Remote - Spring 2015 - (Page 16)

Feature Article IT-OT Convergence: The Importance of Aligning Historically Disparate Technologies Derek Harp, Co-Founder and Executive Board Chairman NexDefense Bengt Gregory-Brown, Cyber Security Researcher and Analyst Sable Lion Ventures and NexDefense Since the advent of information technology (IT), occurring several decades after the onset of operational technology (OT), these two organizational units have existed as separate entities - different in every way yet linked by a common enterprise. Their history of parallel development has provided each with unrelated processes and technologies running on distinct infrastructures, following separate standards and managed by isolated organizational departments. Historically, OT sits on one side of a spectrum, working as mature, slower-moving, yet highly reliable technology within systems that operate tirelessly to ensure the integrity and reliability of critical infrastructure. In contrast, IT typically resides within business and enterprise operations, a more corporate environment that is often considered innovative and fast; frequently making significant improvements to modernize data processing and storage, communications and connectivity, network availability and information security. Although originating as disparate entities, connections between IT and OT have significantly grown in recent years, largely as a result of OT's adoption of IT technologies that notably improve efficiency and reduce costs in industrial and manufacturing environments. The increase in connectivity and open communications technologies have IT appearing and actively participating throughout the operational space by way of facilitating networking and connectivity requirements for contemporary industrial devices such as programmable automation controllers, human-machine interfaces, variable-frequency drives, robots, sensors and actuators, and a growing variety of other devices linked to common network and communicating common open protocols. In response to these trends and advancements, some companies have begun to proactively address their technological dependency by building internal hybrid IT teams within operational business units, often distinct and removed from enterprise IT, yet uniquely skilled to apply learnings and best-practices that interconnect production to business operations. For other companies, some still retain both intentional and sometimes artificial separations between their IT and OT staffs that lead to inefficiencies and even heightened risk across the organization. While for some a clear divide between IT and OT may seem sensible due to history and aging technologies, as the OT systems evolve and are 16 www.RemoteMagazine.com upgraded, it's increasingly recognized that sustaining IT and OT separations actually creates duplications of staff, similar training requirements amongst personnel, misaligned priorities and even agendas that lead to broken communications and contention between groups. With labor costs perpetually on the rise and a growing shortage of appropriately skilled resources, basic business considerations do not favor maintaining segregated IT and OT units. Compounding the fact that the very network infrastructures and architectures of IT and OT are more and more similar, a more skilled and streamlined workforce can enhance company agility, better protect assets and operations and ultimately amplify profitability. In addition to operational inefficiencies and financial burdens, the disconnected organizational units create vulnerabilities and significantly widen the exposure for an adversary to gain network access. Prior to operations adopting IT technologies, someone with malicious intent would need to be physically in the facility to break into a control system - and damages would be fairly limited and localized. With digitally interconnected systems, however, a malicious hacker can gain access remotely into a network and potentially disrupt every system to which it connects. Without a collaborative and unified OT and IT, unauthorized activities and even successful attacks may go unnoticed until significant damage results, as happened in the German steel mill incident of 2014. Developments in recent history show that the benefits of IT-OT convergence are both diverse and extensive. The power industry, for example, has made substantial investments in the past decade to align these key business elements to improve business processes, increase electric systems performance, and ultimately improve customer satisfaction by reducing both frequency and length of power outages. IT-OT convergence, providing intelligence to and communication with the lowest levels of distributed infrastructure, is increasing companies' ability to proactively manage their resources, optimize their systems and provide workforces with greater insight and actionable information. Other critical industries and application such as oil and gas, water, pharmaceutical, transportation, food and beverage and general manufacturing are also similarly moving to greater convergence between IT and OT technologies, pulling along with it greater linkage between respective competent staff in each discipline. The benefits derived from the marriage of IT and OT are fairly recent phenomena for a majority of industry. In the past, and for some still today, the deep-rooted disconnects between information and operational technology generated inefficiencies and unreliable outputs that persisted for decades. The significant benefits to be gained via convergence, including better reliability and availability, reduced security risks and enhanced performance and throughput had been overlooked, yet today demand attention across the technology landscape. The much needed transition to adapt and evolve older systems to these new, more efficient designs is not an easy undertaking, however, as both IT and OT have significant hurdles to overcome as each pursues stronger interaction an collaboration - no hurdle greater than facing the challenge of achieving interoperability without disrupting critical services or financially impacting the enterprise. The Challenges of Convergence Because OT and IT were traditionally managed as separate organizational silos, most everything in separated organizations appears as near polar opposites. Such stark differences can be seen in organizational charts, policies and processes, budgets and manpower, commissioning and lifecycle management approaches, expectations for equipment lifespan, operational priorities for availability and uptime all the way to company culture and staff turnover. Such divisions make convergence a difficult task requiring much more than changes to reporting structures and job descriptions. It requires top-down leadership and support, adequate planning and http://www.RemoteMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Remote - Spring 2015

Editor's Choice
The Impact of OPC UA and Information Modeling on Monitoring Solutions
Protecting Critical Infrastructure: Understanding the Threat to SCADA Networks
Small Power, Big Benefits – Fuel Cells for Remote and Off-Grid Applications
What to Expect in the Equipment Industry in 2015
Wireless Well Pad Retrofit
IT-OT Convergence: The Importance of Aligning Historically Disparate Technologies
Internet of Things North Americs Preview
SCADA
Networking
Security
Onsite Power
Industry News

Remote - Spring 2015