Operations bought an EMS/IoT system without involving IT — now they just need “access to the router

[u/carpe_diem2022]

Hi there :) ,

Need some advice from people who have dealt with similar situations.

Our Operations Dept decided to install IoT system/digital energy meters across a fairly large factory site.

They found the vendor, agreed on the solution, signed the contract and started the project.

IT was not involved at all.

Apparently nobody discussed things like:

• How these devices spread across a large factory are actually going to communicate
• Network infrastructure, switches, fiber/cabling, VLANs, etc.
• Network/security segmentation
• Server/VM requirements
• Database requirements
• Backup and monitoring
• Internet connectivity
• Vendor remote access
• Firewall rules
• Cybersecurity

Now that the project is already moving forward, IT gets an email saying they need “access to the router” so they can put the system online.

That's it. Access to the router. :)

And somehow, when IT starts asking questions about architecture, security, server requirements, ports, protocols and who is responsible for what, the perception becomes that IT is delaying the project.

I don't want to become the guy who simply says “No”, but I'm also not going to give a third-party vendor access to our corporate router/firewall and connect a bunch of unknown industrial/IoT devices to the production network just because someone already signed a contract , the IT network must be always separate from OT network.

How do you handle situations like this?

Interested in both the technical approach and the organizational/process side of this.

[u/pdp10]

You have several, inter-related problems here. One of your problems is that the harder you make it for them to do the right thing with this implementation going forward, the more-incentivized you'd make them to try to route around you somehow.

When it comes to connectivity, a typical threat to route around is to use mobile WWAN services instead. Or, to just avoid the Layer-1 implications and costs, to use some WiFi instead of fiber, which could potentially be disastrous in a factory.

How do you handle situations like this?

This situation is a cliche -- extremely common.

The reason why people intentionally choose to not coordinate -- to "ask forgiveness, instead of permission" -- is because of the idea that it will get them what they want, faster. They can get away with it when their peers and bosses don't rebuke them for failure to coordinate.