ENX Network – The Network of a Generation

At the 1999 International Motor Show in Frankfurt - even before the ENX Association was founded as the sponsor of the future standard - the French and German predecessor projects at the French Association GALIA and the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) piloted the first international and cross-provider connections to car manufacturers - including Mercedes-Benz and Renault.

The first EDI message that was transmitted has not been passed down. It remained as secret as the millions and millions of future data transmissions. However, video images were also transmitted via the ENX network in 1999. However, none of the participants expected that this technical solution would become the network of a generation.

Almost 25 years later, ENX network allows both the secure utilization of applications (yes, this even contains some called “legacy applications” and modern scenarios in the machine-to-machine and IIOT area, which cannot be implemented without interoperable site-to-site solutions.

Automotive companies have made conscious decisions to secure critical business processes with a standard for which the automotive industry is responsible and where service providers support and operate such a standard in the long term. In many cases, individual ENX connections between partners exist for decades.

Important for Multi-layered Cyber Resilience and Uninterrupted Just-In-Time Production

New collaboration scenarios in our industry require site-to-site connections and mutual authentication between companies in cloud scenarios. The ENX network makes industrial digitalization a manageable journey instead of a disruptive event.

Today and in the foreseeable future the availability of the ENX network is important for multi-layered cyber resilience and uninterrupted just-in-time production.

This has become a reality because major stakeholders have been strongly in favor of using standards. Companies for which ENX is still indispensable today. They are often not only loyal users of our ENX Network, but are also actively involved in the association for the secure digitalization of our industry.

ENX Association, established in the year 2000 and in the current term chaired by Renault and BMW, has become a trust anchor for secure collaboration in the automotive industry. The Association governs two separate standards: TISAX, a key industrial cybersecurity assessment program and the ENX Network.