Schneider Electric and Cisco Partner to Bridge OT and IT in Building Management Systems

Schneider Electric and Cisco have formed a technology partnership designed to help accelerate technology advances in smart buildings.  Working together, the two companies have developed, tested and validated designs that help connect building management systems to an Internet Protocol (IP) network with a more secure, scalable and resilient architecture that is easier to manage.

The solution from Schneider Electric and Cisco brings IT and operational building control together in a more secure and efficient IP network solution.  It enables multiple Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Building IP architecture topologies to integrate with existing building layouts using Cisco Industrial Ethernet switches to connect to Schneider Electric's SmartX IP Controllers.  The solution meets system availability requirements upon deployment, helping to save users time and resources.

The Schneider Electric and Cisco solution is designed to help enhance building management systems in the following areas:

Security 

• Standardize with a single security vendor for IT and OT security
• Identify, segment, and mediate anomalies or cyber-attacks as they occur
• Enforce consistent identity-based security policy on the network infrastructure

Scalability

• Easier to scale from small to large deployments while managing an increasing amount of data that is continuously collected for IoT applications
• Leverage a high-speed IP network for managing real-time system operations

Resiliency

• Increase building system availability by ensuring that network failures do not shut down connected systems
• More quickly and efficiently identify and resolve issues using standard network diagnosis tools

Easier to Manage 

• Help to reduce costs and simplify BMS management with one converged network for IT and OT systems
• Enable technicians without deep IP experience to commission Ethernet fieldbus switches prior to installation with a more Plug and Play, zero-touch configuration