Conclusion

Worldwide IIoT markets are exploding. To benefit from the proliferation of data, and its transformation into information, companies need an IoT strategy that includes IT/OT convergence, in addition to Big Data.

As technology changes continue to close the divide between IT and OT systems, IT/OT convergence will see shorter development cycles, higher levels of policy and security administration, and smarter business analytics. These are inherent gains of IoT and Big Data markets. In short, technology, hardware, software and communications likely are not the key challenges to IT/OT convergence.

The key challenge for many organizations will be management of IT/OT convergence projects, because of inherent differences in their IT and OT groups, which are founded in the manner that each group perceives problems and solutions. However, with planning, ownership and clear communication among all of the groups and stakeholders, IT/OT convergence is realizable with potentially huge gains for the bottom line.

Brad Gilbert is the Director of Product Management, Licensed and Ethernet at FreeWave Technologies.

Brad has more than 20 years of experience in product, project and engineering management with diverse and fast paced companies developing wireless M2M communication solutions. Prior to joining FreeWave, he served in several management functions at Silver Spring Networks, including the roles of senior director of product management and senior director of NIC and meter strategy, where he developed and launched numerous wireless smart-grid products.

Brad earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and holds several U.S. patents for his innovations across various utility-network interface devices, antennas and information processing from sensor networks.