Digitalisation is a key competitive strategy for businesses in the Internet of Things (IoT) era. Such a transition requires companies to expand the visibility of the OT data dispersed throughout their OT infrastructures. Where industrials once wrestled with solving data connectivity issues between 3rd party OT-components, today, the need for secure, open standards-based OT data access extends enterprise-wide and to the cloud. This calls for a better approach to OT data connectivity.
Expanding the breadth and depth of OT data visibility brings additional IT and OT challenges, like the need for greater data security, improved data context, and scalability. To meet these needs, companies need a sustainable, cost-effective way to modernise with minimal replacement of existing infrastructure. Matrikon enables a phased approach to such modernisation with Matrikon Data Broker (MDB), a new category of software called Data Technology (DT) that takes a holistic approach to the issue.
MDB Data Technology solves the IT/OT gap issues and other OT data-related challenges “under the hood,” so OT and IT professionals can focus on best utilising the OT data instead of trying to get at the data.
By using MDB, users address issues like:
- Establishing open standard-based data connectivity to 3rd party components using various connectivity methods like OPC Classic, OPC UA, proprietary protocols, and others
- Enabling phased migration to help maximise the functional life of existing OT infrastructure while adding new components as appropriate
- Enforcing secure network communications across firewalls using IT best practices
- Preserving and enhancing data context without coding
- Preparing for high scalability to grow with the data needs of the company in the future
- Simplifying infrastructure to improve sustainability
- Sharing OT-data to cloud
- and more
Enterprise-wide OT data access challenges can be addressed using combinations of IT and OT tools, but the key to building cost-effective, sustainable IIoT-era solutions is to do so in a secure, extensible manner, regardless of the infrastructure you are starting from.
To learn more about how MDB can help enhance your infrastructure, visit www.matrikonopc.com/databroker.
