Kristian Steenstrup has been watching the markets grow and change, now 12 years working with Gartner looking at long-term strategic view.
Key issues: what is operational technology, what do we mean by big data, why bother and where do we start? Operational technology is “hardware and software that detects or causes a change, through the direct monitoring and/or control of physical devices, processes and events.” (Contrast with IT systems, transactional, OT is real-time physical.) Internet of everything is broader than convergence of IT and OT. Venn diagram of cloud with three circles: OT, IT, and CT (consumer technology). IT and OT are similar but have important differences (vendors, ownership, interfaces, architecture, purpose).
Embedded OT components create a changing landscape for CIOs. Number of devices and embedded intelligence, technologies and control, performance data, mobile—who’s managing these?
Summarizing the benefits of IT/OT integration: costs, risks, speed, strategic advantages include enhanced business model, info for better decisions, new products and services, integrated life cycle management.
Example from mining sector: it’s handicapped by people (hiring, accommodating, training, protecting). Being reinvented with transformed equipment automation (haul trucks, conveyors, diggers, shipping, crushers, draglines, refineries, 3D GPS); automation is replacing humans in dangerous situations. Evolving slowly.
Example in manufacturing: more in closed plant environment, lean manufacturing (sense and respond to asset flow, manufacturing processes). One more example: smart grids and advanced metering. Power networks worldwide are changing. Talk of smart meters/grids hides two important facts: they are IT/OT alignment projects, being done in every country.
Challenge: who controls the non-transactional centralized and distributed assets/energy control networks? Smart grid data growth is remarkable, associated with new non-transactional developments (devices, deployments, roll-outs, etc.), affecting Tier 1 providers.
Big data, defined: has 12 dimensions. Qualification and assurance: perishable, fidelity, validation, linking; Access enablement and control: classification,contracts, technology, pervasive use; and Quantification: velocity, variety, complexity, volume. Velocity is not just speed, may also be the fluctuations in rate. Variety of informational assets used across business spectrum: quite a variety of types of data, only increasing. Rapid business change increases the complexity of known information assets. Even one asset type may have multiple formats.
“Variable and real-time latency teaches the fallacy of arbitrary time variance” – temporal data has meaningful periodicity, which is different from placing data into arbitrary periods.
Use of information is also evolving. What’s happening in real time vs predictive? Moving from reporting-centric into pattern recognition. Integrated IT/OT governance is critical to success. Overcome silos, build a connected enterprise: ensure governance of info and processes, not just tech, accept architecture variations but create integrated planning, and alternate chairmanship of key steering groups between IT, OT, other stakeholders. Critical success factors include: focus on business outcomes and not ownership. Embed IT staff in OT areas and OT in IT, build business knowledge.
Why bother and where to start: Asset management and reliability. Big picture includes different asset views: location, IT, productivity, competence, logical, financial, ownership, OEM, spatial, environmental, customer, and maintenance, maybe more. Asset management science: effectiveness vs efficiency (balance). It’s like a knob.
Performance-driven culture: where are people today? Monitoring (majority), enterprise metrics framework (minority), predictive planing/modeling (few), pattern-based strategy. Maintenance—a strategic roadmap: financial/risk optimized, reliability, predictive, condition-based, preventive planned on usage, planned on time, or run to failure. Most of these involve OT assessment/involvement.
Gartner’s info capabilities framework: who can manage data and information flow across an enterprise: meta-data, including capabilities: describe, organize, integrate, share, govern, implement. Specialized capabilities, uses information semantic styles.
IT OT alignment feeds the roadmap in 3 stages: alignment, integration, and convergence. May be happening already.