New report from Harbor Research examines how leaders are accelerating IT/OT partnerships for important operational and monetary advantages
“From 2018-2023, cybersecurity attacks involving critical infrastructure in manufacturing, utilities, transportation systems and similar mission critical domains almost doubled year over year driving an average compound annual growth rate of over 90% per year.”
– Harbor Research, The Business Case for IT/OT Collaboration in Modernizing Industrial Networks
Cybersecurity urgency and AI readiness are proving to industrial corporations that modernizing their OT (Operational Technology) networks are extra vital than ever. A brand new report from Harbor Research, “The Business Case for IT/OT Collaboration in Modernizing Industrial Networks,” examines the influence that these traits have on operational networks and total enterprise success. The report goes on to explain how OT leaders are assembly the problem by collaborating with their IT counterparts to use IT capabilities like safety and automation to the economic community.
Extending IT to the OT world: a framework for collaboration
TCO discount is only one of many aggressive benefits gained by early movers in IT/OT collaboration. Harbor states, “Across a wide range of industrial domains, it is not uncommon to see 15% to 35% improvements in operational productivity, 10% to 30% reductions in cybersecurity risks, and 15% to 30% reductions in time to market for new products and innovations.” By extending IT administration instruments, corresponding to Catalyst Center and SD-WAN Manager, into OT environments, corporations can scale back guide intervention and simplify operations. And with quite a lot of totally different units throughout the OT community, standardization simplifies community administration and design, permitting for enhanced visibility and scalability. A tier-1 automotive components producer within the research reported that modernizing its networks helped to scale back tools downtime by 25% to 30%.
Strengthening cybersecurity as industrial networks face escalating assaults
Attacks towards industrial infrastructure proceed to rise. Harbor writes, “Whether it’s supporting remote workers or connecting machines, controllers, cameras, and bar code readers, attack surfaces are rapidly growing.” With cybersecurity being a powerful motivation for IT/OT collaboration, OT groups should reinforce features that align and drive end-to-end accountability with IT processes to have the ability to unlock efficiencies for future challenges. Applications corresponding to zero belief architectures, community segmentation, monitoring and risk detection, and incident response and compliance have confirmed important for a number of companions in the present day. Transportation businesses like Georgia’s Gwinnet County Department of Transportation are detecting and remediating issues extra shortly since they gave operators safe distant entry to roadside infrastructure.
Getting prepared for AI
Besides cybersecurity, the opposite main motivation for modernizing industrial networks is AI readiness. Leaders in industries from manufacturing to transportation are gaining a aggressive edge through the use of AI for predictive upkeep for machines and autos, manufacturing anomaly detection, robotics and autonomous autos, provide chain optimization, and extra. The Harbor report warns, “Organizations that fail to modernize their digital infrastructure and networks risk being unable to capitalize on these transformative technologies to enhance their competitive position.” Utilities like Ontario Clean Water Agency can accumulate sensor knowledge from far-flung areas due to industrial community units constructed to face up to excessive environmental circumstances.
Here, too, IT/OT teamwork accelerates success. OT brings its understanding of which units and techniques want to speak and below what circumstances they are often taken offline, whereas IT brings the abilities to ship the community efficiency and reliability that AI functions demand.
Bringing all of it collectively
We see steady evolution between the connection of IT and OT groups and networks. Cisco is constructing a powerful basis for industrial organizations to drive profitable transformation and ship tailor-made options in direction of a modernized future throughout all sectors. If you want to be part of us in exploring the potential of IT/OT collaboration and the way it can pave the best way, take a look at the total Harbor Research Business Case.
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