Johnson Controls is to leverage Utah-based DigiCert’s IoT Device Manager to provide secure connectivity to its OpenBlue smart building platform.

Johnson Controls has partnered with DigiCert, a provider of digital certificate services and PKI, to improve secure, trusted connectivity for smart building technology. The partnership enables the OpenBlue digital suite to use the DigiCert One PKI platform.

“This strategic partnership allows Johnson Controls to offer our customers increased peace of mind by mitigating the risk of costly operational interruptions due to cyber-security attacks while providing resilient, trusted smart building solutions that use the most advanced PKI technology from DigiCert, the clear leader in its field,” said Mike Ellis, executive vice president at Johnson Controls. “Our domain expertise in healthy, secure and smart buildings, combined with DigiCert’s trusted digital identity and automated certificate management capabilities, will further enhance our OpenBlue suite and offer a clear advantage for smart building operations.”

Johnson Controls and DigiCert PKI can elevate operations within the operational technology and IoT space to ensure that hardware, software and communication remains trusted throughout the lifecycle of the smart building. This approach brings modern PKI security as well as expertise in managing digital certificates to provide device authentication and identity, data encryption and integrity for each component of the ecosystem.

“Johnson Controls is taking an important leadership stance in providing building owners confidence that their devices are safely and securely connected to the network using robust PKI,” said Mike Nelson, vice president of IoT security at DigiCert. “DigiCert One singularly offers container-based, cloud-native technology for fully automated certificate management with flexible deployment and secure and simple integration with the OpenBlue ecosystem. DigiCert One’s IoT Device Manager provides complete IoT device lifecycle management that, together with OpenBlue, will ensure secure digital transformation of smart buildings.”

DigiCert’s vigilance in addressing the current and future landscape of digital identities and cryptography combined with Johnson Controls experience across all building systems will allow for OpenBlue to provide and maintain trusted smart buildings within a changing cyber-security landscape.

Johnson Controls also recently announced its partnership with Pelion, to accelerate innovation in connectivity, security and intelligence at the edge for Johnson Controls OpenBlue technology. Pelion’s device and edge management capabilities will be used with DigiCert services to ensure digital identities maintain the most stringent level of trust in OpenBlue.