IT and OT. Same platform.
Different rulebooks. Let's align them.
Practical governance frameworks, build standards, and support models for engineering and IT teams running AVEVA, FactoryTalk, and industrial SCADA systems. Built by a practitioner, for the people doing the actual work.
IT teams handed SCADA platforms they didn't build
You're responsible for systems configured by automation engineers following rules you weren't part of. There's no documentation, no handover, and the plant can't go down while you figure it out.
Automation engineers navigating IT-imposed constraints
You know the platform inside out, but now GPO is blocking your agents, IT want antivirus on your SCADA nodes, and a change advisory board wants three weeks' notice to patch a runtime.
Plant stakeholders who need IT and OT to stop fighting
Upgrades are stalling. Ownership is unclear. Both teams are pointing at each other when something breaks. You need a framework that gives each side clarity on who does what.
Teams running AVEVA, FactoryTalk, or similar platforms
System Platform, Historian, InTouch, Plant SCADA, FactoryTalk — platforms that need specific governance, not generic IT frameworks bolted on after the fact.
If any of this sounds familiar, you're in the right place.
No clear ownership between IT and OT
When something breaks at 2am, nobody knows who calls whom. IT says it's OT's system. OT says IT manages the servers. The plant waits.
Platform configured differently at every site
Node builds, naming conventions, application structure — everything varies by who set it up and when. No baseline means no standard to troubleshoot against.
Security hardening that breaks operations
Antivirus exclusions nobody can sign off on. Group Policy objects that break AVEVA services. Firewall rules blocking historian replication. The security team and the OT team aren't speaking.
Upgrade risk with no documented baseline
You need to upgrade System Platform but there's no change process, no rollback plan, and no record of what's actually running on those nodes. Every upgrade is a gamble.
Support model gaps between IT and OT teams
IT tickets and OT incidents follow completely different rules and timelines. A P3 ticket taking 72 hours is fine for IT. It's a production crisis for OT.
Audit and compliance exposure
SCADA access reviews that haven't happened in years. Change logs nobody maintains. User accounts that outlived the people who created them. Auditors are asking questions you can't answer.
SCADA Governance Quickstart Checklist
10 things every IT-owned OT platform should define before the next audit, upgrade, or outage. No theory — just the decisions you need to make and the questions you need to answer.
- Ownership and accountability model for the OT platform
- Access control and least privilege framework
- Change control process for SCADA assets and configuration
- Antivirus and endpoint security baseline (with exclusions)
- Patch and upgrade readiness criteria
- Support escalation path — IT ticket vs. OT incident
- Historian tag governance and data retention policy
- Network segmentation and firewall rule ownership
- User account lifecycle and periodic access review
- Platform build documentation and configuration baseline
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Templates, standards, and guides you can use this week.
Not courses. Not frameworks. Actual working documents — governance policies, build standards, role matrices, checklists — ready to adapt to your environment.
System Platform Governance Starter Pack
Governance policy templates, role and responsibility matrices, ownership definition frameworks, and change control documentation for AVEVA System Platform environments. Designed for IT and automation teams who need to define how their SCADA platform is governed — without starting from a blank page.
OT Platform Build & Security Standards Pack
Node build standards, security hardening baselines, antivirus and firewall policy templates, access control frameworks, and upgrade readiness checklists. For teams who need consistent, auditable platform configurations across multiple sites — and a defensible position with their security team.
The IT Engineer's Field Guide to OT
A 72-page practical guide for IT engineers entering OT environments. Covers OT fundamentals, culture, communication, the things that will catch you out, and how to earn credibility with the automation team from day one. Straight talk from someone who's crossed both ways.
Private workshops for engineering and IT teams.
Half-day or full-day working sessions, delivered virtually or on-site, tailored to your team's specific platform and environment. Not slides and theory — structured working time to build the frameworks your team will actually use.
- SCADA governance setup — ownership, access control, change process
- Platform build standards and configuration baseline development
- Security boundary definition — what IT controls, what OT controls
- IT/OT support model design — tickets, incidents, escalation paths
- Upgrade readiness and risk assessment frameworks
- OT literacy for IT teams (and IT literacy for OT teams)
Workshop Details
Virtual or on-site
Built by someone who's been in the plant at 2am.
I'm Michael Venter — Senior SCADA Engineer and IT Technical Lead, based in Limerick, Ireland. My career has crossed IT service management, university lecturing, and OT engineering. I spent years as a Certified Support Provider and Certified Training Provider for Wonderware Southern Africa (an official AVEVA distributor), and I've delivered SCADA deployments and governance work across steel manufacturing, medical device manufacturing, and FMCG environments.
BridgingITOT exists because most of the resources in this space talk about IT/OT convergence at a strategic level. This is the practical layer — the governance documents, the build standards, the support models — the stuff that actually has to exist before any strategy works.
- 20+ years spanning IT service management, OT engineering, and SCADA delivery
- Former AVEVA Certified Support Provider and Certified Training Provider (via Wonderware Southern Africa)
- Delivered System Platform, Historian, and HMI deployments across steel, medical device, and FMCG industries
- ITIL Foundation — understands how IT service frameworks interact (and clash) with OT operations