TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Staff turns safety into velocity

VentureBeat lately 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 Method E Staff’s IT operations, masking every little thing from race-time knowledge administration to cybersecurity and logistics. His position is essential in protecting Porsche’s motorsport know-how resilient and agile, making certain a seamless stream of knowledge that helps strategic race selections and upholds Porsche’s repute for innovation.

Method E’s distinctive format, with 16 races held throughout 10 cities worldwide, calls for a versatile IT framework. Kurz’s workforce should shortly deploy a safe, high-performance community at every location, dealing with the pressures of stay knowledge switch that informs race technique and diagnostics in real-time. At speeds reaching 320 km/h, these networks are essential for sustaining a aggressive edge for the TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Staff and supply a mannequin for adaptable, safe IT infrastructure that might profit any enterprise with a necessity for fast world scalability.

To satisfy safety and networking calls for, the TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Staff has partnered with CATO Networks since 2023 to effectively join and safe pit crews, knowledge facilities, cell customers, cloud sources and operational websites.

Under are excerpts from our latest interview with Kurz:

VentureBeat: Might 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 every little thing from digital infrastructure and knowledge administration to cybersecurity and efficiency optimization. Knowledge is a essential aggressive asset for us, driving selections on race technique and automobile diagnostics. Cybersecurity is important in defending this knowledge stream, enabling our workforce to make real-time, knowledgeable selections with out interruption or compromise. Our focus is on making certain knowledge integrity, even underneath intense race-day stress.

VB: Method E is understood for its demanding, fast-paced schedule. Might you elaborate on the distinctive IT challenges that include managing safe, real-time knowledge stream on this surroundings?

Kurz: Method E’s world circuit signifies that we transfer between 10 cities for 16 races in a single season, every with completely 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 now have only one IT employees member on-site, so the infrastructure setup needs to be safe, environment friendly and simply deployable. Cato Networks allows fast configuration and ensures a steady, encrypted connection in numerous environments, permitting us to adapt shortly to every location’s distinctive situations.

VB: How does real-time knowledge administration combine into TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Staff’s race technique, and what position does safety play?

Kurz: Actual-time knowledge, reminiscent of tire temperatures and vitality utilization, is important for making strategic changes through the race. This knowledge helps us react in real-time, which is important in a sport the place milliseconds could make all of the distinction. Cato Networks supplies safety for us, which is embedded in each facet of our IT setup. We will’t afford knowledge delays or integrity points; they may disrupt our whole race technique. Our focus is on offering seamless, safe knowledge stream so our workforce can think about 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 decisions?

Kurz: Weight and area are essential elements for us. Method E’s format limits what we are able to carry 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 evaluate with the router you employ at house. You plug that in on the racetrack, regardless of the place you’re at on the planet, and we are able to 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 protecting our bodily footprint minimal. This strategy exhibits that agility and safety can coexist, even in a high-demand, high-stakes surroundings.

VB: Transferring throughout worldwide borders, how do native laws influence your community and cybersecurity posture?

Kurz: Every nation has its personal knowledge privateness legal guidelines and community restrictions, which provides complexity. It’s important for us to remain vigilant about native laws to make sure seamless knowledge stream and uninterrupted communication, particularly in mission-critical race conditions. Cato Networks helps handle this by adjusting to native community constraints robotically with their PoPs (Factors of Presence), sustaining a safe baseline with out compromising compliance.

VB: Actual-time operations are essential in Method E. How does TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Staff deal with anomalies and potential safety threats throughout races?

Kurz: Usually, what’s occurring with the Cato resolution is that each unusual habits that’s thought-about 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 part is logged in a manner that’s simple to know. Primarily based on that, we are able to react and act shortly as a result of we have already got the knowledge in a single console. In case it seems to be like a serious risk, we are able to additionally embody the consultants from Cato. With the ability to establish and reply immediately is essential, as we function in a high-stakes surroundings the place each millisecond issues. Actual-time detection and response are basic to each our safety and general 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 knowledge evaluation; we’re exploring their potential in automating repetitive processes, reminiscent of monitoring community well being and prioritizing knowledge flows. On race day, as an illustration, AI may dynamically reallocate bandwidth to essential telemetry knowledge if there’s a surge in demand. We’re additionally machine studying fashions that might refine our vitality administration methods, serving to us modify automobile settings primarily based on real-time monitor and environmental situations. The aim is to make use of AI for in-the-moment changes that immediately influence race outcomes.

VB: How do you handle the fixed technological evolution in motorsport and resolve when to undertake new instruments or methodologies?

Kurz: We take an iterative, metrics-driven strategy to adopting new know-how. Choices are primarily based on race efficiency and post-race evaluation. Each season, we evaluate our tech stack and consider potential upgrades. Nonetheless, we’re very selective; any new know-how should combine seamlessly with our current methods and ship measurable enhancements in efficiency or safety. For IT leaders, balancing confirmed reliability with innovation is essential, particularly in a fast-evolving subject. With Cato as one in every of our trusted companions, we observe the rules of motorsport typically. We search for concepts on how issues could possibly be extra environment friendly, extra sturdy, sooner and faster. If we discover one thing in our each day operation or within the configuration of the product, we all the time immediately tackle it with Cato. It’s very particular as a result of they’re versatile and agile on requests from the TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Staff.

VB: Many groups rely closely on cloud and edge computing, however safety is commonly a priority. How does the workforce steadiness 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 part is end-to-end and encrypted within the tunnel. There may be the information switch between the PoP on the racetrack and the PoP closest to our headquarters in Weissach. All of that’s accomplished by Cato and it’s tremendously sooner than going by means of the general public web. I might say for race operations, that’s the greatest profit we’re reaching.

VB: Many organizations face related challenges as they develop globally. What broader classes may different industries take from TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Staff’s cybersecurity strategy?

Kurz: Agility and safety must go hand-in-hand, notably 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, making certain safety doesn’t compromise agility.