As an oil & gas technology leader, you operate in environments where safety, uptime and production continuity are non-negotiable. The most complex challenges emerge where OT and IT meet. Industrial control systems and SCADA platforms that run drilling rigs, pipelines and refinery processes were never designed for cloud connectivity or open data exchange. Moving these systems toward modern architectures creates operational risk without the right expertise and segmentation in place.

Across upstream, midstream and downstream operations, legacy infrastructures, siloed data and edge-bound telemetry slow the shift to real-time visibility and automated decision support. Upstream assets generate massive volumes of drilling and surveillance data that stay trapped at the wellsite without edge compute. Midstream operators rely on SCADA and sensor networks spread across thousands of miles, limiting unified visibility. Downstream facilities depend on APC stability and precise equipment data, but many still run historians and maintenance tools that restrict predictive insights and increase downtime exposure.

The challenge increases as OT security and industrial cloud talent become harder to find. Expertise in securing industrial networks, operating hybrid cloud platforms and developing industrial machine learning models is in short supply, and retirement trends only widen the gap.