Written by Christoph Berlin, Partner PM Manager
The manufacturing industry continues to rapidly adopt Internet of Things (IoT) technology to optimize productivity, gain efficiencies, increase uptime, and meet sustainability goals. As organizations look to harness IoT across their ecosystems of connected devices, security and compliance continue to be at the forefront of conversations.
Our commitment is to simplify IoT for mainstream adoption. As such, we are announcing the general availability of nesting capabilities for Microsoft Azure IoT Edge that conforms to ANSI/ISA-95 standard for network isolation. This IoT Edge solution adds to other significant advancements that make it easier for companies to benefit from IoT, including Azure Defender for IoT, Azure IoT Edge security enclaves, Device Update for IoT Hub, and Azure Digital Twins.
Unlocking value with nested Azure IoT Edge devices
Smart manufacturing faces a dilemma: manufacturers want to improve operational excellence by using modern cloud-scale solutions, such as artificial intelligence (AI)-powered predictive maintenance. Yet, they often cannot easily connect industrial systems to the internet due to security and safety concerns. For years, network segregation within a facility has been a security principle recommended by the ANSI/ISA-95 standard, which is widely adopted across industries with high-security requirements to prevent potentially dangerous breaches. But that meant on-premises network segregation with the cloud was not possible—until now.
By enabling hierarchies of IoT Edge devices through the automation pyramid, manufacturers can collect data from their systems, aggregate it, and forward it to the cloud without compromising their systems. The device management and communication functionalities of a single IoT Edge device have also been extended to work through hierarchies of IoT Edge devices.
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