The Great Divide: A Tale of Two Environments

Welcome back, fellow travelers on the digital frontier. Joe Baxter here, and today we're diving into another major difference between IT and OT worlds: Placement. Before we begin, in case you have missed any of the previous installments, here are quick links:

1. Priorities … Here
2. Personnel … Here
3. Programs … Here
4. Processing … Here
5. Parameters … Here
6. Privileges … Here
7. Placement … You are Here
8. Protocols … coming soon

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

It was a Tale of Two Environments. It was IT and OT.

In our last blog, we talked about how to speak the right language to the right people. This time, I want to share my thoughts on something that’s often overlooked: the physical environments of IT versus OT, and why these differences are crucial for cybersecurity.

The Data Center: The Clean IT Environment

When I first moved from IT to OT, the differences in physical placement were immediately apparent. I was used to the pristine, controlled world of the IT data center. It's a bastion of security, with every detail meticulously planned. Think of raised floors, carefully managed cable trays, and dedicated air conditioning to maintain a perfect, dust-free "shirt-sleeves" environment. Power is redundant, backed up by both generators and massive battery banks to ensure continuous uptime.

In this environment, everything is centralized. Cyber assets, like servers and switches, are neatly arranged in standard 19-inch racks. They're interconnected with high-speed copper cabling over short distances, designed for maximum performance. This setup makes a ton of sense when you're managing a bank of servers.

The Wild West: The OT Environment

Then there's the OT side of things. Forget the perfect data center; OT equipment is a product of its function, not a standardized design. It's a world where cyber assets are geographically dispersed, sometimes spanning hundreds of miles across oil fields, wind farms, or pipelines. This isn't a temperature-controlled room; it's a field cabinet exposed to the elements. I've seen assets operate in temperatures ranging from -40°F to 140°F. They have to be resilient against dust, moisture, and even animal interference.

Because of these conditions and the vast distances, OT environments rely heavily on fiber optic cables for connectivity to mitigate electromagnetic interference (EMI). The form factor is different, too. Instead of racks, you'll find equipment mounted on DIN rails or bolted directly onto panels. And while IT equipment uses standard 120-volt alternating current (VAC), most OT assets run on 12 or 24-volt direct current (DC) rails.

Why This Matters for Cybersecurity

These physical differences have a massive impact on cybersecurity. You can't just take an IT security solution and drop it into an OT environment. It's like bringing a tuxedo to a demolition derby. IT solutions are built for a controlled, centralized, and clean setting. They're not designed to handle the dust, heat, or vibration of a factory floor or a remote substation. This is why we need security solutions that understand the unique challenges of OT placement and are built to withstand those conditions.

The best security solutions recognize that the OT world is messy and unpredictable. They need to be as rugged and adaptable as the assets they protect, ensuring that security can be applied regardless of the asset's location: in a climate-controlled room or a dusty cabinet in a remote location. It's not about making OT look like IT; it's about making security work for OT, on its own terms.

What are some of the most challenging OT environments you've encountered? Next week, we will close out the series by talking about the devil in the details: Protocols.

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