Operational Technology (OT) visibility isn’t just a technical checkbox—it’s a strategic necessity. You can’t protect what you can’t see, and in OT environments, that blind spot can mean the difference between smooth operations and unexpected outages, safety events, or compliance violations.
But gaining visibility in OT is complex. These environments weren’t built with monitoring in mind. They’re often made up of legacy infrastructure and complex systems that include Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and specialized protocols.
This blog breaks down what typically gets missed, where teams should actually focus, a client example that says it all, and practical steps to get it right—because visibility isn’t just the first step toward OT resilience, it’s the one every other step depends on.
There are two sides to the complexity in OT environments, and both IT and OT teams tend to miss different things.
IT teams often assume their tools and methods will just work in OT. But OT environments are far more fragmented and diverse. On the other side, OT teams sometimes treat their systems as too specialized for IT to understand. In reality, many OT systems are built on the same foundations—Windows machines, TCP/IP networking, and standard infrastructure—that IT knows well.
The real problem? OT teams may lack visibility into how much IT has evolved, and IT teams may not understand the constraints in OT. True progress happens when both sides bring their strengths together.
Another common issue is not understanding, misconfiguring, or not having the capability of Port Mirroring (SPAN ports) on switches. Many OT setups rely on unmanaged switches that don’t support monitoring, especially at the edge. Even when managed switches are in place, their full capabilities—like out-of-band monitoring and configuration flexibility—often go unused. The result? Either missed data or flooded systems.
Start with Non-Intrusive Discovery
In distributed or legacy-heavy environments with critical older devices that may have unknown flaws, active scanning is often not feasible. It’s important to use OT-aware tools that can safely identify what’s actually present—including unmanaged devices that haven’t been patched in years and systems running outdated or uncommon operating systems.
Know Your Network at Layer 2/3
Routing between network segments may or may not be enabled, and custom communication paths are often undocumented. That’s why it’s critical to have engineers who understand industrial networking down to the physical layer. This isn’t traditional IT—mistakes in OT environments can impact not just uptime, but safety.
Monitor OT-Specific Protocols
If your monitoring tools can’t read Modbus, DNP3, PROFINET, etc., they’re missing the most important data flowing across your OT environment.
Best Practices for Building OT Visibility
One energy sector client came to us relying on a big-name OT security solution. On paper, it looked like they were covered. But once we brought in ProArch’s OTIMS platform, the reality was different.
We found critical SCADA systems with no backups. Devices running years past end-of-life. Misconfigured edge networking that created unnecessary exposure between IT and OT zones. These weren’t just inefficiencies—they were invisible unnecessary operational risks and potential NERC security events waiting to happen.
With OTIMS, they got real-time, vendor-independent insights into their whole OT landscape: device health, backup status, data flow anomalies. Bonus? Their finance team could finally make capex decisions grounded in lifecycle data—not guesses. It turned their visibility gap into a planning advantage.
Quick Tip
“Visibility is the foundation of OT security. Get it wrong, and everything built on top of it is shaky.”
Many organizations turn to ProArch’s OT Insights & Managed Services platform for compliance—specifically for Internal Network Security Monitoring (INSM) under NERC standards. But OTIMS delivers far more than regulatory visibility.
It offers real-time insights into security events, device health, operational performance, and early warning alerts. It becomes the “eyes and ears” of your OT infrastructure—not just for one vendor, but across your entire environment—showing what’s connected, how it’s behaving, and what’s changing.
And that’s where the real value is: OTIMS helps teams bridge the gap between cybersecurity, reliability, and operational efficiency. It removes the mystery around OT systems and provides a basis for future planning. It allows your people to act faster, prioritize better, and make decisions with actual context.
Ready to stop flying blind? Talk to us and let’s get your visibility strategy dialed in.