Bridging the IT/OT Gap: What Happens When You Actually Train Both Sides

This might be a hot take, but one I do not hear many talking about. Everyone in this industry talks about the IT/OT convergence. Conferences are full of panels about it. And for those that know me, know I will throw up if I hear another talk about it. But yet, vendors pitch products and services around it. But here's what almost nobody talks about: actually training people to work across both sides.

We've seen it firsthand. When organizations invest in structured cross-training — not a one-day workshop, but maybe something over..say 3 days. So not long. Basically, a real program where IT security professionals learn OT fundamentals and OT engineers learn cybersecurity principles, something remarkable happens.

People stop fighting.

That's not an exaggeration. The IT/OT divide isn't really a technology problem. It's a people problem. IT thinks OT is stuck in the past. OT thinks IT is reckless. Both sides are wrong, and both sides are a little bit right. But neither side understands the other's constraints.

When an IT security analyst spends time on a plant floor and sees why you can't reboot a controller during a batch process, their whole perspective shifts. When an OT engineer sits in on a SOC and sees how threat actors actually operate, they stop resisting network monitoring. The walls come down because people finally understand each other.

We've watched organizations go from hostile internal politics to genuinely collaborative security programs, all because someone invested in helping the two sides learn each other's language.

The bonus? These cross-trained professionals become the most valuable people in the building. They're the translators. The bridge-builders. And they're incredibly hard to recruit away because they know how rare their skillset is.

If you're waiting for the market to produce ready-made IT/OT hybrid talent, you'll be waiting a long time. The smarter move is to build them yourself. The investment pays off faster than you think.