VentureBeat not too long ago spoke with Friedemann Kurz, Head of IT for Porsche Motorsport, whose decades-long experiences place him as a frontrunner in mixing know-how with high-stakes racing.
Kurz oversees the TAG Heuer Porsche Formulation E Group’s IT operations, protecting all the pieces from race-time information administration to cybersecurity and logistics. His position is essential in retaining Porsche’s motorsport know-how resilient and agile, guaranteeing a seamless stream of knowledge that helps strategic race selections and upholds Porsche’s repute for innovation.
Formulation E’s distinctive format, with 16 races held throughout 10 cities worldwide, calls for a versatile IT framework. Kurz’s workforce should rapidly deploy a safe, high-performance community at every location, dealing with the pressures of reside information switch that informs race technique and diagnostics in real-time. At speeds reaching 320 km/h, these networks are vital for sustaining a aggressive edge for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formulation E Group and supply a mannequin for adaptable, safe IT infrastructure that might profit any enterprise with a necessity for speedy world scalability.
To satisfy safety and networking calls for, the TAG Heuer Porsche Formulation E Group has partnered with CATO Networks since 2023 to effectively join and safe pit crews, information facilities, cellular customers, cloud assets and operational websites.
Beneath are excerpts from our current interview with Kurz:
VentureBeat: May you begin by explaining your position at Porsche Motorsport and the way cybersecurity aligns along with your operations?
Kurz: As Head of IT for Porsche Motorsport, I oversee all the pieces from digital infrastructure and information administration to cybersecurity and efficiency optimization. Information is a vital aggressive asset for us, driving selections on race technique and automobile diagnostics. Cybersecurity is crucial in defending this information stream, enabling our workforce to make real-time, knowledgeable selections with out interruption or compromise. Our focus is on guaranteeing information integrity, even below intense race-day stress.
VB: Formulation E is thought for its demanding, fast-paced schedule. May you elaborate on the distinctive IT challenges that include managing safe, real-time information stream on this atmosphere?
Kurz: Formulation E’s world circuit implies that we transfer between 10 cities for 16 races in a single season, every with totally different regulatory, bandwidth, and logistical constraints. We function with strict bandwidth limitations—solely 50 Mbps is shared throughout all purposes. This requires us to prioritize bandwidth-heavy purposes like telemetry and communications. We’ve only one IT employees member on-site, so the infrastructure setup needs to be safe, environment friendly and simply deployable. CATO Networks permits speedy configuration and ensures a secure, encrypted connection in various environments, permitting us to adapt rapidly to every location’s distinctive circumstances.
VB: How does real-time information administration combine into TAG Heuer Porsche Formulation E Group’s race technique, and what position does safety play?
Kurz: Actual-time information, akin to tire temperatures and power utilization, is crucial for making strategic changes through the race. This information helps us react in real-time, which is important in a sport the place milliseconds could make all of the distinction. CATO Networks offers safety for us, which is embedded in each facet of our IT setup. We will’t afford information delays or integrity points; they might disrupt our complete race technique. Our focus is on offering seamless, safe information stream so our workforce can focus on strategic selections with out worrying about vulnerabilities.
VB: You talked about the significance of a light-weight infrastructure. How does this affect your know-how selections?
Kurz: Weight and area are vital elements for us. Formulation E’s format limits what we will deliver to every location, which led us to eradicate cumbersome server racks. Once we began investigating for an answer, CATO was the one platform that’s streamlined. Our CATO Socket is an SD-WAN machine, which you’ll be able to evaluate with the router you utilize at house. You plug that in on the racetrack, regardless of the place you’re at on the planet, and we will handle it from our headquarters in Weissach. This light-weight setup helps us save on transportation prices and reduces emissions. CATO Networks give us flexibility and guarantee efficiency whereas retaining our bodily footprint minimal. This strategy reveals that agility and safety can coexist, even in a high-demand, high-stakes atmosphere.
VB: Transferring throughout worldwide borders, how do native rules influence your community and cybersecurity posture?
Kurz: Every nation has its personal information privateness legal guidelines and community restrictions, which provides complexity. It’s important for us to remain vigilant about native rules to make sure seamless information stream and uninterrupted communication, particularly in mission-critical race conditions. CATO Networks helps handle this by adjusting to native community constraints mechanically with their PoPs (Factors of Presence), sustaining a safe baseline with out compromising compliance.
Supply: TAG Heuer Porsche Formulation E Group
VB: Actual-time operations are essential in Formulation E. How does TAG Heuer Porsche Formulation E Group deal with anomalies and potential safety threats throughout races?
Kurz: Normally, what’s occurring with the CATO resolution is that each unusual conduct that’s thought of an actual risk is dealt with the identical manner. There’s a story created. There are all of the IP addresses and computer systems that had been affected. Every thing is logged in a manner that’s simple to grasp. Based mostly on that, we will react and act rapidly as a result of we have already got the data in a single console. In case it seems like a significant risk, we will additionally embody the consultants from CATO. With the ability to establish and reply immediately is vital, as we function in a high-stakes atmosphere the place each millisecond issues. Actual-time detection and response are elementary to each our safety and total race efficiency.
VB: Past predictive analytics, are there particular areas the place you see AI and machine studying enhancing your aggressive edge or optimizing race-day operations?
Kurz: Completely. AI and machine studying aren’t only for information evaluation; we’re exploring their potential in automating repetitive processes, akin to monitoring community well being and prioritizing information flows. On race day, as an example, AI might dynamically reallocate bandwidth to vital telemetry information if there’s a surge in demand. We’re additionally machine studying fashions that might refine our power administration methods, serving to us alter automobile settings based mostly on real-time observe and environmental circumstances. The objective is to make use of AI for in-the-moment changes that instantly influence race outcomes.
VB: How do you handle the fixed technological evolution in motorsport and determine when to undertake new instruments or methodologies?
Kurz: We take an iterative, metrics-driven strategy to adopting new know-how. Selections are based mostly on race efficiency and post-race evaluation. Each season, we assessment our tech stack and consider potential upgrades. Nevertheless, we’re very selective; any new know-how should combine seamlessly with our present techniques and ship measurable enhancements in efficiency or safety. For IT leaders, balancing confirmed reliability with innovation is vital, particularly in a fast-evolving subject. With CATO as one in every of our trusted companions, we observe the rules of motorsport generally. We search for concepts on how issues could possibly be extra environment friendly, extra sturdy, quicker and faster. If we discover one thing in our each day operation or within the configuration of the product, we all the time instantly handle it with CATO. It’s very particular as a result of they’re versatile and agile on requests from the TAG Heuer Porsche Formulation E Group.
VB: Many groups rely closely on cloud and edge computing, however safety is commonly a priority. How does the workforce stability edge computing wants with community safety?
Kurz: Within the areas the place we’re racing, there’s a CATO PoP. As quickly as we join the CATO Socket to the general public web, the native PoP is related. Every thing is end-to-end and encrypted within the tunnel. There’s the information switch between the PoP on the racetrack and the PoP closest to our headquarters in Weissach. All of that’s completed by CATO and it’s tremendously quicker than going by the general public web. I’d say for race operations, that’s the largest profit we’re reaching.
VB: Many organizations face related challenges as they increase globally. What broader classes might different industries take from TAG Heuer Porsche Formulation E Group’s cybersecurity strategy?
Kurz: Agility and safety have to go hand-in-hand, significantly when scaling operations or getting into new markets. We’ve discovered that light-weight, versatile infrastructure—particularly cloud-native options—can streamline operations with out sacrificing safety. Enterprises in any sector can profit from specializing in applied sciences that present scalability and effectivity, guaranteeing safety doesn’t compromise agility.
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