production machine is imminent, when is the best time for a maintenance window, where are production capacities still available? Beyond process optimization, the intelligent evaluation of the collected data enables the development of new services. For example, machine manufacturers can support their customers with additional services that are offered specifically based on the results of the data analyses. New, attractive business models can be developed from this approach.
With increased digitalization, the demands on IT security in the industry are also rising, thereby, the data communication in fully networked production areas, especially via the Internet to external clouds, must be reliably secured.
To collect data from machines, process it, and forward it to clouds via secure connections, Schubert System Elektronik and the German IT security specialist Genoa have developed the Cloud Edge Gateway GS. Gate. The solution can be connected to machines regardless of manufacturer and combines edge gateway and firewall on a compact platform. Since GS. Gate is based on the security-by-design principle, it guarantees a high level of security at the sensitive interface between the machine LAN and internet without the need for constant updates and patches up for the analysis applications.
The GS.Gate offers two separate areas on compact industrial hardware. In one, machine manufacturers or operators can install individual applications using a docker. These applications retrieve status and performance data from the machine via common interfaces LAN, IO-Link, Gbit Ethernet, or Industrial Ethernet and perform the desired analyses.
In this way, the required information for comprehensive industrial analytics is filtering out the entire data volume. It is also important for machine operators to be able to decide at this point that data may be transferred to the manufacturer’s cloud and which not. With this control, the operator always retains control over his data.
The second area of the gateway contains a firewall and the remote access component for remote maintenance access. The acquired information is encrypted and forwarded to the cloud via the Internet and also via the firewall. The firewall is protected via the industrial gateway and the machine networked from cyber-attacks from the Internet. An authorized person can perform maintenance work via the remote access component on the gateway and the machine can be connected after successful authentication via encrypted connections.