Emerson wants to be a problem solver and one of the ways is through industry collaborations and partnerships. "While the majority comes from inside our own development teams, we also look out in the industry to expand our technology portfolio," Zornio said. "We know although we may have a great portfolio—I believe the best—we can't do everything. So we collaborate with those who we think have the best complementary technology."
Collaboration elevates Emerson's expertise and often supports its strategy of human-centered design, which strives to eliminate unnecessary work, remove complexity and embed specialized knowledge. Zornio announced recent collaborations with McAfee and OSIsoft where their specialized technology is being embedded in Emerson applications.
McAfee strengthens DeltaV security
"We know that although we may have a great portfolio—I believe the best—we can't do everything. So we collaborate with those who we think have the best complementary technology." Peter Zornio, chief strategic officer, Emerson Process Management.
One of Emerson's new collaborations is for cybersecurity with McAfee, which is part of Intel. "We know that cybersecurity is an ever important and ever growing part of our industry," said Zornio. "There are many developments we have done in-house related to operation management, and McAfee has been our choice for anti-virus for DeltaV for many years."This collaboration strengthens the integrated cybersecurity solution in the DeltaV distributed control system to meet the ever-growing needs of our customers and the new standards. It knows what's happening from a security point of view."
Emerson is committed to protecting infrastructure through proven industrial cybersecurity and has long incorporated built-for-purpose firewalls and protection features. Working with global experts, Emerson is following defense-in-depth layered security practices to comply with emerging cybersecurity standards (IEC 62443) and security threats.
"Cybersecurity is a journey, not a destination," Zornio said. "Every time we come up with a new technology, the hackers eventually come up with a new way to counter it. Just as police radar and radar detectors have constantly changed, that's where we are with cybersecurity today. As the cybersecurity needs continue to evolve and mature, Emerson is adding new technology."
Emerson is certifying supported releases of the DeltaV DCS and AMS Suite asset management to offer Intel Security's Anti-Virus, Network Monitoring, and Application Whitelisting solutions. Additionally, Emerson will offer Intel Security's Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) solution to perform monitoring and the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator for streamlined and centralized security management. This enhanced portfolio of cybersecurity solutions hardens endpoints and improves security visibility, as well as availability and reliability of the control systems.
OSIsoft enhances network infrastructure
"Another collaboration partnership we have is with OSIsoft," Zornio said. "Last year, the collaboration was about the advanced historian for DeltaV. This year, we are here to talk about the tighter linkage of OSIsoft's PI System to Emerson's Smart Wireless Gateways, HART multiplexers and all our wireless devices. It makes a good industrial Internet of Things platform for adding new instrumentation and feeding it directly into the PI System."
Emerson and OSIsoft have introduced the OSIsoft PI Connector for HART-IP, a link between HART field devices and OSIsoft's PI System enterprise software infrastructure for managing streaming sensor data in real time. The PI Connector for HART-IP automatically and seamlessly maps wired and WirelessHART devices to the asset structure in the PI server, eliminating effort and chances for error. It enables end users to gain benefits from their intelligent field networks faster, more easily, and at lower overall cost.
This collaboration is about easing connections to improve intelligent field networks faster, with dramatically less effort and at a lower cost. It leverages the widely used PI database engine to serve information to Emerson application suites developed for the Pervasive Sensing initiative.
It's modular and scalable, with information from wireless gateways and multiplexers going directly to the PI System without depending on the basic process control system. With the PI Connector for HART-IP, all the necessary linkages populate to their respective applications automatically, giving the user instant access to valuable process and diagnostic information.
