Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, and Siemens, a technology company focused on the digital transformation of industry and infrastructure, today announced a strategic partnership in the UAE, focused on bridging the Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) worlds. Based on the complementary portfolios, Siemens and Aruba, working in close collaboration, are able to support customers with highly reliable, secure and insightful data networks, enabling high plant and network availability. Customers benefit from integrated networks with proven interoperability from factory floors to corporate offices based on Siemens’ expertise as a leading provider of industrial Ethernet network components and Aruba’s as a leader in wired and wireless LAN infrastructure.
Jacob Chacko, Regional Director, Middle East, Saudi & South Africa at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company says, “The ‘UAE Industry 4.0’ initiative announced by the country’s Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology places UAE at the heart of the global Fourth Industrial Revolution. As a company, Aruba is very keen to support the government’s vision, and found in Siemens the ideal partner that can help drive innovation and digital transformation in the industrial segment. Siemens brings over 30 years of experience in the fields of OT communication technology, with services and infrastructure that can be customised and scaled to meet the needs of a wide range of industrial and manufacturing customers. As one of the world’s largest IT networking companies, Aruba brings unparalleled experience in high-reliability, secure mobility, LAN switching, SD branch, locationing, application assurance and network management systems. Working in collaboration, Siemens and Aruba can together deliver the most secure, resilient and insightful integrated OT and IT systems available”.
Digitalisation, Industry 4.0 and Industrial IoT are raising new challenges because now data increasingly must traverse the boundary separating OT and IT. Typically, deterministic, industrial OT networks are not coupled tightly with enterprise IT networks. This results in gaps in data and device visibility, application assurance, availability, and security. Bridging that divide requires deep expertise in both worlds and knowledge of the respective operational and security requirements. In the IT world, cybersecurity and trustworthy data are top priorities, whereas in the OT world, plant availability and manufacturing output targets are most important. Siemens and Aruba bridge this divide based on their deep and complementary expertise in OT and IT.
The two companies have taken the guesswork out of OT/ IT deployments by validating interoperable operations across products, and documenting reference designs. As a result, systems go in faster and work more reliably. The integrated solutions include wired and wireless networking products and related software that can be implemented via several channels, including the companies’ extensive partner networks with direct access to their engineering and support experts. Aruba and Siemens together can address customer requirements spanning pre-sales consulting and engineering, professional services (including project management, commissioning, factory acceptance testing, and design engineering), managed operations and maintenance services, and after-sales support. The two companies have established an engineer-to-engineer escalation program so the best technical resources are available 24/7.
The solutions help ensure network security that spans both the IT and OT worlds. For example, Aruba’s 360 Secure Fabric for IT networks can be combined with Siemens’ “Defence in Depth” OT security concept. Since customers’ security needs vary, especially in older legacy deployments, Aruba and Siemens will also tailor security solutions to address specific customer requirements.
“The cooperation between Siemens and Aruba is an important step to enhance our industrial networks portfolio with the additional IT solution offering from Aruba – forming a strong platform for the Digital Enterprise. Together we provide IoT visibility and cybersecurity from Infrastructure/ Operations teams to CEO for manufacturing, industrial, transportation, defence, and electrical power applications. Customers will benefit from future-proof, integrated communication networks, ensuring high availability and security”, concludes Mohammed Khalifa, the CEO of Siemens Digital Industries in the Middle East.
