Renewable vitality is a quickly rising phase of the vitality trade. Applied sciences similar to wind, photo voltaic, biomass, geothermal, and vitality storage are actually thought-about mainstream. Nonetheless, all of those websites require safe connectivity to allow necessary distant monitoring and management.
Renewable vitality firms should join an array of renewable vitality belongings unfold throughout vast geographic areas. Many renewable asset operators additionally use private and non-private cloud-based functions, 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 affect uptime.
SD-WAN is prepared for prime time with distributed vitality sources
Enterprises have extensively deployed Software program Outlined WAN (SD-WAN) over the previous 10 years to handle related necessities: connecting distant websites utilizing whichever networking expertise is out there, simplifying administration of the infrastructure, providing seamless entry to functions wherever they’re hosted, delivering assurance for functions particularly for distant customers, and providing a really excessive stage of safety all through the community.
Most renewable vitality firms at this time are used to constructing massive networks using applied sciences similar to Web Protocol Safety (IPsec) and Dynamic Multipoint Digital Personal 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 tremendously simplify deployments and provide unmatched cybersecurity advantages out-of-the-box:
- Safe zero contact deployment of discipline gateways, that means no discipline employees is required to configure a gateway.
- Easy provisioning of service VPNs to segregate site visitors (SCADA, CCTV, IP telephony, and so forth.).
- Templated configurations making it straightforward to alter configuration and push it to gateways whereas guaranteeing compliance of all discipline belongings to approved templates.
- Utility of unified safety insurance policies throughout a various vary of distant websites and tools.
- Managing a number of backhaul connectivity choices on the gateway together with non-public MPLS for important SCADA site visitors and mobile for backup and even internet-based connections for non-critical site visitors, the place applicable.
- Lifecycle administration of gateways, similar to firmware updates, alarm monitoring and statistics.
Simplifying connecting massive, distributed infrastructures
Deploying an SD-WAN overlay additionally permits the renewable vitality firm to regulate the end-to-end IP addressing schemes and take away the necessity to engineer advanced routing plans based mostly on the underlying transport community, very often offered by a third-party service supplier. This divorces the underlying transport community from the overlay community. Therefore, it simplifies operational duties and offers a safer overlay community for important monitoring and management site visitors.
Wouldn’t it’s helpful to have a single answer with a selection of business ruggedized gateways for various website varieties? We expect so, and Cisco offers a number of industrial routers to go well with all deployment websites and may be managed as a part of the Cisco SD-WAN answer.
Cisco industrial routers such because the Catalyst IR8340 Rugged Collection Routers for bigger websites, Catalyst IR1100 Rugged Collection Routers and Catalyst IR1800 Rugged Collection 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 website.
Unifying networking and cybersecurity
Cisco’s SD-WAN answer additionally offers a broad set of cybersecurity options, simplifying coverage creation and deployment to the sting gateways. Superior safety capabilities similar to:
- Firewall with utility consciousness (NGFW) to filter site visitors in actual time and supply granular management able to detecting hundreds of functions.
- Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDS/IPS) with Talos® signatures to establish and block identified threats and malicious actions similar to vulnerability exploits.
- Superior malware safety strategies, together with signature-based and behavior-based evaluation, to establish and block identified and unknown malware threats.
- URL filtering to dam or permit customers to entry URLs based mostly on greater than 80 internet classes overlaying thousands and thousands of domains and billions of webpages.
- Safe entry to cloud and web sources with Cisco Umbrella® which mixes safe internet gateway, DNS safety, cloud-delivered firewall, cloud entry safety dealer performance, and menace intelligence to guard towards web threats.
Managing cyber dangers to drive regulatory compliance
Additional to securing the perimeter and connectivity to the renewable vitality website, Cisco offers additional safety instruments that may be leveraged ‘excessive’ to extend the safety posture of the location:
- Cisco Cyber Imaginative and prescient offers asset house owners full visibility into gadgets linked to their industrial networks, communication patterns, vulnerabilities, and utility flows to assist assess the OT safety posture. Renewable vitality firms now have exact info to grasp their cyber dangers, implement safety greatest practices, and drive compliance with cybersecurity laws similar to NERC CIP or NIS2.
- Cisco Safe Tools Entry (SEA) helps safe distant entry to grid belongings providing 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 vitality websites, so customers have entry solely to the gadgets you select, utilizing solely the protocols you specify, and solely on the day and time you permit.
Safe your distributed vitality infrastructure with Cisco
In abstract, the Cisco SD-WAN answer coupled with Cisco Catalyst Industrial Routers and OT safety merchandise could be very related to renewable vitality networks and may also help simplify deployment at scale whereas providing superior cybersecurity capabilities. Be taught extra about it within the answer overview we not too long ago printed. I’ve additionally mentioned it in additional particulars in a current webinar, which now you can watch on-demand. We’ll be completely satisfied that can assist you construct the safe SD-WAN infrastructure you’ve been ready for.
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