For some time, industrial manufacturing companies have been looking for ways to bring together the seemingly divergent needs of enterprise networking systems and the real-time requirements of plant floor communications systems. While it’s hard enough to bridge these technologies from an engineering standpoint, finding the people with the crossover training and expertise to understand the needs of these two areas of networking is even more difficult. With the convergence of enterprise and industrial networking systems taking on an ever-increasing role in today’s “Internet of Things” (IOT), the demand for this technology has been growing faster than the supply of people technically qualified to design, build and maintain these integrated networking systems.
Last year, Rockwell Automation and Cisco Systems combined their resources to create an educational program called “Managing Industrial Networks with Cisco Networking Technologies,” along with a Cisco Industrial Networking Specialist (IMINS) certification. The entry-level course provides the foundational skills needed to manage and administer networked, industrial control systems.