OT Networks: What an IT Engineer Actually Encounters on the Factory Floor
OT Networks: What an IT Engineer Actually Encounters on the Factory Floor Most network engineers spend their careers in IT infrastructure — corporate LANs, data centers, campus networks, cloud connectivity. Then one day a project lands on your desk involving a factory, a warehouse automation system, or a utilities facility. And suddenly the familiar rules don’t quite apply. OT (Operational Technology) networks are not IT networks. The devices are different, the protocols are different, the priorities are different, and — critically — the consequences of getting something wrong are different. In IT, a misconfigured switch causes a network outage. In OT, a misconfigured network change can stop a production line, damage expensive equipment, or in critical infrastructure scenarios, create physical safety risks. ...