Industrial Cybersecurity

As we enter the era of IoT (Internet of Things), cyberattacks in industrial appliances are on the rise. Cybersecurity has become a central concern amongst industrial automation and control system users and vendors. While IoT brings tremendous convenience and valuable insights to help optimize business operations, fast-growing numbers of connected devices also create possible vulnerabilities where data could be stolen or misused. As enterprises strive to regulate their increasingly complex networks, the ability to ensure cybersecurity compliance and data protection has never been more important.

Axiomtek provides a wide range of network appliances featuring high-performance processors, rich interfaces, multiple communication options and flexibility for versatile security gateway applications. Our network appliances are designed for network security OEMs/ODMs, medium to large data centers and cybersecurity system integrators. They can support manufacturing or logistics operations and are an ideal solution for applications that require scalable, reliable, customizable servers and appliances.

Modular Network Appliance for IT & OT Uses

The iNA600 is created especially for applications such as edge AI inference, cybersecurity and function virtualization. The iNA600 can handle large data transitions with computing acceleration. With its modular design, it is highly flexible and can be easily integrated into existing or new networks. The iNA600 is well equipped with many desirable features, i.e., built-in 16-port Layer 2 managed switch, two DDR4-2666 U-DIMMs for up to 32GB of non-ECC/ECC memory and NVIDIA® MXM GPU card and Intel® Movidius™ M.2 VPU card support to boost the performance of various workloads. The system is scalable, with options of Intel® Core™ i9/i7/i5/i3 or Xeon® processor. It can withstand harsh operating environments with a wide operating temperature range of -20°C to 60°C and offers a 24V DC terminal block power input.

Rugged Ethernet Gateway for Non-Stop Data Center Security

The iNA100 has four 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN ports, sufficient storage and high expandability making it suitable for use in industrial cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection and other OT security fields. It is powered by the Intel® Atom® processor x5-E3930. It has one DDR3L-1866 SO-DIMM slot for up to 8GB of non-ECC/ECC memory. This fanless IIoT edge computing platform enables a wide array of uCPE (Universal Customer Premises Equipment) applications, including VPN, firewall, gateway, SD-WAN and vCPE. The iNA100 enables enterprises to strengthen the security of their networks against emerging threats, from the data center to the edge.

Security Gateway for Small and Home Offices

A surge in work-from-home activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many security issues for small and home office users. The NA347 security gateway is ideal for installation into narrow, space-constraint environments, for instance, the open-plan office or business with a small workplace. This ultra-small desktop network appliance is powered by the Intel® Celeron® processor N3350. It also offers one full-size PCI Express Mini Card slot with PCIe/USB signal support and one Nano SIM socket for expansion interfaces. A surge in work-from-home activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many security issues for small and home office users. The NA347 security gateway is ideal for installation into narrow, space-constraint environments, for instance, the open-plan office or business with a small workplace. This ultra-small desktop network appliance is powered by the Intel® Celeron® processor N3350. It also offers one full-size PCI Express Mini Card slot with PCIe/USB signal support and one Nano SIM socket for expansion interfaces.

 

Network Appliances of the Next Generation

With experts on board and know-how in-house, Axiomtek’s Network Appliance (NA) team has been dedicated to designing a wide range of network appliances incorporating cost-effective desktops with onboard multi-processors, various LAN modules and redundant power supplies to ensure data security for a vat of applications over networks.

Software Defined Networking (SDN)

In the world of networking, software-defined networking (SDN) is a newly emerging approach to networking, using software to optimize network resources and quickly adapt networks to changing business. It works by separating the control plane from the data plane, creating software programmable infrastructure that is independent of physical devices.

Retrospectively, the traditional network has been living in a world of purpose-built systems for 30-plus years. Over the years, however, tremendous innovation on devices used to access networks has kept injecting fuels and ideas to network architecture, impacting positively the computing and storage solutions we rely on to hold the “big data”. Changing the game by moving the focus to software and application ecosystem, SDN is getting increasingly popular today as it proposes the split of the intelligence of the switch/router from the packet forwarding engine, hence improving efficiency and throughput.

Cloud Computing with NA and SDN2

Under SDN network architecture, a huge number of applications can be deployed, such as network virtualization, firewall protection, intrusion detection, load balancing, among many other possibilities. For example, upon recognition of malware, an SDN-based application can send an alert to MIS and separate the packets before they impact the network.

Specifically, SDN has become the key to building networks, just to name a few factors, SDN can: enable organizations to create new types of applications, services and business models; help create new revenue-generating services; reduce capital expenses by allowing network functions to run on off-the-shelf hardware; reduce operation expenses by supporting automation and algorithm control through increased programmability of network elements, making it simpler to design, deploy, manage and scale networks; and finally, with agility and flexibility, help organizations rapidly deploy new applications, services and infrastructure to quickly meet their changing requirements.

Based on RFC 2544 benchmarking methodology, a system deploying SDN on Axiomtek’s Network Appliance NA580 has been put under test. The outcome of the system throughput was incredibly encouraging with SDN versus without.

Throughput testing results

In conclusion, as shown in the result, it is obvious that through the SDN, network throughput has been improved to an impressive degree. As big data and cloud computing has been vital to modern society, speeding up the computing performance over network through software has been a key milestone in technology breakthrough. At Axiomtek, our NA team is here to continue to verify our new NA products conforming to SDN protocol; confidently, customers can definitely count on us for Axiomtek’s cutting-edge NA series to suit their demands within their budgets.