When we talk to our customers, one of the biggest challenges they face is keeping their employees safe. For example, workers often need to enter the most dangerous corners of oil refineries and other traditionally hazardous locations to perform manual tasks, such as taking meter readings from equipment.

This can put them at risk of exposure to chemical leaks or other dangers in order to perform these duties. A not only perilous, but also very time-consuming process.

But with the right connectivity capabilities, chemical process manufacturers and others can deploy reliable data collection solutions without putting their workers at risk.

That's why we are excited to share that Honeywell is developing a OneWireless? IoT module for our next-generation Cisco Catalyst IW6300 Heavy Duty Series Access Points.

To give an example of the many benefits this solution delivers, workers can now collect and respond to critical plant data in real-time from anywhere throughout the plant, instead of having to manually monitor the information. This helps the workers increase productivity while keeping them out of harm's way.

The Honeywell OneWireless IoT Module will deliver ISA100 Wireless and WirelessHART multi-protocol support, extending the connectivity delivered by our new Class I, Division 2 certified Cisco Catalyst IW6300 Access Point to plant sensors, cameras, and other instrumentation. This joint wireless solution will enable customers to deploy wireless technologies in hazardous locations as an extension of their distributed control system, enabling the integration of disparate data for more proactive, efficient and responsive operations.

But the benefits don't end there. The Cisco and Honeywell integrated solution supports a wide range of industrial applications, such as location tracking of people and assets, connectivity to security cameras and more.

"For years, Honeywell OneWireless customers have benefited from our unique approach to delivering multi-protocol wireless connectivity for both workers and field instrumentation in the most challenging process manufacturing environments. With Cisco Catalyst IW6300 Heavy Duty Series Access Points, we're now able to offer our customers significantly more Wi-Fi bandwidth and security in a smaller more flexible form factor along with the same highly secure and reliable ISA100 Wireless and WirelessHART industrial protocol support as before," said Diederik Mols, Business Director of Industrial Wireless, Honeywell Process Solutions.

"This combination of Cisco and Honeywell provides the foundation for our next-generation Honeywell OneWireless multi-protocol solution -enabling our customers to reduce costs, increase safety and efficiency all while providing the ultimate flexibility in industrial wireless protocols and Wi-Fi throughput for hazardous locations."

Through this joint solution, customers can increase plant productivity and worker safety while extending all the benefits of intent-based networking to their industrial deployments.

To learn more about how Cisco and Honeywell are delivering new industrial IoT solutions, check out the Honeywell news release here.