“Modernize in manageable chunks.”

Craig Egan

Chief Engineer, ACE Technologies

Top Takeaways

This month, CESMII VP of Technology, Jonathan Wise, Flexware’s Brent Mehringer, and Ace Technology’s Craig Egan joined series host Mike Yost to take a closer look at what’s really going on with IT / OT convergence. When it comes to people, business, and technology alignment, organizations are finally stepping in the right direction. Here are three insights from each of our discussion areas:

Where are we today

  • It’s (still) an “us vs them” mentality
  • IT doesn’t know as much about OT as OT knows about IT
  • New technologies are forcing conversations about who owns what and why

Technical viewpoint

  • To integrate IT and OT, a technology layer must be built in order to map the two worlds together properly – this is required, and everyone will have to work through it
  • Data without context is useless
  • There is no vendor that will solve all technical problems, so make sure your solution has an emphasis on interoperability – building the right ecosystem is key

Advice

  • Build the information model first then let OT and IT build their systems to meet the needs of the information model (hint: CESMII’s cloud library is a great place to start)
  • Facts are different than data so make sure to implement solutions that lead to clean, contextualized data.
  • Start the conversation with your teams today but remember that IT and OT often use similar tools and terminology for different tasks – be patient and encourage open dialogue

Check out the full episode and join your 600+ industry peers that tuned in to hear best practices for getting started.

 

Meet our guest speakers:

Smart Manufacturing Mindset™

Think Differently

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