Waterfall Unidirectional CloudConnect for Smart Manufacturing Enterprise

INDUSTRIAL CONNECTIVITY CHALLENGES The IIoT promises enormous value to manufacturing operations, but faces significant challenges. Industrial communications protocols and data formats are not good fits for big-data and cloud analysis needs, and increased Internet connectivity to edge devices on industrial networks dramatically increase attack opportunities and security risks. Waterfall’s Unidirectional CloudConnect provides strong, physical protection from Internet-based and other remote attacks for industrial control systems and edge devices. In addition to strong cyber protections, CloudConnect routinely carries out all necessary industrial to cloud communications as well as data format and object format conversions. Unidirectional CloudConnect makes industrial cloud connectivity easy and robust. THE CHALLENGE To secure the production network from IP theft and cyber-sabotage from threats emanating from cloud networks, yet still provide the enterprise network with real-time access to live operations data and visibility into manufacturing operations. Modern industrial attacks routinely defeat firewalls, encryption, intrusion detection and other software protections. The smart manufacturing site needs to enable cloud connectivity for edge devices in control system networks, while reliably defeating modern attacks. WATERFALL SOLUTION Waterfall Unidirectional CloudConnect was installed between the manufacturing production network and the enterprise network. Unidirectional CloudConnect collects data from IIoT edge devices as well as from conventional industrial data sources such as PLCs, OPC servers and production historians. Unidirectional CloudConnect converts this data into websockets and other cloud-friendly formats and publishes the data to cloud platforms while physically preventing any Internet-based attacks from reaching manufacturing networks. RESULTS & BENEFITS 100% Security: The production network is now physically protected from any cloud-based threats.
100% Visibility: Waterfall Unidirectional CloudConnect provides safe visibility into industrial operations for enterprise users, vendors and cloud-based service providers.
100% Compatible ICS, enterprise and cloud systems continue to operate normally. Unidirectional CloudConnect provides to each participant the protocols and servic es they expect of connected devices and networks.