Manufacturing

Transforming into a data-driven company

The design and manufacture of injection molding machines is the epitome of a physical business. Engel, a world leader in the field, has more than 75 years' experience creating machinery for the automotive, packaging, electronics, and MedTech industries. This machinery produces the everyday components of modern life, from wing mirrors to toothbrushes to ventilation masks.

Engel's output may be physical, but the way the business operates is becoming increasingly digital. The Austrian company has connected production facilities in Europe, Asia, and North America; there are 11 global technology centers to explore innovation, and 70 application engineers to work alongside customers.

"We're changing from a machine manufacturing company to a software company to a data-driven company," says Christoph Schoenegger, Engel's head of IT platforms and operations. "In the past, our machines produced data, but we never did anything with it. Today, our focus is Industry 4.0 and exploring the range of possibilities within our data. And if we are a data-driven company, we need to be a security company."

IT platforms and operations are more critical than ever before. Engel wants to collect, store, and share its global data, making data available to its product design, sales, and marketing teams. It also wants to integrate more tightly with its key customers.

"Data is a competitive advantage. We can use data to better support our customers," he says. "It will inform new products and services."

Engel recognizes that the collection and sharing of data must be tightly governed. Security is paramount: the business invests EUR €70 million in research and development each year and doesn't want to lose its valuable IP. The business wants to enable global teams to collaborate but understands network access must be secure; service levels must be consistent in all regions, and there must be global visibility of network activity.

"We make high-tech solutions for some of the world's biggest manufacturers. Our research and development are our USP," says Arnold Hofer, Head of Information Security, Engel. "We're also increasingly integrated with our customers. Their data can be confidential. We are required to demonstrate we are secure."

Data driven security infrastructure at Cisco Live EMEA 2024 with Christoph Shoenegger, VP IT & Operations for Engel

Next level security with a managed service

To enable Engel to accelerate its data-driven transformation, Cisco delivers a managed security service. This brings together Cisco cybersecurity expertise with a suite of Cisco products to provide a comprehensive solution, spanning the client, network, perimeter, and operations layers. It is a marked departure for Engel, which has traditionally favored developing its own solutions wherever possible.

"We recognized that we didn't have the resources to manage InfoSec ourselves," says Manfred Rührnessel, Head of IT Infrastructure Services, Engel. "It was clear we needed to work with a professional security services team. Cisco offered a 'best of suite' approach, where the different security products worked together. As a platform, there is great integration between the Cisco products."

The Cisco service includes a Security Operations Center and a Network Operations Center. It uses Cisco Identity Services Engine and Secure Firewall Management Center, among others. The managed service, co-designed by Cisco and Engel, has a five-year Enterprise License Agreement (ELA).

"We always took security seriously, but the engagement with Cisco takes us to the next level," says Hofer. "This creates a customized platform that reflects the unique security challenges we face."

The service relieves much of the burden of security operations from Engel but does not hand over security matters entirely. The Engel in-house team continues to use Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Endpoint Security Analytics, and Cisco Secure Network Analytics to deal with immediate threats. Cisco proactively takes care of false positives and low-level incidents and sends only enriched information on bigger issues to Engel's security team. These are then dealt with and analyzed in-house. Cisco Talos has also been brought in to identify new and emerging threats.

"We continue to work tightly together," says Hofer. "The enriched tickets mean we're only involved in the most significant threats."

Refined security focus eliminates network downtime

It can be difficult to prove value in security investments, but over the past year Engel has reported no network downtime. Despite the network having to support a business that is more global and mobile, there have been no occasions where security incidents have impacted production or disrupted supply chains.

"Of course, there is no glory in prevention. People only shout when something goes wrong," says Rührnessel. "But we are now capable of demonstrating to senior management the scale of the continued threats to the business."

In the last 12 months alone, Cisco has dealt with more than 10,000 threats, passing on less than 1300 incidents to the Engel team. "There is no way we could have managed this ourselves," Rührnessel continues. "We are a machine manufacturer. We have to focus on our core competency."

Where there have been issues—a suspected malware breach in China that became evident on a Friday afternoon—the Cisco Talos team in Europe was able to hand off the situation to colleagues in the U.S. A threat analysis and fix were in place by Monday morning.

The service comes with 160 hours of Talos support each year. If this isn't used on reactive issues, Engel challenges Talos to suggest solutions to simulated threats. Talos is currently working on a response to an imaginary breakout in December 2023.

"No doubt we are a special customer with special security demands," says Rührnessel. "The value of the engagement is that Cisco has expert advice on all scenarios, from our production environment to customer integration to the unique behaviors of our developer teams. Cisco is enabling us to educate and grow. Good things happen when you work together for a long time."