Legacy industrial equipment was not designed for modern connectivity, cloud integration, or rising cybersecurity requirements, leaving many manufacturers stuck with multi-vendor hardware of varying ages and security levels, outdated software stacks, and limited access to machine data. As regulations tighten and digital service demands grow, companies must adopt scalable architectures, secure update processes, and hardware‑agnostic strategies to safely extend the life of existing assets and unlock new value from long‑running machine fleets.
Content:
Challenge 1: Integrating inflexible brownfield systems
Challenge 2: Connecting legacy hardware from different providers
Challenge 3: Ensuring cybersecurity for products with digital components
Challenge 4: Handling upgrades and maintenance across the whole lifecycle
Challenge 5: Mitigating increased regulatory pressure
Challenge 6: Modernizing brownfield assets is hindered by outdated software stacks
Challenge 7: Lacking access to machine data
The industrial sector is evolving rapidly, and digitalization has become a necessity for companies striving to remain competitive. However, machinery and equipment constitute a large capital investment and are typically operating over long lifecycles of 10 to 20 years or more. As a result, machine builders and OEMs are increasingly looking for ways to unlock additional value from their installed machinery by enhancing brownfield equipment with new functionalities and digital services.
In this article, we introduce key challenges machine builders face in upgrading their machines for the digital age and how to mitigate them, creating sustainable service and retrofit revenue streams for themselves and their customers.
Digitalization of existing assets is no simple task
Digital services require machine connectivity on the shop floor and to the cloud, and for machine data to be collected and processed in real-time at the edge and/or transmitted to the cloud as needed. At the same time, the increase in cyberattacks on industrial companies and the requirements of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and NIS2 make robust cybersecurity and lifecycle support over 10-20 years key requirements to ensuring future-proof, secure digital applications that safeguard sensitive data. The industrial cybersecurity norm IEC 62443 serves as a solid basis to ensure compliance with CRA and NIS2 and acts as a guideline for companies that look for solutions to support their digitalization efforts.
When it comes to new applications and functionalities, hardware and scalability of solutions are key decision criteria for OEMs. Hardware-independent solutions enable companies to select the best fit for their machine, and software can be deployed and updated more easily and conveniently through centralized platform solutions. This also supports scaling of applications and integration of additional machinery, so systems can grow and develop over time.
Challenges and mitigation solutions
Challenge 1: Integrating inflexible brownfield systems
Many machine builders and OEMs operate heterogeneous system landscapes that have evolved over many years and comprise a wide range of industrial PCs, Linux setups, and software versions. This leads to high service costs, susceptibility to errors, and prevents scaling. Older machines may have more capabilities than can be accessed with their existing control system, so they need to be connected securely within the system.
Solution: Scale and upgrade your legacy systems with software
Software scaling allows easy roll-out and rapid scaling of edge devices with cloud or on‑premises managed systems.
Nerve acts as an immutable operating system that enables rapid and centrally managed rollout of software components, containers, and VMs across a fleet of machines in the field. This ensures consistent software versions and reduces deployment time.
With Nerve, it’s possible to run new applications, dashboards, and AI models directly at the edge of the machine thanks to the integrated soft PLC (CODESYS). The operating system remains unchanged while new functions run encapsulated and securely.
Challenge 2: Connecting legacy hardware from different providers
Within their brownfield and IT landscapes, companies may have a range of IPCs from different vendors installed on their machines. As computational requirements increase or in case of outdated or broken hardware, replacements would be required. This can involve a lot of time, effort, and cost, especially if hardware and software come as a package.
Solution: Increase flexibility with hardware decoupling
Hardware‑agnostic platform solutions decouple machine functions from specific hardware, enabling free hardware choice and long-term future‑proofing.
Nerve runs on off‑the‑shelf hardware, scaling from gateways to IPCs, with an open architecture that allows the deployment of customers’ own software or applications developed by third parties.
Challenge 3: Ensuring cybersecurity for products with digital components
Increasing cybersecurity requirements create compliance complexity for machine builders. Many brownfield architectures do not meet CRA and NIS2 requirements, such as update records, clear software versions, and secure remote access. In addition, some use cases may require special precautions for data transfer, and constant Internet access may not be desired or available.
Solution: Comply with the CRA through cybersecurity-by-design
Nerve was developed in accordance with IEC62443 from the beginning and is IEC62443‑4‑2 certified – security is therefore not an add-on, but an integral part of the system architecture.
Nerve delivers secure-by-design remote access, updates, logging, and encrypted communication to simplify CRA and NIS2 compliance, and it also supports offline operation of edge nodes and the Management System. This allows machines to operate independently of permanent Internet connectivity. Data is processed locally and transferred when a connection is available through secure channels, while roles, rights, and TLS ensure access is only granted to authorized users.
Challenge 4: Handling upgrades and maintenance across the whole lifecycle
Long machine lifecycles of up to 20 years require consistent updates, maintainability, and remote support. At the same time, service in the field requires more effort when software versions are not clearly distinguished, or updates need to be distributed manually. For remote updates, a centralized management system and secure remote access to machines in the field with appropriate monitoring, logging, and access control are essential.
Solution: Use reproduceable edge-ops instead of manual updates
Nerve provides long-term software lifecycle management with secure updates, versioning, monitoring, and tooling designed for lifetimes of up to 20 years that are often found in industrial environments. Nerve uses an immutable OS, meaning that the system kernel cannot be changed, and updates consist of complete, tested system versions. Updates are also carried out in release stages: first tested on a few machines, then rolled out to the entire fleet in a controlled manner. This creates a traceable, secure lifecycle process.
Nerve uses service tunnels via a central management system, so access can be controlled, logged, and limited in time to defined ports and targets (e.g., connected PLC, host PC, or edge applications). This reduces the attack surface and simplifies the service process.
Challenge 5: Mitigating increased regulatory pressure
The requirements set by new regulations – from NIS2 to CRA and the new Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 - are much higher than previously. Machine builders, OEMs, and industrial companies that retrofit their machines with digital elements may become “manufacturers” in the legal sense, which means having to deal with an increase in documentation and additional compliance demands. CRA and NIS2 demand verifiable security throughout the entire product lifecycle: clear responsibilities, verifiable update processes, secure remote access, and complete logging.
Solution: Focus on your applications while relying on a IEC 62443-certified platform
With Nerve, machine builders can be sure that they have a secure basis for their digitalization projects. Nerve is an IEC 62443-certified edge platform for CRA readiness, supporting NIS2-compliant incident reporting and risk management. It also offers standardized deployments, secure remote updates, and audit trails, reducing documentation and compliance overhead while TTTECH Industrial supports retrofit compliance with engineering and security expertise.
Challenge 6: Modernizing brownfield assets is hindered by outdated software stacks
Legacy software and the lack of secure remote update mechanisms often make it harder to implement digital services in brownfield machinery. Many machine parks feature a mix of modern IIoT technology and older fieldbus systems that cannot easily exchange data across system boundaries, hindering the gathering and processing of machine data required for digital services.
Solution: Use a platform solution to encapsulate and connect legacy equipment
With Nerve, legacy software and machinery are connected in a unified architecture: OPC UA, Modbus TCP/IP, MQTT, Siemens S7, and PROFINET & EtherCAT (via CODESYS) are available as open interfaces. The integrated gateway processes data locally, forwards it to workloads, or sends it securely to cloud environments. Communication is encrypted and secured on a role-based basis.
Nerve also provides secure, centrally orchestrated updates for containers, VMs and industrial software, supports virtualization and hardware independence, and delivers rollback, versioning and robust lifecycle tools for safe modernization.
Challenge 7: Lacking access to machine data
Insufficient or unstructured machine data is often the root cause for why new services cannot be implemented. Predictive maintenance, analytics, and digital services require large amounts of data, as real-time collection is essential for processing and decision-making directly at the machine edge. This is often not possible with existing machines that do not have the right access interfaces to handle these requirements.
Solution: Enjoy structured, secure data access via a centralized Management System
Nerve provides structured, secure data access via OPC UA, MQTT, and S7, enables edge preprocessing and AI workloads, and creates a unified data layer that unlocks predictive maintenance and digital service models.
Learn how to enhance your brownfield equipment
Upgrading machines for the digital age presents significant challenges, but with the right strategies and robust solutions like Nerve, machine builders and OEMs can transform their installed base into a scalable digital architecture.
If you’d like to learn more about how Nerve can support your digitalization journey, contact us today for personalized advice or read more about Nerve here for additional insights:
