Deploying Palo Alto Networks Prisma^Ⓡ AIRS on NVIDIA BlueField will empower industrial organizations to enable deep, AI-driven inspection directly into OT infrastructure.

What Was Once Isolated Is Now Exposed

Industrial environments built to prioritize uptime and safety are now operating in a world that demands connectivity, speed and data-driven decision-making. As legacy OT systems connect to broader digital ecosystems, they are becoming targets, often without the protections needed to defend against modern cyberthreats. The dramatic escalation of attacks on critical infrastructure, which jumped 30 percent in 2024, demands an immediate shift in the way industrial organizations secure OT infrastructure edge devices.

Threat actors are evolving. Meanwhile, digital transformation isn’t pausing to let security catch up. Protecting industrial environments requires more than patchwork controls or legacy security models. It calls for a robust security strategy that extends from the perimeter to the core, one that brings AI-driven visibility, Zero Trust principles, and an architecture making even in the most operationally complex environments resilient by design.

Figure 1: Security designed for the industrial edge with zero impact on performance.

Palo Alto Networks is teaming with NVIDIA and Siemens to deliver a comprehensive cybersecurity solution to address the key challenges of security at the industrial edge. Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS, deployed on NVIDIA BlueField and the new class of Siemens Industrial Automation DataCenter, bolsters real-time, zero-trust protection directly on every edge node, accelerating security and minimizing risk. This joint solution will provide valuable, actionable insights into all host activities by leveraging deep visibility into OT networks, systems and applications.

Prisma AIRS is the comprehensive AI security platform solving fragmented defenses and protecting against novel threats, extending from cloud to edge. It protects the entire OT ecosystem from end to end, enabling full visibility, proactive detection and real-time protection to innovate with confidence. Prisma AIRS leverages AI and machine learning to provide real-time threat detection, behavioral analysis and automated responses.

NVIDIA BlueField is an accelerated computing platform for cybersecurity AI, enabling defenders to push protection into every OT system while streamlining operations.

Siemens Industrial Automation DataCenter, an all-in-one platform, will integrate NVIDIA BlueField data processing unit (DPUs), on which Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS is deployed. This joint solution secures mission-critical applications running on the industrial edge.

Key benefits of this collaboration include:

• Comprehensive visibility across hosts, networks and applications
• Seamless integration with existing OT infrastructure
• Separates security functionality from the edge application
• AI-powered insights driven by Palo Alto Networks

Deploying Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS on NVIDIA BlueField redefines industrial cybersecurity by moving deep AI-driven inspection and enforcement directly into the OT infrastructure at the operational edge, where data and threats originate. This approach mitigates blind spots by correlating activity across hosts, networks and applications in real time, delivering true situational awareness. Unlike traditional bolt-on solutions, BlueField embeds protection within OT systems themselves, enabling native integration that preserves uptime and performance. Prisma AIRS operating on BlueField will leverage NVIDIA DOCA Argus to continuously analyze behavior and adapt autonomously, offering intelligent, low-latency threat detection.

“Digitizing OT demands superior security outcomes for customers' OT environments," stated Rich Campagna, Senior Vice President of Network Security Product Management at Palo Alto Networks. "Prisma AIRS on NVIDIA BlueField is a revolutionary approach that provides unprecedented visibility and enforcement directly on the OT Edge device itself while offloading the security functions to the DPU, thus leaving 100% of the host compute resources available for the Industrial Edge application."

Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS, running on NVIDIA BlueField and embedded in the Siemens platform, will enhance the performance of mission-critical applications by offloading security functionality from the host CPU and memory. This autonomous security processing model eliminates resource contention typically caused by host-based security, enabling consistent performance on edge devices. By isolating security workloads from user applications, BlueField strengthens the OT infrastructure’s overall cybersecurity posture and reduces the attack surface. It simplifies security updates and protects the host system against tampering during routine patching or upgrade cycles.

“Manufacturers are facing an unprecedented number of cyberthreats, requiring new cybersecurity solutions that not only deliver robust protection but also ensure continuous high-performance operations,” said Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President, Networking at NVIDIA. “Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS on NVIDIA BlueField enables comprehensive visibility and enforcement at the industrial edge, accelerating AI-driven insights and defining a new class of OT cybersecurity.”

“Through our collaboration with Palo Alto Networks and NVIDIA, we're reimagining our services for on-premises ‘Industrial’ data centers with built-in cybersecurity," said Anirudha Dambal, Global Head of Process Industries Services at Siemens AG. "The new class of our Industrial Automation DataCenter combines our partners' advanced technologies into a unified, modular architecture that’s designed to power AI-enabled services for cybersecure industrial operations of tomorrow."

Securing the modern industrial edge requires a shift to a pervasive, Zero Trust architecture that uses AI to provide deep, real-time protection without compromising the performance of critical OT systems. Together, Palo Alto Networks, NVIDIA and Siemens are collaborating to build next-generation security and protect critical OT systems.

Join us at the it-sa Conference in Nuremberg, Germany on October 7-9 or and at NVIDIA GTC in Washington, D.C. October 27-29 to learn more about Prisma AIRS, NVIDIA BlueField and Siemens Industrial Automation DataCenter. You can also learn more about the Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS partnership with Siemens here and the Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS partnership with NVIDIA here.