A Guide to IT/OT Convergence in the Era of Edge Computing

Industrial organizations today face a simple but critical reality: operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) can no longer operate in isolation. As factories, production sites, and remote facilities digitize, the convergence of IT and OT has become a technical and business necessity. Nowhere is this convergence more tangible than at the edge — where physical operations meet distributed computing.

For infrastructure engineers and OT specialists, understanding how edge computing reshapes IT/OT integration is key to building resilient, modern industrial environments.

Why IT/OT Convergence Matters

Until recently, IT systems managed business operations, while OT systems controlled physical processes like production lines and utility networks. These two domains evolved separately, optimized for different goals: flexibility for IT, predictability for OT.

Today, digitalization pressures—such as the need for real-time data, remote monitoring, and automated decision-making—are pushing industrial companies toward tighter IT/OT integration. Those that succeed in bridging the two gain faster decision-making through local processing of operational data, which enables instant insights and responses. They also benefit from increased resilience, as distributed systems are less prone to centralized failures. Additionally, they achieve greater efficiency by reducing duplication and operational overhead through shared infrastructure.

In a converged environment, IT and OT no longer compete for ownership — they collaborate to create a more agile, reliable, and intelligent operation.

The Role of Edge Computing in IT/OT Convergence

Edge computing plays a central role in enabling this shift. Instead of pushing all data to central components located in distant clouds, edge architectures process and act on data where it is generated: at factories, sites, and machines.

For IT teams, the edge offers a way to extend modern tools — like orchestration, security automation, and monitoring — to environments that historically relied on proprietary, isolated systems.

For OT teams, the edge preserves operational autonomy and real-time responsiveness, even as systems become more interconnected.

The result is a hybrid architecture where edge computing serves as the foundation for IT/OT collaboration — delivering digital capabilities without compromising physical-world requirements.

Challenges in Achieving IT/OT Convergence

When we speak to machine builders, and manufacturing companies, we find that despite the clear benefits, convergence is found to introduce new complexities and challenges:

• Many OT environments include equipment with limited connectivity or outdated security models.
  • IT and OT teams often have different risk models, workflows, and decision-making approaches.
• Connecting operational systems to wider networks widens the potential attack surface and increases the security rises
• Managing hundreds or thousands of distributed edge sites strains traditional IT operations models.

Successfully addressing these challenges requires new strategies, common objectives and collaboration— not just new technologies.

💡 Keep Reading: Avassa for Industrial Edge

Principles for a Successful Convergence Strategy

As organizations takes on driving their organization and technology stack toward IT/OT convergence we suggest they follow a few key principles:

• Each edge site must be secured as a first-class entity, they need to be independently protected, with automatic updates, device authentication, and local firewall controls.
• Automation and standardization must extend to deployment, monitoring, and updates across the full edge estate, ensuring consistency at scale.
• Edge systems should be built for operational autonomy, i.e. be able continue operating even when disconnected from central systems, preserving service continuity during outages or attacks.
• A unified edgemanagement platform should centralize control, but decentralize execution and by doing that provide visibility and policy control without depending on constant connectivity.

Following these principles allows organizations to converge IT and OT systems without losing the reliability and determinism critical to industrial operations. We like to think about the succesfull outcome of following the above principles as creating an edge enabled architecture.

The Advantages of a Converged and Edge-Enabled Architecture

A properly converged, edge-enabled infrastructure brings clear, measurable advantages to industrial operations. By processing data locally, organizations can respond more quickly to operational events, improving both speed and agility on the ground. At the same time, the distributed nature of edge systems enhances resilience—an isolated failure at one site doesn’t ripple across the entire network, preserving continuity and minimizing downtime.

Cost efficiency is another key benefit. Reducing reliance on cloud backhaul lowers data transfer expenses, while optimizing processes at each site trims overall operational costs. Perhaps most critically, this infrastructure unlocks smarter operations. Real-time insights empower predictive maintenance, enable more refined process control, and accelerate innovation cycles. In a competitive landscape, these capabilities aren’t just beneficial—they are the foundation of operational excellence.

Where to Begin

For infrastructure engineers and OT professionals, the path forward starts with choosing architectures and platforms built for distributed, converged environments. The future demands solutions that combine IT-grade orchestration, security, and automation with the autonomy and reliability required by operational systems.

Solutions lite the Avassa Edge Platform offer the tooling necessary to navigate IT/OT convergence successfully — bridging old divides with new capabilities designed for the realities of modern industrial operations.

The future of industrial computing is not centralized. It’s distributed, autonomous, and converged — and it starts at the edge.