Simulation only
Fast to rebuild. Safe to break. Good for architecture, attack paths, and operator-facing process behavior. Weak where the vendor box disagrees with the model.
Hybrid cyber range
Part digital twin. Part real hardware. One test.
Hybrid means Simetra does not stop at a software replica. You can attach a slice of the physical world — a PLC, a switch, a radio, a skid — and run the same scenario across both sides.
Why hybrid
Some truths only exist in metal.
A virtual PLC is the right place to iterate topology and watch process impact. It will not reproduce every firmware quirk, every vendor protocol stack, or every I/O timing issue. Those live on the device you actually install.
Hardware only
Real firmware and real I/O. Slow to restage. Expensive to copy a whole plant. Easy to put a live unit at risk if the boundary is unclear.
Simetra hybrid
Keep the plant model in software. Plug in the devices that must stay real. Test the join: virtual zones, real controllers, one isolated range.
Architecture
A gateway, not a path to production.
The simulated plant and the physical range share a test fabric. Traffic, writes, and attack paths can cross that join. The operating unit does not.
Combined tests are designed to stay inside the range. Production networks are out of scope.
What you can connect
Extend the playground with real equipment.
Operators add the devices that the model cannot honestly stand in for. Typical attachments include:
- PLCs and industrial controllers
- OT switches, firewalls, and diodes used as test objects
- Serial, radio, and protocol gateways
- IEDs and field devices
- Small process skids and I/O racks
- Engineering or historian boxes brought in as lab assets
Combined tests
One scenario, both worlds.
Write that lands on metal
A path starts in the virtual engineering station and ends as a coil or register change on a real PLC. Watch process impact on the model and on the skid.
Control that is only as good as the box
Put the real controller behind a simulated zone and firewall. Repeat the same attack after a rule change. See whether the hardware still answers.
Protocol the model cannot invent
When a vendor stack or serial link matters, keep that hop physical. The rest of the plant can stay virtual so the test stays affordable.
Boundary
Hybrid is not a live plant tap.
The physical side is equipment you chose to bring into the range. It is not a span of the operating unit, and it is not a way to “just quickly” attach production.
That boundary is the point of the product: realism where it is required, isolation where it is mandatory.
Request a hybrid demo