[ad_1]
Renewable power is a quickly rising phase of the power trade. Applied sciences reminiscent of wind, photo voltaic, biomass, geothermal, and power storage at the moment are thought-about mainstream. Nonetheless, all of those websites require safe connectivity to allow necessary distant monitoring and management.
Renewable power corporations should join an array of renewable power belongings unfold throughout huge geographic areas. Many renewable asset operators additionally use private and non-private cloud-based purposes, together with SCADA. They want a community structure that’s easy to deploy at scale throughout quite a few distributed websites and but extremely safe to make sure cyber threats don’t influence uptime.
SD-WAN is prepared for prime time with distributed power sources
Enterprises have broadly deployed Software program Outlined WAN (SD-WAN) over the previous 10 years to handle comparable necessities: connecting distant websites utilizing whichever networking expertise is out there, simplifying administration of the infrastructure, providing seamless entry to purposes wherever they’re hosted, delivering assurance for purposes particularly for distant customers, and providing a really excessive degree of safety all through the community.
Most renewable power corporations at present are used to constructing giant networks using applied sciences reminiscent of Web Protocol Safety (IPsec) and Dynamic Multipoint Digital Non-public Community (DMVPN) to encrypt important Supervisory Management and Knowledge Acquisition (SCADA) communications. They’re utilizing Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) for the underlying transport community, and public or non-public mobile for distant websites with no different WAN connectivity.
SD-WAN brings these applied sciences collectively and permits automation to significantly simplify deployments and provide unmatched cybersecurity advantages out-of-the-box:
Safe zero contact deployment of discipline gateways, that means no discipline workers is required to configure a gateway.
Easy provisioning of service VPNs to segregate visitors (SCADA, CCTV, IP telephony, and so on.).
Templated configurations making it straightforward to alter configuration and push it to gateways whereas making certain compliance of all discipline belongings to approved templates.
Software of unified safety insurance policies throughout a various vary of distant websites and gear.
Managing a number of backhaul connectivity choices on the gateway together with non-public MPLS for important SCADA visitors and mobile for backup and even internet-based connections for non-critical visitors, the place acceptable.
Lifecycle administration of gateways, reminiscent of firmware updates, alarm monitoring and statistics.
Simplifying connecting giant, distributed infrastructures
Deploying an SD-WAN overlay additionally permits the renewable power firm to regulate the end-to-end IP addressing schemes and take away the necessity to engineer complicated routing plans primarily based on the underlying transport community, very often supplied by a third-party service supplier. This divorces the underlying transport community from the overlay community. Therefore, it simplifies operational duties and gives a safer overlay community for important monitoring and management visitors.
Wouldn’t it’s helpful to have a single answer with a selection of business ruggedized gateways for various web site varieties? We expect so, and Cisco gives a number of industrial routers to go well with all deployment websites and might be managed as a part of the Cisco SD-WAN answer.
Cisco industrial routers such because the Catalyst IR8340 Rugged Sequence Routers for bigger websites, Catalyst IR1100 Rugged Sequence Routers and Catalyst IR1800 Rugged Sequence Routers for smaller websites all function as SD-WAN edge gateways alongside with the well-known Cisco enterprise routers (digital and bodily), which can be utilized for management facilities, cloud areas and different operational websites to offer a single overlay community connecting to any web site.
Unifying networking and cybersecurity
Cisco’s SD-WAN answer additionally gives a broad set of cybersecurity options, simplifying coverage creation and deployment to the sting gateways. Superior safety capabilities reminiscent of:
Firewall with utility consciousness (NGFW) to filter visitors in actual time and supply granular management able to detecting 1000’s of purposes.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDS/IPS) with Talos® signatures to establish and block identified threats and malicious actions reminiscent of vulnerability exploits.
Superior malware safety methods, together with signature-based and behavior-based evaluation, to establish and block identified and unknown malware threats.
URL filtering to dam or enable customers to entry URLs primarily based on greater than 80 net classes masking hundreds of thousands of domains and billions of webpages.
Safe entry to cloud and web sources with Cisco Umbrella® which mixes safe net gateway, DNS safety, cloud-delivered firewall, cloud entry safety dealer performance, and risk intelligence to guard towards web threats.
Managing cyber dangers to drive regulatory compliance
Additional to securing the perimeter and connectivity to the renewable power web site, Cisco gives additional safety instruments that may be leveraged ‘excessive’ to extend the safety posture of the positioning:
Cisco Cyber Imaginative and prescient offers asset house owners full visibility into units related to their industrial networks, communication patterns, vulnerabilities, and utility flows to assist assess the OT safety posture. Renewable power corporations now have exact data to grasp their cyber dangers, implement safety greatest practices, and drive compliance with cybersecurity rules reminiscent of NERC CIP or NIS2.
Cisco Safe Gear Entry (SEA) helps safe distant entry to grid belongings supplying you with full management over which technician or contractor can remotely entry belongings for configuration, upkeep, or troubleshooting. It brings all the advantages of a zero-trust community entry (ZTNA) structure to distributed renewable power websites, so customers have entry solely to the units you select, utilizing solely the protocols you specify, and solely on the day and time you enable.
Safe your distributed power infrastructure with Cisco
In abstract, the Cisco SD-WAN answer coupled with Cisco Catalyst Industrial Routers and OT safety merchandise may be very related to renewable power networks and may also help simplify deployment at scale whereas providing superior cybersecurity capabilities. Study extra about it within the answer overview we just lately revealed. I’ve additionally mentioned it in additional particulars in a latest webinar, which now you can watch on-demand. We’ll be comfortable that can assist you construct the safe SD-WAN infrastructure you’ve been ready for.
Share:
[ad_2]
Source link
