Siemens and Aruba have announced a strategic partnership focused on bridging the Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) gap. Based on the complementary portfolios, Siemens and Aruba are able to support customers with data network enabling high plant and network availability. Customers benefit from integrated networks with interoperability from factory floors to corporate offices based on Siemens’ expertise as a provider of industrial ethernet network components and Aruba’s as a leader in wired and wireless LAN infrastructure.
Klaus Helmrich, Member of the Management Board at Siemens AG, said, “The cooperation between Siemens and Aruba is an important step to complement our industrial networks offering, which is one of the pillars of the Digital Enterprise, with the additional IT offering from Aruba. Customers will benefit from futureproof, integrated communication networks ensuring availability and security.”
Keerti Melkote, President and Co-Founder, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, said, “Working together for nearly three years, Siemens and Aruba have addressed the OT/IT divide through technology integration, backed by validated reference designs. The resulting solutions are ideal for a variety of industrial applications, and are backed by both Siemens’ and Aruba’s support teams.”
The 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 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 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’ Defense 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.
Heineken, one of the biggest brewing companies in the world, relies on an integrated OT/IT solution from Aruba and Siemens for its Heineken Nederland Supply Brewery’s-Hertogenbosch.
