Achieving secure, remote access to plant-floor applications and data

Among the key benefits of open-standard networks is the ability to remotely access automation systems and share plant data, applications, and resources with engineering personnel and external partners, regardless of physical location.

July 6, 2010

To increase the flexibility and efficiency of production operations, manufacturers are adopting open networking standards for their industrial automation and control systems.

Among the key benefits of open-standard networks is the ability to remotely access automation systems and share plant data, applications, and resources with engineering personnel and external partners, regardless of physical location.  This white paper from Rockwell Automation and Cisco Systems outlines the means to enable highly secure remote access to plant-based applications and data.

The adoption of standard networking technologies in production facilities offers a powerful means to help address the skill and resource gap experienced by many manufacturers. Secure remote access to production assets, data, and applications, along with the latest collaboration tools, provides manufacturers with the ability to apply the right skills and resources at the right time, independent of their physical location. Manufacturers effectively become free to deploy their internal experts or the skills and resources of trusted partners and service providers, such as OEMs and system integrators, without needing someone onsite.

This paper describes how to provide highly secure remote access to industrial automation and control systems at production facilities. This paper was written for manufacturers looking to take advantage of standard networking technology in their plants. OEMs and SIs involved in plant design, implementation and operations that are looking to provide additional valuable services based on secure remote access to the plant floor may want to refer to this paper as a guideline on which those services can be deployed.