ID: I202602091719 Status: idea Tags: IT vs OT

Operational Technology

OT is most commonly used to monitor and control production in factory settings. Unlike IT which primarily deals with the internet, OT plays an important role in dealing with the physical world. Because of this, one of OT’s primary areas of concern is downtime. 

Downtime refers to the time when production is halted, whether planned or unplanned. Unplanned downtime often proves to be very expensive for businesses to deal with, so OT’s main concern is being able to prevent downtime as much as possible.

One way OT can help to prevent unplanned downtime is through the implementation of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), which is a type of industrial control system (ICS). SCADA software helps to control PLCs (programmable logic controllers), which are largely responsible for monitoring and controlling factory machines and production, and can help considerably with preventing downtime by automatically shutting off the factory machines or sounding an alarm in the case of a system malfunction.

But in recent years the line between Information Technology and Operational Technology is slowly blurring. This is called IT - OT convergence.

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References

• https://brightspace.avans.nl/d2l/le/lessons/262418/topics/1830020
• avans 2-2 cybersecurity risicoanalyse en assassment
• https://www.onlogic.com/blog/it-vs-ot-how-information-technology-and-operational-technology-differ/