PI Community Day 2025: working together on secure industrial networks

On November 12, suppliers and users from the OT industry will meet during the PI Community Day. PI Netherlands Board Member Tjerco den Exter will be one of the keynote speakers and will introduce the participants to the theme. Securing the Signal (Protecting Critical Communication in OT).

A common interest above competition

Tjerco has been involved with PI Nederland for a long time and recently became a board member. His motivation for taking on this role stems from the importance of collaboration:

"Although we are competitors as suppliers, we have a common interest: we must keep standard languages like PROFINET, PROFIBUS, and IO-Link alive and strong. It's not about promoting individual products, but about representing the market together."

This collaboration is reflected in the design of the PI Community Day, where knowledge sharing and meeting are central.

Cybersecurity and OT

In his keynote, Tjerco focuses on the security of industrial networks. While OT (operational technology) used to be often isolated from the outside world, everything is now continuously interconnected. The boundaries between OT and IT have blurred, if not completely erased. The advantage is a huge gain in speed and efficiency. But this also entails certain risks.

The worlds of OT and IT are increasingly converging. This offers enormous benefits, but also new risks. The question is: how do you keep that signal secure? From the IT layer all the way down to the OT layer.

Using a practical step-by-step plan with clear guidelines, Tjerco offers a solution for securing networks. "I demonstrate the services and solutions needed to work securely. It's all about the common good."

Trends and challenges

Besides the need to comply with cybersecurity laws and regulations, Tjerco also addresses current trends. A key development is network segmentation:

The idea used to be: connect everything, and it'll work. But that's no longer the case. Without security measures, a malicious actor can access everything. Network segmentation and network management are therefore becoming increasingly important.

He also addresses the role of European legislation and regulations, such as the NIS2 and the Cyber Resilience Act. He hopes this will serve as a wake-up call for everyone: companies must prepare and comply with the new requirements.

Why you shouldn't miss this day

Tjerco's message is clear:

Security in OT networks can't be solved alone. You need vendors, system integrators, and end users working together. That's why PI Community Day is so important. It brings all the stakeholders together to discuss communication, security, and risks. We have one shared goal: secure and future-proof IT-OT integration.

PI Community Day
Date: November 12, 2025
Location: Van der Valk Veenendaal, the Netherlands