Managing power plants and energy grids is a massive undertaking: they are a combination of Operational Technology (OT) networks, IT networks, and distributed facilities and infrastructure. Because of this, an approach that relies on remote access and monitoring is key. Obviously, we’re most interested in the monitoring aspect of this approach, and specifically: how it can be integrated into an overall management and control solution to provide an holistic overview for OT operators. To give you an idea of how monitoring fits into the picture, let’s take a look at a concrete example.
Infrastructure transparency is something that IT admins, professionals, and all who deal with infrastructure want: visibility of not only what’s in the infrastructure, but also dependencies between devices, systems and other components. At its core, infrastructure transparency means knowing everything about ALL of your IT assets. Transparency also helps you understand where your infrastructure is at risk – such as the existence of shadow IT, cyber security vulnerabilities, and more. It’s the key to transforming and optimizing your technical landscape. But how do you go about achieving this kind of transparency?
In today's highly connected industrial world, the intersection of IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) is reshaping how businesses operate. However, this convergence also brings significant cybersecurity challenges. The rise in cyberattacks on OT systems, particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, underscores the urgency for robust cybersecurity measures. Companies in the manufacturing sector, for example, have been heavily targeted, with about 90% experiencing production or energy supply disruptions due to cyberattacks.
If you work in IT or engineering, you probably know the value of having a controlled space to test new things, prove ideas, or just try to break things. Because every failure means that you have learned something. That's why it's better to learn in a safe environment and leave your production systems unaffected. In this article, we'll guide you through setting up a home lab or testing environment for Paessler PRTG Network Monitor.
Spanish photovoltaic specialist Grupotec uses Paessler PRTG to monitor its international solar parks, integrating industrial controllers into the central IT monitoring system to create a holistic overview
Modbus is a protocol used to communicate information between industrial devices. The device requesting information is called a Modbus client or Modbus slave, and the device providing the information is called a Modbus server or Modbus master.Modbus is used to monitor programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human machine interfaces (HMIs), power meters, temperature controllers, gas detectors, water quality devices, and more .It can also be used to connect a supervisory computer to a remote terminal unit (RTU).Different options are available depending on the architecture: Modbus RTU and Modbus ASCII for transmitting information over serial lines, and Modbus TCP for transmitting information over Ethernet.
Probes in Paessler PRTG monitoring software play an important role in monitoring infrastructure: they expand the monitoring capabilities of the PRTG core server to remote locations and networks. A probe is essentially an additional monitoring instance that provides the sensors to monitor networks, devices, and applications not covered by the PRTG core server. Probes monitor independently and send the monitoring data back to the core server for each check they perform.
It's hard to describe what it feels like to stand in a greenhouse with almost 400 pots, growing neither veggies nor flowers, but the most closely monitored and pampered blades of grass I've ever seen. Scientists and research assistants are bustling around the pots (technically dubbed "lysimeters" — I'll dive into that later), analyzing soil and run-off water. Ralf Steffens, CTO of Carbon Drawdown Initiative, is showing me around and explains to me how to set up and operate a greenhouse that is unique in the world. Serious research is happening here, no doubt, but it's all done with a twist, a flair for the unconventional that's proven to be successful. I'm observing a lot of passion in every detail, and people driven by the desire to counter the climate crisis with something reliable and scalable. Meanwhile, employing Paessler PRTG Hosted Monitor, the greenhouse conducts are captivating monitoring activities, transforming the wealth of 5 million daily data points into actionable scientific insights.
When it comes to network and infrastructure monitoring, adaptability is essential. Previously, as a user of Paessler PRTG, you were mostly limited to Windows environments. Thanks to your numerous responses to our surveys, Linux has been identified as the preferred operating system for running a probe, which marks a significant milestone in our development. We are pleased to announce that the multi-platform probe has moved from BETA to stable.
In April 2024 we completed our first OT training. All 6 out of 6 students said they would recommend the training to their friends and colleagues. This is a strong motivation for us to continue to improve. We have learned that OT is a topic not only of interest to OT professionals, but also to IT professionals who are either inheriting OT infrastructure or who will be working on OT projects. In this blog article, I would like to walk you through the learning objectives we cover in our newly released Paessler OT training.
Paessler PRTG 24.2.94 has been released in the stable channel! This update brings enhancements for Single Sign-on, new settings for multi-platform probe connections, important security improvements, and updates for the German and Spanish language files. Furthermore, the multi-platform probe is now available as a stable version.
Many organizations in the private and public sectors in the European Union already know about it: a new set of regulations for cyber security in critical infrastructure is coming in October 2024. Called the Network and Information Systems Directive 2022, or NIS2, it lays down the requirements organizations with critical infrastructure have to meet to for increased cyber security. And right now, organizations with operations in Europe are scrambling to ensure their compliance by the time the regulation goes into place. While there are many facets to NIS2, there is one factor organizations may not yet realize: having a unified overview of OT and IT infrastructure can go a long way towards helping meet the goals of compliance. And this unified overview is exactly what infrastructure monitoring can provide.
In my first article about Qbilon, I focussed on the “cloud” use case – how Qbilon can help manage cloud-based environments and their associated costs. Here, I’ll be looking at how Qbilon can help identify security issues and vulnerabilities lurking in your estate, be it on-prem, cloudy, or hybrid.
iAbout Port of Douala – Gateway to Central Africa The Port of Douala in Cameroon is described as an essential “Gateway to Central Africa”, serving most of the landlocked countries of the Sub-Sahara African region, including Chad and the Central African Republic. Spread over several kilometers, the port has busy traffic with arriving and departing containers. Since virtually all the port’s operational processes are computerized, it is vital to have tight security in such an environment as well as to ensure uptime and performance of all IT infrastructure and network components. “With PRTG, we found a monitoring solution that can monitor all of our relevant systems and devices and provide each colleague with exactly the information they need – in a way that they can understand, whether they are IT experts or power technicians.” Bertin Pokaa – Maintenance Team Leader
Comprehensive network monitoring is certainly nothing new. Network monitoring of complex, large-scale infrastructures at the highest quality level is also standard for applications such as Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor.