SAN JOSE, Calif., November 14, 2007 - Cisco® today announced a new family of Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3000 Series Switches specifically designed for factory automation, intelligent transportation systems, energy and utility substations and other deployments in harsh environments. Based on open network and protocol standards, the Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3000 Series applies Cisco's proven market leadership in Ethernet switching technology to industrial Ethernet applications with high security, performance and advanced features optimized for rugged environments.
For real-time automation and traffic control, industrial networks demand optimized solutions including multicast filtering, custom quality-of-service (QoS) profiles, security policies and support for high-performance applications. The typical separation of industrial production and enterprise networks leads to silos in decision making, which is a significant issue for global companies endeavoring to maximize total returns on manufacturing and supply chain assets with minimum project risk.
Cisco also today announced the extension of its partnership with Rockwell Automation and that the two companies have collaborated on an industrial managed switch line. As part of Cisco's Ethernet to the Factory and the Rockwell Automation Integrated ArchitectureTM initiatives, this industrial managed switch product line is designed specifically for factory automation. Together the two companies are driving towards helping companies effectively transition from legacy, multiple-network environments to a single, open standard Ethernet network that integrates industrial production networks with the rest of the enterprise.
"Companies today are looking for ways to effectively integrate factory floor and IT environments in a single, highly secure network in order to gain real-time access to information and improve collaboration with partners and suppliers," said Dave Leonard, vice president of the Desktop Switching Business Unit at Cisco. "Successful business leaders know that automating and simplifying business and factory processes through the consistent use of open-standards Ethernet technology leads to cost savings, increased effectiveness and improved enterprise communication. The Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3000 Series makes this possible."
Complete the Transition to Internet Protocol with Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3000 Series
The Cisco Industrial Ethernet (IE) 3000 Series was built to provide customers with a ruggedized, easy-to-use, highly secure switching infrastructure necessary for the most demanding of environments. The Cisco IE 3000 Series supports up to 150 different port configurations for both copper and fiber Ethernet deployments, along with a variety of power inputs for varying environments. With compliance certifications for a wide range of applications requiring extended temperature, vibration, shock and surge-immunity ratings, the Cisco IE 3000 is an ideal solution for industrial automation, intelligent transportation systems, substations and other rugged environments.
The Cisco IE3000 Series provides express setup capabilities and templates that are optimized for industrial applications to greatly simplify configuration for customers. With security features such as Layer 1-4 Access Control Lists, support for authentication protocols including IEEE 802.1x and Network Admission Control plus multilevel password protection, the Cisco IE 3000 Series helps to ensure that only authorized users access and traffic the network. The Cisco IE 3000 Series can be replaced without requiring new software configuration using a SwapDrive feature that enables employees without information technology (IT) expertise to make quick and easy equipment replacements. With support for IEEE 1588, a timing protocol, the Cisco IE 3000 Series also provides nanosecond-level precision for high-performance applications and for root-cause analysis requiring high-speed data acquisition with time-stamping.
"Greater global visibility across the production process from the corporate network to the production floor is becoming important to our business," said Paula Ray, Project Manager - Global Data Network at Energizer. "We're pleased to see Cisco extend from the enterprise into the industrial Ethernet market and helping to change the market by delivering an end-to-end highly secure and easy-to-use solution based on open standards. The Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3000 Series is purpose-built for the production floor and will help us to optimize our industrial control systems."
Cisco Extends Its Partnership with Rockwell Automation
Building upon its strong and collaborative partnership since 2003, Cisco announced that Rockwell Automation is a Cisco Industry Solutions Developer Program partner. The two companies also announced collaborating on an industrial managed switch line that is detailed in Rockwell Automation's press release "Rockwell Automation Enters Industrial Ethernet Switch Market, Introduces Full Portfolio of Switches and Infrastructure Products" at http://www.rockwellautomation.com/news/index.html. Together, these initiatives mark a significant milestone in advancing the Ethernet to the Factory initiative that helps manufacturers to successfully implement standard networking technologies in automation networks and provide highly secure connections to the rest of the enterprise.
"Our mutual customers have asked Cisco and Rockwell Automaton to combine the best of both companies to help IT and Controls professionals deploy standard Ethernet and IP throughout their enterprise, including the manufacturing environment," said Steve Eisenbrown, senior vice president, Architecture and Software, Rockwell Automation. "The new products from Cisco and Rockwell Automation uniquely deliver premier integration in both company's architectures, enabling IT and controls professionals to address today's business challenges with greater efficiency, outstanding technology, and the ability to innovate."
The Cisco Industry Solutions Developer Program enhances and unites the comprehensive Cisco technology portfolio with industry-relevant products that feature verified interoperability. This invitation-only program includes companies that hold a market leadership position, use Cisco technology, and share Cisco's strong commitment to customer service and open standards.
Today's announcements are a natural extension of the earlier-announced Cisco and Rockwell Automation collaboration on developing reference architectures that use standard networking technologies such as EtherNet/IP and on providing market education to bridge automation and control management with IT for enterprise-wide business. This collaboration has resulted in the recent publication of the Cisco and Rockwell Automation Design and Implementation Guide (http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/manufacturing/ettf_overview.html).
Pricing and Expected Availability
The Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3000 Series is scheduled to be available in the second quarter of the calendar year 2008 in a range of configurations.
