Higher availability and resilience in critical infrastructure With secure edge intelligence and cloud redundancy, we ensure maximum uptime and security for critical infrastructure. Real-time monitoring for immediate action reduces risks and protects your processes. Stay compliant, avoid downtime, and increase your efficiency.
Customer profile
Together with HIKAR Canada, we implemented a solution for one of the world’s top five engineering and environmental consulting companies. The collaboration focuses on the digital transformation of the customer’s critical infrastructure. The result: Ensuring greater efficiency, security, and scalability in the North American business units.
Our collaboration with Phoenix Contact is based on strong technical coordination and shared responsibility. This enabled us to deliver a scalable, edge-to-cloud platform that customers trust and can confidently expand.
The challenge
Acquisition of critical environmental and operating data
The customer operates numerous remote locations where critical environmental and operating data is generated. However, traditional proprietary systems did not offer the openness and data processing capabilities required for multi-cloud, real-time environmental operations.
The end customer faced a number of complex challenges that required a robust and innovative solution. The existing brownfield environments comprised several field devices that worked with different protocols, which made integration difficult. In addition, there was a heavy reliance on manual data acquisition at geographically dispersed locations, which caused inefficiencies and increased the risk of errors.
The lack of a secure, standardized, and redundant system for recording data made operations difficult. While the seamless real-time integration of edge devices into both the customer’s and end user’s cloud platform was critical to success. In order to function reliably in business-critical scenarios, the solution also had to meet strict cybersecurity requirements and ensure continuous uptime.
Finally, scalability was a key requirement: The ability to deploy, operate, and maintain dozens of remote locations via remote access was critical to achieving long-term operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Solution
A combined ecosystem that ensures collected, validated, and secure data
Building on our PLCnext Technology Ecosystem, HIKAR has successfully delivered the SIEN (Secured Intelligence Edge Node) solution. This is a comprehensive hardware and software solution. At its core, our AXC F 2152 serves as a secure, open, and cyber-resilient hardware basis. In addition, HIKAR’s SIEN software stack delivers powerful functions, including plug-and-produce onboarding of various field devices and a local history with secure data redundancy. The solution also enables end-to-end, real-time data transfer from the edge to both the customer’s cloud and the end user’s cloud. This solution is secured by encrypted MQTT/HTTPS protocols. The architecture is reinforced by a Zero Trust network design and ensures maximum security.
Developed for critical environmental applications, the SEIN solution guarantees high availability and operational reliability. A joint proof of concept, initiated by HIKAR, verified the solution architecture and demonstrated the performance capabilities of PLCnext Technology, resulting in high customer satisfaction. Following the successful completion of a pilot project, 65 locations were implemented in phase 1 in collaboration with HIKAR; full rollout to 130 locations is planned within the next 24 months.
This integrated ecosystem ensures that field data is collected, validated, secured, and transferred to multiple cloud destinations simultaneously. This ensures maximum transparency, security, and scalability.
Your advantages
- Increased availability through redundant communication, secure edge control, and uninterruptible data storage
- Asset health monitoring for pumps, fans, sensors, and other critical components
- Elimination of manual data acquisition at over 65 locations
- 60% faster engineering and implementation time with the preconfigured SIEN architecture and openness of PLCnext Technology
- Improved sustainability through optimized use of devices and reduced energy consumption
- Fully IEC 62443-compliant design that supports cyber-resilient remote applications
- Scalable architecture, ready for rapid expansion to over 130 locations without structural changes
- Real-time, seamless multi-cloud integration that ensures continuous environmental transparency and regulatory compliance
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Summary
By combining PLCnext Technology’s open, cybersecure automation ecosystem with our SIEN edge intelligence, we were able to significantly simplify engineering and achieve consistent, repeatable implementations across multiple locations.
By using our PLCnext Technology Ecosystem in collaboration with HIKAR, operators of critical infrastructure can achieve higher availability and resilience. The integrated SIEN solution ensures secure edge intelligence, cloud redundancy, and real-time data flows, eliminates manual processes, and ensures compliance with IEC 62443 standards.
This approach not only maximizes uptime and reliability, but also enables predictive maintenance. Multi-cloud integration and scalable use across dozens of remote locations ensures greater sustainability, cybersecurity, and efficiency. This sets a new benchmark for digital transformation in critical infrastructure.
