IT and OT
The Essential Relationship
in Industrial and
Critical Infrastructure Digitization
It might seem like information technology (IT) and
operational technology (OT) professionals come from different worlds.
But if companies want to achieve the potential of the industrial
Internet of Things, these two functions have to work together effectively.
IT
Charged with:
Keeping corporate functions and business applications running smoothly.
Manages:
Software, networks, and data centers, often with frequent patches, updates, and changes.
Concerned about:
Security and enterprise-wide analytics.
Misconceptions about OT:
“Their legacy and proprietary systems are difficult to connect to.”
“They leave us vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks.”
OT
Charged with:
Ensuring that processes run safely and effectively.
Manages:
Physical assets and technology to support operations, generally with a long product lifecycle.
Concerned about:
Uptime, safety, quality, and operational effectiveness.
Misconceptions about IT:
“They just don’t understand the reality of industrial operations.”
“If they make a mistake, it could shut us down, and cost us millions.”
IT and OT have different priorities.
IT generally relies on the security triad - confidentiality, integrity, and
availability, in that order. OT reverses that order.
Confidentiality
"The most important thing is to keep all of our company's proprietary data secure. We must avoid a cybersecurity attack at all costs.”
Integrity
"We need strict control over our data
to avoid errors or tampering."
Availability
"Once we're confident that everything
is secure and accurate, we can get
back up and running."
Availability
“The most important thing is to keep everything up and running smoothly. Let’s keep planned downtime to a minimum and eliminate unplanned downtime.”
Integrity
“We have to be able to trust the
readings we’re getting.”
Confidentiality
“Keeping data safe is important, but our proprietary systems are unlikely to be hacked anyway. Security by obscurity!”
Cisco is bringing these two functions together, working to transform industrial
and critical infrastructure through new initiatives, including:
Predictive analytics
Fog computing/ edge computing
Wireless connectivity
Innovative security approaches
Together, they’re unlocking the potential of transformation
Decrease
in the defect rate
Decrease
in unplanned
down time
Decrease
in annual
energy costs
Increase
in inventory turns
Increase
in original
equipment
effectiveness