Just a few years back, an Information Technology (IT) network and a plant floor Operational Technology (OT) network were wholly separate, with the personnel who ran each having very little to do with one another. With the advent of the industrial Ethernet replacing fieldbus protocols on the plant floor, the two networks now share a common “language,” creating valuable opportunities to combine resources and collaborate on goals for overall organizational success. However, this newly termed “Network Convergence” sets the stage for challenging interactions that can occur between IT and OT network personnel.

In addition, there is also a great deal of misunderstanding about what convergence is and what it entails. These common misperceptions, combined with challenging personnel, create a steep and expensive learning curve. A successful convergence plan combines both IT and OT best practices in order to produce a functional and strategy-driven methodology to approaching your network. In this whitepaper, we’ll explore ways that you can reduce your learning curve while jumpstarting gained benefits of a converged IT/OT network.