Cisco has developed a revolutionary Unified Computing System (UCS) to help manufacturing businesses achieve the consistency, availability and performance they need through a modern, end-to-end tech infrastructure that is self-monitoring, self-analyzing, and self-optimizing. Source: Cisco Data Centre Blog This is an API-driven computing platform with streamlined virtualization, convergence, seamless automation, and simplified management. From core, to edge, to cloud, the system builds a bridge to a modern data centre infrastructure. For more information about Cisco's UCS, please click here. This article will be further expanded with more information on Industrial Networks. Subscribe to our IIoT Newsletter and keep up to date! #IndustialIT #IndustrialNetworks #ITConsulting #NetworkIntegration #SystemIntegration #IIoT #IIoTUK #ITNetworks #UCS

Click here to download the full case. Cisco's UCS (Unified Computing System) help manufacturing businesses to achieve the consistency, availability and performance they need, through a modern, end-to-end IT infrastructure that connects industrial control systems (ICS) and is self-monitoring, self-analyzing, and self-optimizing. Implementing secure by design architectures and infrastructure through managed it solutions is critical to improve resiliency, and to ensure high-availability for these systems. For this case, the customer required the integration of hardware and software with existing factory lines and process systems to avoid downtime. Additionally, a new network was needed to comply with government standards for healthcare & pharmaceutical production. It was a priority to ensure that the new network is secure and connect to SD-WAN, allowing multiple services to run in tandem and being segregated for security. Digital transformation and network security systems play a major role in meeting these requirements. Production is enhanced through the integration of hardware and software with existing factory lines and process systems, allowing greater compliance and redundancy.​ To enhance communication, protect plant assets and guarantee production integrity, the client sought to work with Polestar’s managed IT solutions and its suite of industrial security technologies, along with the following partners:​ Polestar: Project Management & Consultancy. Industrial Networking Systems secure implementation between factory floor and ERP. Selection of compatible hardware with the software app.​ Cisco: Hardware vendor contributing to initial design work and consultancy.​ Routeco: Provision of hardware and logistics.​ Antares: Software App applied to infrastructure, which was installed by Polestar. As shown in the ICS Cyber Security & Network Security System diagram below, the Operational Technologies (OT’s) that we implemented included:​ Cisco UCS Servers & Switches Cisco TrustSec & IND VMware Hosts Veeam Solutions Microsoft Enterprise Software Over the project we provided an industrial network security system, which is secure by design and redundant for serialisation compliance, meeting the latest security requirements, complying with industry and ICS Cyber Security standards, and granting continuous access to production at all levels. Click here to download the full case. #Industry40TechnologiesUK

Read the full Case Study here. To guarantee better quality in production, the customer required the implementation of a secure by design network, able to connect MES in a greenfield facility. Thanks to Polestar’s Industrial Internet of Things  (IIoT) services, it was possible to efficiently track, control, and optimise manufacturing for this modular homes producer. The project needed a carefully designed, secure architecture to safeguard the whole network from potential threats. Read the full Case Study here. #Industry40TechnologiesUK

See the full Whitepaper here. The industrial data space (IDS) is a virtual data space leveraging existing standards and technologies, as well as accepted governance models for the data economy, to facilitate the secure and standardised exchange and easy linkage of data in a trusted business ecosystem. It thereby provides a basis for smart service scenarios and innovative cross-company business processes, while at the same time making sure data sovereignty is guaranteed for the participating data owners. To download the full Whitepaper, click here. #IndustrialIT #Cloudbased #Manufacturing #DataManagement #Analytics

Cyber Security has been a hot topic in the news recently, with many industrial companies being targeted by malware and ransomware designed to damage infrastructure, damage business and even damage people. It really isn't our style to turn this into a sales pitch article with pages of marketing telling you how we can do goodness. So, we’ll cut to the chase. The threat to Industrial IT Networks is growing worse by the day. Xenotime is a well organised group of hackers that are specifically targeting industrial networks and we think you should know about them. Click here to visit a short article by Dragos about what they are calling “easily the most dangerous threat activity publicly known”. One of our Solutions Architects had this to say: "Everything we do for industrial customers around network and infrastructure design and deployment, particularly regarding isolation and segregation of production cells, is to prevent or limit damage from attacks like these. We also incorporate monitoring and protection for PLC’s and ICS devices directly, as well as Next Generation Firewalls for network traffic... But here’s the difficulty of cyber-security. With little known about new attacks, other than they’re constantly getting more sophisticated, there’s nothing close to a silver bullet for protection. The modern consensus is that you can’t stop a sufficiently competent and sufficiently motivated attacker. The reality of what we do is to implement systems and work with customers to make it so difficult for attackers that they run out of resources somewhere along the line." It's imperative that more and more organisations are aware of these potential threats. They are real, and they will bite you at some point. Build your walls high and deep and start now, if you haven't already. #IIoTSecurityTips #IIoT #Industry40TechnologiesUK

We're feeling very upbeat here at Polestar as we celebrate the successes of 2017 and look forward to 2018. Although we like to think that every year is an innovative, exciting and transformative one for for the company, 2017 was a truly pivotal one. Not only did we move to new, state of the art offices, we secured our position at the forefront of the 4th Industrial Revolution by developing our Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) service offering in a number of key areas. The launch of our new secure remote access service, IRIS (Industrial Remote Interconnect Service) was especially significant. This package was developed to provide engineers with remote but secure access to production assets for checking system issues and conducting maintenance - reducing downtime and costly engineer visits. We are also pleased to announce that Polestar have become AiRISTA Flow Partners and can now offer our customers customisable and scalable RTLS (Real Time Location Systems) solutions, ranging from asset tracking, to employee health and safety, to temperature monitoring. As these achievements suggest, our move to the University of Nottingham Innovation Park in June 2017 was driven as much by our changing requirements regarding office space as by our need to be close to the cutting-edge research facilities and expertise the University offers. The opportunities for collaboration with both academics and other like-minded technology companies significantly enhances our ability to find innovative solutions to some of the most difficult technology headaches our customers might find themselves facing. With its combination of unique and quirky architecture and beautiful natural features and landscaping, we have also found the Innovation Park to be an inspiring and rewarding place to work and we would love to share it with any customers who would like to visit. Our address is: The Sir Colin Campbell Building, University of Nottingham Innovation Park, Triumph Road, Nottingham, NG7 2TU. Our new location also features strongly in our refreshed website which was launched in August. While we wanted to share our fantastic new surroundings, our main focus was to make it easy for visitors to the site to understand our Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) capabilities and the benefits that IIoT can offer to 'uncarpeted' environments such as manufacturing facilities and hospitals. The website also now features a blog with interactive pages and a facility to contact us directly or via social media. So, for news, IIoT information and updates make sure to follow us on Twitter @polestarinterac. Our Managing Director, Julian, used one of his most recent blog posts to mark Polestar’s 20th birthday which we celebrated in October. We are proud to be going from strength to strength after 20 years, especially as research shows that the average lifespan of businesses is decreasing and some studies show that it’s now around 18 years. Clearly our customers are convinced that we’re getting things right! For Julian in particular, the long but successful road we’ve travelled has provided a wealth of insight and wisdom. Julian’s fascinating writings about the lessons he has learned during his 20-year journey with Polestar will be posted in this blog. It will be worth it to Suscribe! Having had such a great year, it felt only right that we should give something back by helping the community and supporting worthwhile causes. Our charity donations have included providing a prize for Groundwork Greater Nottingham’s Talent Match Annual Award Ceremony and offering our services to the Nottingham School of Boxing, which is run by the Switch Up charity to help young people in Nottingham to break the cycle of offending and re-offending. As in previous years, Polestar also continues to be a Business Benefactor for  Nottingham Contemporary, an international art centre with a strong sense of local purpose, and has again sponsored one of the holes at the Ashfield Healthcare Annual Charity Golf Day. 2017 has been a year in which we’ve continued to evolve, grow and innovate while remaining committed to our customers and the local community. We're looking forward to 2018 being another excellent year and we're already working on some exciting new projects. As always though, our main goal is to ensure that our customers gain competitive and operational advantage from their IT investment. If you would like to talk to us about real-time tracking or IRIS or, if you would just like to know more about Industrial IoT and how it could help transform your business, we’d love to hear from you. (Click here) In the meantime, we hope the New Year brings the very best for each and every one of our employees, suppliers and customers. Here's to an exciting and prosperous 2018 for all of us! #Industry40TechnologiesUK

It’s a sensational feeling sitting down and writing that Polestar has been in business for 20 years. Not many companies can match that, in fact the average lifespan of a company is decreasing and some studies show that its now around 18 years. Thinking back over the last couple of decades since we started, I mulled over what we may have done to buck this trend and if there were any lessons to be learned from our experiences. There were quite a few (!) but these three perhaps more than others: “Mutate and survive” - understand that what you start off trying to do might not be where you end up… and furthermore accept it. If you don’t like that, life is telling you to go and DO something else. “Play the long game” - sometimes, you just need to walk away from business opportunities that don’t feel right or, from people you wouldn’t like to do business with. Good business is all about working with the RIGHT people. “Don’t be afraid to fail and also, fail quickly (and move on)” - I’ve lost count of the number of mistakes I’ve made over the years at Polestar, but with each mistake, I learned (and continue to learn) something new. Humility is HARD, but the upside is, it makes you more robust. Do not be afraid of any of the following: change, trying something new, or experimenting. I hope the above is interesting and hopefully of use, particularly to those of you just starting out. Good luck if you are, you’ll need a bit of it occasionally...A big thank you to all the staff and also a big thank you to all our customers for the last 20 years. Here’s to the next 20… Cheers! - Julian Smith, Managing Director #Industry40TechnologiesUK

Polestar Industrial IT, a UK company which has been providing secure, high availability, IT infrastructure design, delivery and support for industrial companies since 1997 is on the move. The company, which boasts a portfolio of blue chip clients such as: Carlsberg, Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, on its books, is moving from its current base to the University of Nottingham Innovation Park. Go to story #IndustrialIT #IndustrialIoT