Senior SCADA Engineer. IT Technical Lead. Someone who's sat in the meetings on both sides of the table — and decided that gap needed closing.
I'm Michael Venter — a Senior SCADA Engineer and IT Technical Lead specialising in AVEVA System Platform environments, and the person behind DigitalThumbPrint.
My career has taken me across very different industrial worlds — from steel manufacturing and medical device environments to high-volume FMCG production. That range of experience — heavy industry, validation-driven compliance, and fast-paced operations — gives me a perspective that most automation professionals simply don't get.
I've also seen AVEVA System Platform from every angle. As part of Wonderware Southern Africa — the official distributor for what is now the AVEVA product family — I worked on the vendor side, supporting customers, delivering training, and earning my Certified Support Provider and Certified Training Provider credentials. That means I don't just use the platform. I've supported it, taught it, and understood it from the inside out.
But the cross-industry and vendor experience is only part of the story. I've spent my entire career crossing the line that most people in industry treat as a wall. I studied IT, lectured at university level, then landed in operational technology. I've worked as an IT Service Manager with ITIL under my belt, and I've worked as the automation engineer on the other side of the same conversations. I've sat in the meetings where IT says "we need to patch" and OT says "you can't touch that server." I've been both of those people.
That's not a common background in this industry. Most people come from one side or the other. I've come from both — and I've learned that the gap between IT and OT isn't technical. It's cultural. It's about language, ownership, trust, and the fact that nobody ever sat both teams down and said: here's where your world ends and theirs begins.
The systems are getting connected. The networks are getting flattened. The security requirements are getting real. But the people, the processes, and the governance haven't kept up.
DigitalThumbPrint was built to help organisations navigate that transition — practically, not theoretically. I work with teams to put governance frameworks in place, standardise platforms across sites, define ownership boundaries, and build the kind of documentation and training that means your SCADA environment isn't held together by tribal knowledge and hope.
A digital thumbprint is unique, traceable, and deliberate. That's how your OT environment should be managed.
I've held IT roles and OT roles. I understand the priorities, the pressures, and the blind spots on each side — because I've lived them.
I've worked across steel, medical devices, and FMCG — so I understand what governance looks like when the stakes are measured in tonnes per hour, when compliance isn't optional, and when production can't stop.
Before I ever touched a PLC, I was a junior lecturer at university. Breaking down complex ideas and making them accessible isn't something I learned on the job — it's a skill I built in a lecture hall. It shapes everything I do, from how I write documentation to how I run training sessions.
I believe in governance that's practical and enforceable, not governance that lives in a PDF nobody reads. If a standard can't be followed by the person at 2am during a plant outage, it's not a standard — it's a wish.
Let's talk about what you're dealing with.
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