Nutthapat Matphongtavorn/Shutterstock.com Secure to the Core Figure 1: Emerson's edge controllers have been designed for data-driven digital manufacturing. (Photo: Emerson) O Motion Design, April 2022 perational Technology (OT) networks are historically " air-gapped " from the rest of the networked world. But pressure is mounting for manufacturers to leverage real-time data exchanges from outside their controlled environments to increase productivity and efficiency. One major concern for manufacturers is how safe and secure it is to open the OT network's doors to the internet. This is forcing change in the control domain. Edge controllers are being proposed as the new programmable logic controllers (PLC), with the ability to merge OT and IT domains in a single device in an operationally safe and data-secure way. PLCs have been evolving. This is partly due to the IoT but also a natural development. They are now more complex and capable, and at their core they may look very different to PLCs of yesterday. Functionally they can do more, and this is reflected in their underlying architecture. 5 MD Automation Control Feature 2 0422_1.indd 5 Cov ToC 3/14/22 3:30 PMhttp://info.hotims.com/82320-844 http://info.hotims.com/82320-844