The Convergence of IT and OT in Indian Industries: Challenges and Solutions for 2025

The year is 2025 and I am sitting at my desk three coffees in and still buzzing from a visit to DefCon’s hardware hacking village, pondering something that’s been on my mind these days – the convergence of IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) in Indian industries. If you’ve been monitoring the cybersecurity situation at all, you know that’s a big deal. But for those of us not living in the midst of OT/ICS environments, here’s the thing—the threats are moving quicker than the frame of an average firewall, especially in mission critical sectors such as manufacturing, energy, and utilities, right here in India.

The Convergence of IT and OT: Fresh Threats for Indian Industry (2025)

Now, when I first got started as a network admin in 1993, OT and IT were completely disconnected. You had these Industrial Control Systems living in separate ether and their own enterprise networks living off in theirs. Fast forward decades, and those worlds are finally colliding. And not always seamlessly.

Why? Demands for digital transformation. Remote operations. Smart manufacturing—the collective output of all of those other previously “air gapped” OT environments—making all of these previously siloed OT environments incredibly exposed. And those of you that remember the Slammer worm way back in the early 2000s—yeah, that jaunt through the Wayback Machine affected both data and voice traffic (yes, get used to that multiplexed PSTN traffic, too)—it was a sobering message for many of us who, perhaps, considered industrial networks safe simply by being behind closed doors.

But now? It’s different. OT systems are no longer just cut off from the rest of the world; they’re connected to corporate IT, the internet, even the cloud—talk about inviting trouble in through the front door. Indian infrastructure, from power grids to chemical plants, is now in the cross hairs of sophisticated adversaries who know that these systems can be manhandled or switched off at will.

Specific Security Complications in OT/ICS Environments

This is where a lot of people screw it up. OT isn’t your traditional IT. The stakes? Way higher. It’s not just about lost revenue, downtime: think safety, environmental disasters, national security.

Issues I get out of bed and stay up at night for are:

• Outdated protocol that has minimal encryption.
• Systems that cannot simply be rebooted willy-nilly without bringing key industrial operations to a stop.
• Little to no opportunities to patch or update often.
• A never-ending attack surface with OT devices joining corporate networks.
• And my own pet peeve—apps and endpoints everywhere, making it impossible to have any kind of unified visibility.

Whereas in IT a server crash can impede email, in OT a breach may lead to real-life physical damage. And let me tell you, I’ve seen businesses underestimate this risk, spending millions to fix issues which could’ve been avoided by investing in the right firewall and network segmentation.

FortiGate for OT: Hardened Appliance and Tailored Threat Intelligence

OK, so here is the good news. In many ways, Fortinet’s FortiGate firewalls are the SUVs of the cybersecurity world — rugged, reliable and built for demanding conditions that typical firewalls just can’t handle in OT environments.

You need hardware that can take the heat and dust of Indian factories? It’s designed for that rough physical environment on FortiGate — temperature extremes, humidity, all of that. And they “speak” the OT language (Modbus, DNP3, IEC 61850 and so on). Unlike the run-of-the-mill IT firewall, FortiGate does not simply block traffic mindlessly. It literally understands operational protocols.

And there’s also Fortinet’s threat intelligence courtesy of their FortiGuard Labs—a threat-intelligence feed that is continuously updated and customized for industrial environments. So no stale firewall rules here. FortiGate:

• Looking for anything out of the norm that would appear to be an attack (even potentially zero-day ones).
• Deep packet inspection (DPI) application to OT protocols.
• Application control to restrict what is allowed on industrial networks.
• Inbuilt VPNs for secure remote use.

FortiGate allows for remote monitoring and instant incident response, which is no small thing when you have remotely operated facilities in every corner of India’s enormous geography.

Key Methods: Segmentation, Visibility, and Control

So, how do you secure OT/ICS with FortiGate in real? Here’s what I always tell my clients:

• Network Segmentation: Segment OT zones from corporate IT networks, with no exceptions. You really don’t want lateral movement if someone does get in.
• Tight Access Control: Use role-based permissions and multifactor authentication whenever possible — even on OT devices that did not have them in the past.
• Real-time Visibility: Think about cooking – you can’t fix what you don’t see on fire. FortiGate’s analytic tools provide real-time visibility into network traffic, device status and all types of anomalies.
• Automated Threat Detection: No longer can you monitor manually. FortiGate with AI-accelerated detection (and yeah, I’m still wary of buzzword-spraying AI) quickly detects unusual behavior.
• Incident Response Playbooks: Multiplayer Operations when the shit hits the fan. Trust me, seat-of-the-pants firefighting isn’t a recipe for success.

Ranting over, but I actually believe we rely far too much on password complexity rules for real network hygiene. Yes, passwords are important (I mean, are you STILL security1?), but segmenting your traffic and understanding what’s traversing your OT network—that changes the game.

P J Networks: Safeguarding India’s Critical Infrastructure with Fortinet

We at P J Networks are veterans of India’s anti-malware space since early 2000’s. Don’t forget, I grew up managing networks in the PSTN era, fought off worms like Slammer with my own two hands, and most recently helped three of the largest banks in India rearchitect their zero-trust stacks. So trust me on this when I tell you that securing mission-critical OT infrastructure isn’t just theory for us.

We are experts in providing FortiGate solution that is designed for Indian sector such as mfg, power utilities, water treatment plants – where failure is not an option. We are consultative, we are tactile, we are made—by design. No cookie-cutter security, that’s not the way, not here.

What really sets us apart?

• In-depth knowledge of Indian industry processes and regulatory environment.
• Demonstrated integration of old OT with new IT without disruption to operations.
• Robust vendor partnerships with Fortinet to bring the latest OT-tailored tech to the fore.

We have experienced firsthand how successful FortiGate deployments can significantly reduce compromise windows and narrow attack surfaces all while keeping India’s critical systems safely up and running.

Collaborate with OT Security Experts

The ultimate endpoint of these silo’d businesses has to be to bring these IT-Centric technology providers to bear where they, and you, are out of your depth – the factory and power plant floor space, where you simply won’t survive – at least, not alone, and not with IT security generalists who cannot fluently speak OT.

Make friends with experts—such as P J Networks—who recognise your pain points, grasp the idiosyncrasies of OT protocols, and appreciate what FortiGate is fully capable of.

Quick Take

• OT security is not IT security with a different hat on – even with a very large brimmed one.
• Indian industry under siege: OT and IT convergence – no mistake.
• FortiGate firewalls offer industrial-grade, protocol-aware and threat-centric protection that is ideally adapted for OT.
• Network separation, into the dark, and finely controlled are your triad.
• P J Networks specialize in implementing and managing these solutions from a deep domain level of expertise.

I’ve lived through enough to see trends come and go (cough, AI-powered everything), but OT cybersecurity? That’s actual, emerging and crucial to India’s industrial future. It’s no longer optional. So, if you want continuity, safety and peace of mind, get your team talking to people like us who do this stuff day in and day out.

Oh, and you know where to find me if you want to nerd out about network muxes or trade stories on the good ol’ Slammer days. But until then, make sure those firewalls are secure and tighter than ever on your ICS.