TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Crew turns safety into pace

VentureBeat not too long ago spoke with Friedemann Kurz, Head of IT for Porsche Motorsport, whose decades-long experiences place him as a pacesetter in mixing know-how with high-stakes racing.

Kurz oversees the TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Crew’s IT operations, protecting every part from race-time knowledge administration to cybersecurity and logistics. His position is essential in conserving Porsche’s motorsport know-how resilient and agile, making certain a seamless circulation of knowledge that helps strategic race choices and upholds Porsche’s popularity for innovation.

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

To fulfill safety and networking calls for, the TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Crew has partnered with CATO Networks since 2023 to effectively join and safe pit crews, knowledge facilities, cellular customers, cloud assets 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 part from digital infrastructure and knowledge administration to cybersecurity and efficiency optimization. Information is a crucial aggressive asset for us, driving choices on race technique and automotive diagnostics. Cybersecurity is crucial in defending this knowledge circulation, enabling our staff to make real-time, knowledgeable choices with out interruption or compromise. Our focus is on making certain knowledge integrity, even below intense race-day stress.

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

Kurz: Method E’s world circuit implies 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 functions. This requires us to prioritize bandwidth-heavy functions like telemetry and communications. We have now only one IT workers member on-site, so the infrastructure setup must be safe, environment friendly and simply deployable. CATO Networks allows fast configuration and ensures a secure, encrypted connection in numerous environments, permitting us to adapt rapidly to every location’s distinctive situations.

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

Kurz: Actual-time knowledge, comparable to tire temperatures and power utilization, is crucial for making strategic changes in the course of 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 offers safety for us, which is embedded in each side 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 circulation so our staff can consider strategic choices 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 crucial components for us. Method E’s format limits what we will 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 utilize at house. You plug that in on the racetrack, regardless of the place you’re at on this 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 conserving our bodily footprint minimal. This strategy exhibits that agility and safety can coexist, even in a high-demand, high-stakes setting.

VB: Transferring throughout worldwide borders, how do native laws impression 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 circulation and uninterrupted communication, particularly in mission-critical race conditions. CATO Networks helps handle this by adjusting to native community constraints routinely 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 Crew deal with anomalies and potential safety threats throughout races?

Kurz: Normally, what’s happening with the CATO resolution is that each unusual habits that’s thought-about an actual risk is dealt with the identical method. There’s a story created. There are all of the IP addresses and computer systems that had been affected. The whole lot is logged in a method that’s simple to know. 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 serious risk, we will additionally embody the specialists from CATO. With the ability to determine and reply immediately is crucial, as we function in a high-stakes setting 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 knowledge evaluation; we’re exploring their potential in automating repetitive processes, comparable to monitoring community well being and prioritizing knowledge flows. On race day, as an illustration, AI might dynamically reallocate bandwidth to crucial telemetry knowledge if there’s a surge in demand. We’re additionally machine studying fashions that might refine our power administration methods, serving to us regulate automotive settings primarily based on real-time monitor and environmental situations. The purpose is to make use of AI for in-the-moment changes that instantly impression 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 assessment our tech stack and consider potential upgrades. Nevertheless, 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 crucial, particularly in a fast-evolving area. With CATO as considered one of our trusted companions, we observe the rules of motorsport usually. We search for concepts on how issues might be extra environment friendly, extra sturdy, quicker and faster. If we discover one thing in our every day operation or within the configuration of the product, we at all times 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 Method E Crew.

VB: Many groups rely closely on cloud and edge computing, however safety is commonly a priority. How does the staff 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 linked. The whole lot is end-to-end and encrypted within the tunnel. There’s the info 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 quicker than going by way of the general public web. I might say for race operations, that’s the greatest profit we’re reaching.

VB: Many organizations face comparable challenges as they broaden globally. What broader classes might different industries take from TAG Heuer Porsche Method E Crew’s cybersecurity strategy?

Kurz: Agility and safety have to go hand-in-hand, notably when scaling operations or getting into new markets. We’ve realized 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.