The industrial communications range from Cybertec has been a staple within Madison Technologies’ product offering for over 12 years. Madison Technologies sat down for a quick Q&A with Cybertec Company Director, Mark Irwin, to chat about this highly successful, but humble Australian brand.
Madison Technologies has been a distributor of Cybertec for over 12 years now, but how did the brand first start?
It was really the introduction of 3G, which was going to bring new opportunities in telemetry and remote monitoring, and other M2M applications.
Before then, everything was really slow and ‘data’ wasn’t really a thing.
Customers wanted to use new technology, but didn’t want to replace the existing equipment.
We made something that looked like a dumb dial-up modem, but acted as a smarter router with Ethernet ports to bring data through.
Cybertec recently introduced an industry-leading five-year warranty on devices.
In general, reliability is something we’ve worked really hard on. Firstly, return rates for our product are very low, so that gives us a lot of confidence that we’re meeting our design goals in terms of good reliability.
Secondly, we maintain tight control over the manufacturing process. Everything from parts purchasing through to testing – the whole process. We have also gradually increased our compliance testing.
And nowadays, more than ever, cyber security is a big consideration.
Cybertec constantly monitors and tests for security vulnerabilities, and we issue firmware updates with security patches as required.
There are security features in the product as well – such as firewalls –and we don’t include things that can cause security vulnerabilities.
If there’s a chance that something can be exploited or used incorrectly, it will be disabled in our default settings.
Cybertec devices are designed to be used in extreme industrial environments.
Where and how people use the devices for data management and monitoring is quite broad. Some customers use the Cybertec device to remotely control, monitor and manage diesel generators and pumps – such as in water and sewage treatment facilities.
Electrical utilities use Cybertec for remote management and monitoring of their power recloser systems, as well as embedding the device into their SCADA network. It is also used to control, monitor and manage their remote solar farms and battery banks.
Cybertec is an Australian company based in Sydney. Tell us a bit about your set up?
We have a design centre in Sydney – all engineering staff are located there. All device tests and final assembly are done in-house at our manufacturing hub.
We also work with various Australian manufacturing companies for custom design components. We do as much local manufacturing as possible– and have done for the life of the company.
2020 has been a year of surprises globally. What impacts has/will COVID-19 have on your operation?
Supply chains are affected for some things, but the impact has been minimal and manageable as we’ve been designing and manufacturing in Australia for so long.
If anything, the current environment has really highlighted to a lot of people the need for our sort of product that connects you remotely.
What’s next for the Cybertec brand?
We are always working to improve the product range. We realise as the costs of ‘data’ have come down, the application opportunities have gone up.
This partner content is brought to you by Madison Technologies. To read the full interview with Cybertec or to learn more about the range, head to www.madison.tech/cybertec-qna or phone 1800 72 79 79.
