Cisco on Tuesday published its inaugural State of Industrial Networking Report, which shows that cybersecurity and artificial intelligence are top investment areas for industrial organizations.
The report is based on a survey of 1,000 individuals working for companies across 17 countries. The respondents represent organizations in 20 sectors, including manufacturing, energy, utilities and transportation.
According to Cisco, 89% of respondents said cybersecurity compliance is very or extremely important.
Cybersecurity risks have been cited as the main internal barrier to growth, as well as one of the top obstacles when it comes to external growth barriers.
Industrial organizations worldwide have recognized the need to invest in operational technology (OT), with more than 60% of respondents saying that they have increased spending over the past year.
When asked about the areas of investment, the highest percentage, 31%, named AI-enabled devices, followed by cybersecurity solutions at 30%.
AI and cybersecurity are also at the top both in terms of spending priorities and emerging technologies.
Cybersecurity has been cited by 39% of respondents as the main challenge when trying to run and maintain industrial infrastructure. Specifically, the main issues are vulnerabilities in legacy systems, malware attacks targeting ICS and other OT systems, and insider threats.
While many organizations recognize the importance of IT and OT teams working together on cybersecurity, 41% of respondents admitted that IT and OT teams currently work independently on cybersecurity.
This is one of the issues that may be solved by AI, with 46% of respondents believing the deployment of AI will lead to increased collaboration between IT and OT. AI is also believed by nearly half of respondents to help improve network management across IT and OT.
AI is also expected to lead to enhanced reliability and cybersecurity requirements, according to 44% of respondents.
“Innovative OT leaders are embracing AI to differentiate their firms; delivering higher quality products quicker. Organizations who fail to refresh their industrial networking infrastructure for AI in order to optimize efficiency, harness data for AI models, support over-stretched employees, and defend against damaging cyberattacks, will struggle to compete,” Cisco said in its report.
Cisco’s full 2024 State of Industrial Networking Report is available in PDF format.
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