Manufacturers look to digitization to improve sales, operational excellence, and cost-efficiency, as well as new customer-centric business models. But cybersecurity and protecting vulnerable research and design data are major concerns. Manufacturers need reliable availability as well as secure transparency and visibility to their processes, products, and machines to keep costs low and enable new services for their customers. Current IoT connectivity challenges How to connect? Currently, there are no standards for IoT, which cover machines.
Machines are designed for safety and availability, but not for IT security. How to consume? The conflict between racing to benefit from the IoT hype and a clear vision for a business plan. How to collect? None of the machines currently in use are designed to provide data to IoT. How to compare? There are no standardized protocols. Available office IT (VPN-based) solutions are insufficient for OT Machine vendors' individual VPN solutions are difficult to manage in terms of security.
The risks for data leakage and cyber-attacks remain. Requirements for secure industrial-grade connectivity:

• A generic solution compatible with all machines and devices
• Connectivity without side effects
• Fine granular policy management for access
• Enterprise integration, for example with SAP
• Integrated logging with auditable logs
• Retrofit and future-proof IoT connection, including the option for integration of upcoming standards, and protocol translation and harmonization

Features of the industrial-grade IoT device connector:

• Allows near the real-time answer to support requests
• Problem analysis and often resolution without service engineer being on-site
• System monitoring allows condition triggered or predictive maintenance
• Fine granular rights management for access control
• A customer has full control over any IoT access activities, both internal and external