Industrial engineers understand the importance of being able to store and secure data across the Internet of Things (IoT). In this interview, Silvio Muschter, CEO at Swissbit AG, talks about the company's various storage and security solutions. He touches on the Swissbit's background, its twentieth anniversary, and it plans for the future. 

Silvio Muschter, CEO Swissbit AG
Shenja Panik: Tell us about Swissbit.

Silvio Muschter: Swissbit is the leading European manufacturer of storage and embedded IoT solutions for demanding applications. We develop and manufacture industrial-grade storage and security products with high reliability, long-term availability, and custom optimization. Our headquarters are based in Switzerland, where Swissbit was founded in July 2001 through a management buyout from Siemens. Today we have further offices in Germany, USA, Japan, and Taiwan.

Shenja Panik: Swissbit has been in business for 20 years. What has changed since day 1?

Silvio Muschter: Quite a lot! Twenty years in the electronics industry is an era, even more so for storage media in particular. Looking back on two decades Swissbit there are some milestones that have significantly determined our success. For example, the decision in 2008 to focus entirely on industrial storage solutions. In addition, we started around 2013 to actively promote the combination of reliable storage media and security features, which laid the foundation to our “Embedded IoT” business unit which was established in 2019. Also in 2019, we opened our new state-of-the-art production plant in Berlin which tripled our previous production capacity. Another important step was the acquisition by independent investment company Ardian as a strong partner for our successful growth path.


Shenja Panik: An anniversary is always a special event. We know because Elektor turned 60 years old this year. But staying successful on the market for two decades is also a challenge. What is your secret?

Silvio Muschter: I don't know if it's a secret, but I think there are certainly several aspects that make up a success of a company. A key factor in our strategy is, and remains, to look for niches and use case specific requirements in all our target markets. These include industrial automation, IoT, telecommunications, automotive technology and medical technology, where small and medium-sized quantities are more likely to be in demand, and where customers value the high product quality and support services. Both the development and the production take place in our company, so we can completely control and flexibly adapt to the requirements of our customers.

In its factory in Berlin (Germany), which opened in 2019, Swissbit manufactures industrial-grade
storage and security modules on almost 2 600 m² of dedicated production space.

Shenja Panik: What do your customers appreciate about you?

Silvio Muschter: I think our customers appreciate us as a trustworthy partner and trust is certainly one of the most important values in business relationships. Speaking of trust there is especially one aspect that sets us apart from other companies: our trusted supply chain. It starts with the in-house design, development and qualification of products and solutions in close cooperation with leading technology partners, to the integration of security building blocks, and to the secure production in our own certified manufacturing facility in Berlin. With the acquisition of controller specialist Hyperstone last year, we further deepened this technology chain and strengthened our position as a trusted partner focusing on products that we fully control.

Shenja Panik: Can you give us a little preview? What does Swissbit have planned for the future?

Silvio Muschter: From a company perspective, our mission is clear: As a trusted partner, we want to enable the digital and connected world by reliably storing and protecting data in industrial, security and IoT applications. Driven by increasing digitalization and the growing number of devices in the IoT we are experiencing great demand for memory products as well as for our security solutions.

You see, nearly every device uses some kind of storage. Using standard interfaces to add an additional layer of security to a memory card opens up many use cases: starting from machine authentication, IP or license protection to secure boot scenarios. For secure boot, we already introduced a solution last year, the Swissbit PS-45u DP microSD card “Raspberry Edition.” In addition, we also launched the iShield product family, representing plug-and-play security solutions. Starting with iShield Camera, introduced in April, we will add a new solution to the family later this year.

Regarding our memory business, among other things, we will introduce a new line of industrial SSDs with advanced power loss protection (PLP) technology called "powersafe," which protects all data in the event of an unexpected power drop.

Flexible security products in the form of storage modules for a wide range of IoT applications

Want to Know More About Swissbit?

Check out the Swissbit AG Newsroom on the Elektor Magazine website for news and updates about the company and its various products and solutions. Subscribe to the Swissbit tag to receive notifications when Elektor publishes new content about the company and its technologies. 

You can also subscribe to other tags like Internet of Things (IoT), security, storage solutions, data storage, and embedded for news and articles about important technologies and new innovations. Elektor will keep you informed. 
 
Shenja Panik, Elektor
Editor's Note: During the past 60 years, Elektor has offered countless electronics industry thought leaders a place to share their ideas and to inspire electronics enthusiasts to turn their back-of-the-napkin sketches into real-world applications. In this recurring series titled "Tech Talk," Shenja Panik enables electronics industry thought leaders — including professional engineers, start-up founders, and C-level executives at well-established corporations — to share inspiring stories about their companies. She also encourages these innovators and experts to talk about new technologies, as well as the future of the ever-evolving electronics industry.