Cisco has been a prominent supporter of the Rockwell Automation Fair for a number of years. The relationship has grown over time to one where both Rockwell and Cisco collaborate on developing software, solutions and products for a wide range of both IT and OT (Operational Technologies) functions within industrial and other customers.

Recently Cisco showed off some of the technologies in the oil and gas space, andAhmed Farrag, Business Development Director from Cisco,talks about Cisco's presence at the show in the following video.

Ahmed talks about Oil and Gas as one of Cisco's key focus industries. He mentions the huge demand increases we've seen over the past few years.

That's all changing right now.

The price of oil has plummeted to half what it was only a few months ago. With China slowing, parts of Europe close to another downturn, and oil now gushing following the huge investments that have been made in fracking and tar sands in the US, some say we have too much oil right now. Some companies are going to be worried about margins and future investments. So what's the future?

The show's title gives us a clue. Just as automation has helped 'onshore' manufacturing back to the US in many cases, automation will reduce costs over the longer term. And many processes and practices in the oil and gas industries are ripe for Automation. Blair Christie, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Cisco, showed a chart at a recent press review (The Internet of Everything Changes Everything -The Future of Work) that highlights that the oil and gas industry is, perhaps, the most likely industry to benefit from the Internet of Everything and automation (slide 12):

That chart holds the key to the future of the Oil and Gas industry.

With the advances that have already been made (and those yet to come) in the field of automation, along with rapid progress in collaboration and communications  technologies between workers and companies, one of the keys to profits will be enabling lower costs and higher efficiencies. Cisco and it's partners are leading the charge.

You can read more about Cisco in oil and gas here: Cisco Industry Solutions: Oil and Gas. there you'll find:

• Real-Time Analytics for Oil and Gas with Cisco SAP HANA (PDF -836 KB) Manage exploration and operations costs by gathering real-time data and analytics with SAP HANA and Cisco UCS.
• Cisco Connected Pipelines for Oil and Gas At-A-Glance (PDF -1.14 MB) Prevent pipeline accidents, sabotage and thefts, and deploy proactive, intelligent pipeline management capabilities enabling Third Party Intrusion and Leak Detection Systems over fiber networks.
• Cisco Field Expert Collaboration for Oil and Gas At-A-Glance (PDF -1.44 MB) Get immediate, face-to-face access to experts with on-demand video and communications tools.
• Cisco Wireless Refinery Solutions for Oil and Gas At-A-Glance (PDF -1.13 MB) Gain real-time visibility and access to sensor-level information to efficiently manage refinery sites.

...along with two of the newest solutions:

Collaborative Operations Solution:Delivering real-time information and visuals to promote informed decision making, increase on-site safety, and reduce flat time, and the Cisco Secure Ops Solution: learn how to more effectively manage cyber security risk and compliance requirements in your industrial automation environments. Protect against risks, improve efficiency, and reduce site downtime.

Watch out for more ways Cisco is helping oil and gas customers to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and help companies get to first oil faster with lower risk.