The Accelerating Convergence of IT and OT
Historically, IT and OT (operational technology) have been siloed within manufacturing organizations. But the growing complexity of industrial software is forcing greater integration. OT teams recognize the need to adopt IT strategies like agile development, cloud platforms, and automated CI/CD pipelines.
In 2024, cloud adoption will hit an inflection point across the OT sphere. Data management and application development will increasingly shift to the cloud to leverage scalability and accessibility. At the same time, edge computing and hybrid architectures will expand, allowing for fast identification and containment of software problems, and rapid responses and reduced recovery times. By processing and analyzing data locally on-premise while also connecting to the cloud, manufacturers can take advantage of enhanced speed and security.
Emergence of Industrial DevOps
Factories now run an exceedingly high amount of software that control production lines, coordinate robots, route materials, aggregate data, and more. Managing this complex technology stack requires standardized processes and tooling. DevOps practices borrowed from enterprise software development are a natural fit for industrial automation engineering, offering superior control, visibility, and backup.
In 2024, “Industrial DevOps” will become a more broadly recognized term. OT teams will adopt solutions that allow version control, continuous integration and delivery, test automation, and collaboration for automation code development and delivery to the factory floor. By aligning developers with business goals, enterprises can quickly eliminate silos, accelerate innovation, and reduce risk.
By Adam Gluck, CEO of Copia Automation, which builds industrial DevOps tools for controls and automation engineers
