FEATURE Industrial networks


OT MONITORING IS A BUSINESS IMPERATIVE


Daniel Sukowski, Global Business Development Industry & IIOT, Paessler discusses the convergence of IT and 


Daniel Sukowski, Global Business Development Industry & IIOT


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onfusion and frustration are increasingly common in modern manufacturing environments. Production managers often


grapple with unexplained shutdowns, with IT teams often attributing the issues to PLCs,  As IT systems and operational technology (OT) become more interconnected on the  highlights a deeper issue: the absence of  a complex environment where costly downtime and unresolved problems can  The convergence of IT and OT has created a new set of challenges, and most traditional IT  They struggle to interpret industrial protocols  in visibility.


When a PLC communicates with a  conventional IT tools are often blind to what’s  exposes production lines to unexpected outages and security vulnerabilities, problems that can cost thousands per minute. According to a Siemens study, the average cost of downtime exceeds €10,000 per hour, with some sectors facing even higher losses. The same study found that Fortune Global 500 companies lose an average of 11% of their annual revenue to unplanned downtime,  each year. These costs have soared by more than 300% in certain industries over the past  Yet, much of this downtime is preventable. The right monitoring systems can identify issues before they escalate, enabling teams


34 September 2025 | Automation


 a halt. The challenge lies in monitoring environments where IT and OT have merged,  oversee with legacy tools.  SCADA, and industrial control systems  security. But today’s factories require these       particularly when it comes to monitoring and security.





  IT teams have discovered, often the hard way, that their usual monitoring solutions     can leave critical systems unmonitored and vulnerable.  platforms, such as Paessler PRTG, come into play. Designed to bridge the gap between IT and OT, PRTG provides a single pane of glass for monitoring both environments. It   devices to enterprise IT systems without  correlations.


 not just theoretical. Consider the case of an automotive parts manufacturer that


implemented PRTG to oversee its CNC machines, PLCs, and industrial Ethernet switches. Before deploying the system, maintenance teams often only discovered problems after equipment had already failed. With real-time monitoring in place, they were able to detect and address issues before they caused disruptions. The result was a 38% reduction in unplanned downtime, translating to annual savings of more than €250,000. The investment paid for itself within just three months.


Another example is Dätwyler, a company with decades of experience in cable manufacturing. For Dätwyler, machine   across both IT and OT, they were able to consolidate their systems, identify issues more quickly, and respond with better information. This holistic view enabled them to correlate problems across domains, improving both   monitoring is now a cornerstone of cybersecurity. As industrial systems become more connected, they are increasingly exposed to cyber threats. Unlike IT breaches, which typically threaten data, OT breaches can have physical consequences, including equipment  platforms help mitigate these risks by providing network-wide visibility, detecting  unauthorised devices or communications that may signal a security incident. What sets modern OT monitoring solutions apart is their ability to provide  and customisable dashboards tailored to the needs of both operations teams and executive leadership. Intelligent alerting ensures that the  arises, while historical data analysis helps identify trends and prevent future incidents.


Paessler www.paessler.com


automationmagazine.co.uk


OT MONITORING IS A BUSINESS IMPERATIVE


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