IT/OT convergence is an oft-repeated term, and maybe it’s the wrong term.

From a technology standpoint, IT/OT convergence has been occurring since at least the 1990s when HMI/Operator Stations began running on Windows and when Ethernet began displacing deterministic custom LAN protocols in the OT realm. This technology convergence has continued with networking, cybersecurity, virtualization, edge, zero trust, etc. The biggest change since the 1990s is that the time lag between technology being common in IT and it becoming common in OT is shrinking, although this process is still measured in years.

Integration vs Convergence

The skill sets required to deploy and manage these computer-, TCP-/IP-, Ethernet-based systems are the same in both IT and OT. So we are seeing some workforce convergence, as well.

Outside the underlying technology, the term “integration” may be more appropriate than convergence when talking about OT and IT.

Even when we look at IT only, everything is not, or at least it should not, be converged into one large, flat system. Desktop management is not “converged” with the ERP system or e-commerce operations. They are different systems with different purposes and different requirements. They are deployed and maintained by different teams in large organizations.

The same is and will continue to be true for OT in relation to IT. The non-engineering portion of OT applications, systems, and services may be the responsibility of “IT,” but it will be a team dedicated to OT. This team’s customer will be Operations, just as the ERP team’s customer is typically Finance.

Integration for the benefit of the business

While we can quibble with the term “convergence,” there is no doubt that the trend to connect, or integrate, IT and OT together for significant business benefits is growing in importance. Originally this involved sending historical process data from (Read more...)