IT-OT Integration Challenges in Utilities

Emerging industrial IoT presupposes integration of operational technology (OT) networks with information technology (IT) networks which hitherto were isolated. IT networks focus primarily on PAIN (Privacy/Confidentiality, Authentication, Integrity and Non-repudiation) OT networks focus primarily on AIC (Availability, Integrity and Confidentiality). The conflicting requirements of availability and confidentiality is a challenge that needs to be overcome in a balanced way to reap the benefits of IT-OT integration. This balancing act requires understanding of the OT domain. This paper considers electrical utility as the use case and brings out the considerations in achieving an acceptable IT-OT framework.