At the IoT Expo in Taipei, we were excited to announce our contribution of an open-source, cross-platform OPC UA Global Discovery Server (GDS) to the OPC Foundation. As we have done with our UA-.Net Standard cross-platform reference stack contribution, we will check it in to the OPC Foundations’ GitHub in the next couple of weeks. While an OPC UA GDS also manages OPC UA server configuration and handles centralized discovery, the greatest value of a GDS deployment is its certificate management capability and is described here.
The most important aspect of the digital factory and other connected industrial infrastructure is security. A defense-in-depth security approach is needed on premises and the air gap traditionally used to protect the Operational Technology infrastructure (i.e. the factory floor) from the Information Technology infrastructure (i.e. the back office and public Internet), which was proven insufficient over 7 years ago. For example, Stuxnet managed to “jump” the air gap by infecting laptops of engineers working in the factory who hand-carried the virus on premises. Defense-in-depth means that each machine on the factory floor handles its own security and doesn’t rely on a perimeter security concept alone.
Read the conversation in the Azure blog.