Based on feedback from customers, Rockwell Automation and Cisco have begun collaborating on their common technology view, building reference architectures using standard networking technologies such as EtherNet/IP, and providing market education to enable people and process optimization.
The two companies aim to help bolster common open technology with security and reliability, while meeting varied requirements across functions to provide an optimized networking offering.
Customers are telling us they want linked reference architectures supporting both the office network environment and the factory floor, said Paul McNab, vice president of enterprise marketing for Cisco. Both plant and IT managers need secure, real-time visibility between the production floor and enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and supply chain management systems. This network architecture will allow manufacturers to achieve real-time visibility with a secure control network using Ethernet.
In addition, the two companies will hold a series of educational seminars to help organizations implement change by establishing best practices between IT and manufacturing.
