IT/OT Convergence: Bringing Two Worlds Together

For decades, information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems have co-existed in process industry enterprises, often with very little crossover or cooperation between them. Traditionally, OT has kept the plant running with proprietary, mission critical systems designed to meet key requirements for availability and uptime. Meanwhile, IT managed business applications from the front office and is traditionally responsible for computers and networks on an enterprise-wide basis. With the need to reduce cost and increase scalability, the IT and consumer worlds have been steadily trending towards open architecture since the 1980s, with expanding prevalence of open operating systems, programming tools, and hardware architectures. While OT adopted open technologies on a limited basis, for the most part it has continued to rely on manufacturer-proprietary controllers, networks, and application software. The rise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and related technologies have greatly impacted IT and OT.