Optimization of Operational and Information Technology Integration Towards Industry 4.0

Abstract

Over the past decade, Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) convergence have been proposed by numerous authors. Research on the concept started rising around the year 2015. IT/OT convergence brings several benefits to businesses such as decision-support, cost optimization, business process improvement, etc., however, integration comes with cybersecurity challenges for the previously isolated or air-gapped OT systems. The advent of the industry 4.0 concept and the enabling technologies such as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) as the future of manufacturing pressurizes manufacturing enterprises to implement IT/OT integration since it is the basis for data integrated Industry 4.0 deployments. This research presents an optimized IT/OT integration architecture that brings enterprise data to a central location and stream for processing and analysis, thus providing decision support to management at various levels. A use case of a production plant is presented to highlight optimized IT/ OT integration. The research found that IT/ OT integration can be optimized and secured to enable an organization to undergo a digital transformation journey.