Bringing AI and Cybersecurity to the Industrial Edge | Siemens, Nvidia & Palo Alto Networks

Siemens, Nvidia, and Palo Alto Networks experts come together to discuss how AI-ready infrastructure and integrated cybersecurity are being brought directly to industrial operations and the shop floor. In this panel discussion, Alexander Hubert from Siemens, Arik Roztal from Nvidia, and Dharminder Debisarun from Palo Alto Networks explore how the Industrial Automation Data Center serves as the foundational platform for deploying AI and cybersecurity capabilities at the edge. The conversation covers how this on-premise system integrates virtualization, data storage, backup and recovery, and cybersecurity into a single, pre-configured environment built for industrial conditions. Arik Roztal from Nvidia explains how the BlueField Data Processing Unit (DPU) enables offloading, acceleration, and isolation at the network level, gathering data from edge devices to support both security and operational functions. Dharmendra Debisarun from Palo Alto Networks describes how the company's Prisma Iris solution is integrated directly onto the DPU card, removing the need to consume CPU cycles for security tasks. This approach addresses one of the core challenges in OT environments — latency sensitivity — while also enabling host-based isolation and encryption capabilities that were previously impractical in operational technology settings. Alexander Huber from Siemens presents three concrete use cases. The first is the AI Manufacturing Assistant, which has been implemented in pharmaceutical environments including with Bayer, delivering measurable improvements in drug production speed, quality, and audit processes. The second addresses OT cybersecurity, including granular protocol control and AI-enabled threat signatures. The third is the digital twin, which uses real-time telemetry data gathered from edge devices to enable testing, validation, and simulation in a live environment. The panel emphasizes that these capabilities represent an integrated, validated solution across all three organizations, with full visibility across both IT and OT environments to address threats that often originate in IT and move into OT. This panel was recorded at Hannover Mesee 2026.