Virtualization of Firewalls into the substation environment

Speaker(s)

Utility Member

Duston Denver

SCADA & Field Network Administrator

Consumers Power Inc.

Vendor Member

Mitch Simcoe

Director, Solution Marketing

CIENA

Description

Over the last decade, enterprise networking has experienced a key paradigm shift with the transition from the deployment of physical network appliances that host specific network functions to the virtualization of those network functions or Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).  This is particularly of value for the utility segment that have many distributed office and substation locations and for applications such as security which require numerous updates.

This session will discuss the benefits of virtualization for the utility segment which include:

Flexibility to meet ever-changing business requirements:

• Add applications or exchange for newer technologies without additional capital equipment investment
• Reduce opex for adding network functions or making updates to existing functions because truck rolls and physical installation are not required to install a new network function
• Reduce space and power at locations that have these constraints

Duston Denver from Consumers Power, Inc (Oregon) will share their companies’ rationale and plans for introducing virtualization of firewalls into their substation environment.