Converging all enterprise data into a unified infrastructure can make your organization more efficient and productive. Data across your product value chain, from product development data to IoT data and factory analytics, can be leveraged in amazing new ways when integrating operational data with accounting and management systems.
But prudence also requires enterprises to separate these systems to avoid lateral cybersecurity attacks that spread from one environment to the other, by isolating the devices that communicate information to these systems.
For a secure connected enterprise that converges Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT), several design strategies should be tapped. These include Zero Trust and Protect Surface approaches; Industrial Demilitarized Zone (IDMZ) deployment; network segmentation and firewalls; and strong Identity and access management, such as multi-factor authentication.