Our inaugural TBE Show will be held at Bath Racecourse on Thursday 12th September 2024.
The Show will be an opportunity for our community of followers across Bath & Somerset and Swindon & Wiltshire to showcase what they do, connect with new people and learn new things to nurture business growth.
One of our Seminars, Converged and Connected – Industry 4.0, will be hosted by Peter Clapton, CEO of Vysiion.
The company designs, delivers, and supports end-to-end solutions and resilient infrastructure within the defence, utility, blue light and public sectors.
Peter’s thought-provoking talk will be relevant to any organisation looking to preserve the integrity of their operationally critical technology assets and systems in an increasingly connected world.
We caught up with him ahead of the TBE Show to find out a bit more…
Can you tell us a bit about what a fully connected UK economy is?
A fully connected UK economy is where previously disparate information in the form of data, is shared by private and public organisations, intelligently assimilated and disseminated, improving the speed and accuracy of decisions, positively impacting our collective prosperity.
As more businesses undergo deeper digital transformation, what are some of the common pitfalls?
Digital transformation is about perpetual change, ensuring a business has the right technology platforms to sweat their data assets, and in doing so optimise performance.
There should be a plan, but it needs to be agile and have purpose, objectives and measurable outcomes. The challenge for most is entrusting your data to a technology platform that you might not own or is influenced by the performance of a third-party software vendor, whilst at the same time, remaining accountable for the integrity and security of critical business systems, and ensuring that your digital transformation is correctly paced to be both proportionate and appropriate for your business.
Is digital transformation an ongoing process? What might it look like in 10 years’ time?
Digital transformation is iterative. The volume and speed data is assimilated and disseminated is increasing, as is the reliance on technology controlled by this data, to perform or contribute to ever-increasing critical tasks.
Quantum computing is the next big step. Once more widely available, it will significantly increase the ability and speed of processing and, more importantly, validating data.
What does a cyber attack look like today?
Cyber attacks come in many guises. The biggest fear is a ransomware attack targeting one of the most valuable assets a business will have outside of its employees – its data. The objective of the attack is to impede access or corrupt or inappropriately share business-critical information with the potential for a significant financial loss.
Within industry, the attack will be intended to stop production, disrupt logistics, or damage high-value assets, the ramifications of which can include a safety and welfare risk, for staff and customers.
What can be done to avoid a cyber-attack?
The first consideration for any business is to ensure there is a good communication and training plan for staff, alerting them to the risks and improving awareness, and ensuring a strong security culture across the business.
On the IT side, you need to ensure that the IT platforms, devices, and software used by the business are regularly patched and updated, and that critical data and systems are backed up and regularly tested. Regular PEN testing by a certified cyber organisation will flag vulnerabilities and allow for prioritised and targeted investment to mitigate against them.
In terms of industrial systems and the operational technologies used to control and automate critical processes, these assets need to be audited and proactively monitored for cyber threats.
As the line between OT and IT systems blurs, the ability for a cyber attack to impact production or delivery of a service will significantly increase unless appropriate action is taken.
What can people expect from your seminar? Who is it aimed at and why is it important?
The seminar provides an insight into the benefits and drivers behind industry 4.0 and a more connected society. Likewise, the considerations needed and potential impact, as we increase our reliance on technology to influence and make faster, better, and more critical decisions on our behalf.
The seminar is aimed at everyone, as invested stakeholders in ensuring the improved and sustainable prosperity of the UK economy.
What are you looking forward to about the TBE Show in general?
Meeting people from the local business community who share similar objectives and ambitions, and having the opportunity to provide an interesting insight into an area of technology that is increasingly topical.
Converged and Connected – Industry 4.0
As organisations become increasingly reliant on data, ML, and AI to make real time operational decisions and benefit from increased efficiency in how they deliver their products or services, what should they be considering as they converge previously disparate IT platforms that process data, with Operational Technology (OT) assets that control machines, plant, and what can be a critical process.
Thought-provoking, and relevant to any business, or operator of an essential service looking to preserve the integrity of their operationally critical OT assets and systems ,as they become increasingly “connected” and with it, vulnerable to a cyber attack.
Using their experience within the utility, renewable energy, defence, and industrial sector, Vysiion will provide an insight into one of the more topical challenges associated with the build of a fully connected (IoT), UK economy.
