“The world is rushing forward unstoppably.”

Remember this line from the domestic movie? At that time, it was only about Serbia, not about the whole world. The scene referred to the possibility of making telephone calls and transmitting voice from Belgrade to Niš at the end of the 19th century.

Almost 130 years later, we are at another turning point. If the aforementioned movie talked about the beginning of telecommunications and electrification, today we are talking about digitization and automation. The global economy, the fight for the market and the ever-increasing race to improve business, has led to exponential growth in the domain of the IT industry. We can freely say that the IT industry is currently the driver of the world economy and that all other industries partly rely on the IT industry. How to? The answer is simply imposed from that line from the movie. With the invention of the telephone, in addition to the development of telecommunications, other industries also developed. Instead of communicating by letters and telegrams, we switched to telephone communication, which significantly accelerated the process of procurement, production and finally the sale of a product or service. In the same way, today’s development of the IT industry helps to automate and digitalize some established actions in the processes of various industries, thus transferring boring and tedious processes with humans to “robots”. Processes that require dangerous and risky actions by humans can also be automated and those same actions can be done by technology instead, thus reducing the number of accidents and making workplaces safer.

Of course, there is more than just IT. IT is becoming an indispensable part of industries, but an engineer from the energy field will take care of electricity production, a technologist for food production, and a traffic engineer will be needed to organize transportation. The control and management of all these processes is done through a combination of hardware and software, so people from those branches were exclusively in charge of such systems, and they all work under the same name as “Operation Technologies” – OT for short. All this is a legacy of the 3rd industrial revolution that took place in the sixties of the 20th century and which significantly automated all control and management processes in industry. The disadvantage of such systems was the closedness of the system, the use of proprietary protocols in communication between hardware and software, expensive installation and maintenance, inflexibility for upgrades and extensions. The new era, the 21st century, brings with it the 4th industrial revolution, which is slowly transforming and improving industries. An important factor for the introduction of IT into the industry is the cooperation of IT with OT experts, and since IT brings with it security risks, the third key factor in creating a new ecosystem is cyber security. A new ecosystem can only be created by the coherence of these three entities, where each of the parties will have their own responsibilities. The key word will be the people who create the processes, which is of course the same as before – OT. IT will have to understand the processes and services, in order to transfer, process and present them as efficiently as possible. And finally, cyber security is there to provide legal and technological security mechanisms, as well as procedures to prevent losses caused by cyber attacks and human negligence.

When we put all this together, we get that new ecosystem that could be modernly called the Industrial Internet of Things, or IIoT for short. How would we roughly explain what IIoT is? It is an ecosystem of intelligent products, processes and services that communicate with each other through a network (LAN, WAN, 4G, 5G) and thus provide people with information about processes. Also, this ecosystem performs some basic events in the process of control and management.

There are numerous challenges for the introduction of an industrial network:

Security – Industrial networks face numerous security challenges, such as cyber-attacks, data leaks and unauthorized access to critical systems. Protecting these networks requires robust security measures, including firewalls, encryption and access control;
Interoperability – Industrial networks often use different technologies, protocols and standards, which can create challenges in achieving seamless interoperability between different systems. This can lead to integration problems, communication breakdowns, and other problems that can affect productivity;
Scalability – Industrial networks are expected to grow in size and complexity, which can create challenges in managing, monitoring and maintaining them. As the number of devices and systems connected to the network increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to ensure reliable and efficient operation;
Reliability – Industrial networks must be highly reliable to ensure continuous operation and prevent costly downtime. Any failure or interruption in the network can lead to production delays, loss of revenue and other negative impacts;
Traditional systems – Many industrial networks still rely on outdated systems and equipment, which can be challenging to upgrade or replace. This can create compatibility issues and increase the risk of cyber security threats due to outdated software and hardware;
Data processing – Industrial networks generate huge amounts of data, which must be effectively managed to support data-driven decision making. However, managing this data can be challenging due to network complexity and the need for real-time analysis and reporting.

In order to respond to these challenges, it is necessary to include modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cyber security mechanisms, and modern SD-WAN networks.

Despite the effort and technological desire, mistakes often occur. Did you know that many industrial systems are installed and managed remotely by vendors? Many OT engineers do not really know what is happening on the platform or assume that the vendor itself takes care of the security of its products. This assumption leads to many errors and vulnerabilities within the OT network. Although OT professionals think that their vendors provide every OT device, the reality is much worse. Security patches are often not installed, and default credentials are often used across multiple systems. OT professionals must be concerned about the protection of data and intellectual property. They should integrate technological solutions into the production process. They need a connected and concise supply chain and visibility across the organization. It is up to IT experts to assist OT experts in meeting these requirements.

The industries that are in transition to this new ecosystem are numerous. From Smart City solutions, power systems, oil companies, transport industry, warehouses, distribution centers, utilities, airports and ports and many others. All these industries have as a common point the desire to improve and increase productivity.

And to go back to the beginning. “The world is unstoppably rushing towards progress.” Is that progress necessarily good? In some things, no. But it is certainly as much a part of our time as the invention of the telephone was a part of the late 19th century. In some 10 – 15 years we will see the real results of this technological boom. We hope for the best.