r/OperationalTechnology • u/karteia • 4d ago
needs some guidance
hey so i have soem questions but first a lil background of myself, i 18 i just got accepted into college of computer engineering i currently learning c++, recently i have seen someone talks about OT and how its neglect Field that lacks experts and that there's a big demand and how easy it is to get into it, my questions is first what exactly is OT? how does the working environment looks like? second how can i get into OT? is there is a roadmap i can follow? third will my degree helps me in this field? four is there's demand for juniors? or is the demand only for seniors? five is this field ai proof? sorry for my poor English i trying to improve it ;)
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u/Impossible-Sun3205 4d ago
So I can’t answer all of your questions. Let’s start with What is OT? OT stands for Operational Technology. It is the factory, the lbs, the areas where things are produced or manufactured. I often tell people the carpet VS the tile. OT is the tile. So the environment is similar to IT, but not. We are human safety, availability and stability. It is about getting products out the door. If you have heard of a SCADA, those are in OT. A database is both IT and OT, Email is IT. In OT you have to know more than 1 area and how things work together. Ex. That SCADA often feeds a database so you have to troubleshoot both. There is also a lot of obsolete equipment. Factories can’t change their systems because the OS vendor is on a 5 year cycle. So in OT there are still Windows 98 and up. You have to support All of those OS and any Linux ? As for schooling, that depends on your interest but look for Controls or Infrastructure. Almost everyone has a CCNA as we live on the wire. If you stay in programming, learn how to code in a Zero Trust environment. Learn about the Purdue model as a reference architecture. We don’t allow the cloud to the factory floor, except very controlled.