Cisco is Downstream!

Coming up in Galveston, Texas on May 31-June 1, 2018 at the Galveston Island Convention Center is the Downstream Conference & Exhibition.  This event is positioned at the forefront of the booming Downstream industry in North America, and is regarded as the most significant meeting place for Downstream Capital Project, Engineering, Maintenance, Reliability & Turnaround professionals, and is where they meet to do business.

The Downstream convention has fast become a next generation energy event, hosting major Integrated and independent Downstream energy companies, global EPC contractors, technology providers, and service companies all of whom play an active role in the global Downstream industry.  Read on to see how Cisco partners with key customers in this space, and our role in multiple speaking sessions at the event.

Cisco offers a broad range of industrial networking, network security, and data management solutions for industrial customers, including solutions for the Oil and Gas industry to help make operations safe, reliable, more efficient, and secure.  Our solutions help Oil and Gas customers improve operations by monitoring and optimizing oil and gas assets and production, from the enterprise to the well, the refinery to the smart station.  We help reduce risk by improving incident prevention, worker safety, industrial IoT security, supply chain integrity, and regulatory compliance.  And Cisco also helps innovate, by lowering costs through IT and operational technology (OT) network automation.

Come see Cisco’s Rik Irons-McLean talk through some of these key topics on Day 1, May 31 at 11:15AM when he gives a keynote speaking session on, “Leveraging Technology for Practical Digital Transformation in a Changing Plant Environment”.  Rik is the Industry Principal for Oil & Gas at Cisco.  He has worked at Cisco for eleven years, with lead roles in IoT/IIoT and security in energy and process industries, specializing in new and emerging technology adoption.
Rik has worked in standards bodies/consortia including Open Process Automation, IEC61850, IEC62351, and been UK Cigre SCD2 Lead.  He has also written for industry publications, and authored a number of white papers and a book on advanced security for IoT/IIoT.  Rik holds a Bachelor’s Degree, an MBA, and is studying for a Doctorate in Cyber Security.

Rik’s session will focus on technology trends, technology investments, and business impact.  He will also discuss digital transformation and data-driven decisions, and more specifically; Does a wealth of new data equate to successful operational change?  Rik will also cover how you might leverage technology to transform data into real business use cases, along with practical steps to extract and use what you need in the plant.  He will also cover a key customer example: real-time mobile gas detection and monitoring with plant-wide heatmaps, business intelligence, and predictive analytics.

On Day 2 at 2:15PM, come see Fazil Osman, Product Manager – Oil and Gas, Cisco participate in a panel session titled, “Digitalization and Innovative Technologies – How to create value and avoid over complication – Panel”.    Few disagree that digitalization and innovative technologies are key to reducing costs long-term, but deciding where to invest remains a critical question.  Listen to discussions regarding potential methodologies to help define a digital roadmap and begin the process of modernizing your processes and activities.  Hear ideas and examples of how to select, test and evaluate the effectiveness of new innovations at your plant.

Fazil Osman is a senior technology professional with broad industry experience in medical products, petroleum & energy, insurance, hardware & software, manufacturing, and aerospace.  He provides technology leadership for account teams and engages customers at every level of the organization.

Also on Day 2, at 10:40AM see Jared Carter, Energy Industry Lead from Cisco host a session titled: “Cisco Kinetic IoT Platform for the Connected Refinery and Processing Plant – Gas detection use case Demo”.  He will discuss the benefits of a new data management solution which provides quantifiable benefits including annual savings based on reduction in timekeepers, improved contractor productivity, and early start of hot work.  The solution capabilities include Wireless personnel location tracking, with mobile 4-way gas detectors for engineers, combined with fixed-location detectors, and real-time gas monitoring and detection risk mapping viewable by operations, maintenance, and safety teams.  He will also cover historical analysis for gas leak prediction and automated evacuation route planning and muster points.  The benefits of the solution will also be covered, including operational cost savings: Elimination of significant gas testing effort for hot work , Time savings: Removal of gas testing activities results in higher wrench time for contractors, and improved Safety: Allows tracking of individuals, especially during turnaround.

Working for Cisco’s Industry Solutions Group, Jared Carter helps Energy customers understand and apply solutions to address their most important business challenges.  Jared joined Cisco in 2005 and holds the industry’s most respected technical certification (CCIE #12375).  In his 17+ years in IT networking he has designed, built, and now helped customers deploy secure IT and operational networks for power substations and distribution automation, plant floor automation and control, and for core IP wide-area networks.

Looking to digitally transform your operations?  Come see these sessions.  Full session info can be found <here>.