Webinar Description
Key Takeaways
- Addresses the security challenges created by converging OT and IT networks in modern data centre environments
- Focuses on protecting Electrical Power Monitoring Systems (EPMS) and Building Management Systems (BMS) from expanding attack surfaces
- Presents strategies for reducing disaster recovery times from days to hours through automated configuration and integrity checks
- Covers regulatory compliance requirements and audit preparation for critical infrastructure operators
- Designed for IT/OT security professionals, data centre managers, and compliance officers working with multi-vendor automation environments
- Presented by Claroty and Copia, featuring insights from Team82 research
Introduction
Securing Modern Data Centers to Protect Uptime is a webinar examining the cyber-physical security challenges facing contemporary data centre operations. The session targets IT and OT security professionals, data centre managers, and compliance officers responsible for maintaining operational availability across complex facility networks. As data centres increasingly rely on interconnected operational technology systems alongside traditional IT infrastructure, the attack surface has expanded significantly, creating vulnerabilities that conventional security approaches struggle to address. This convergence, combined with tightening regulatory requirements and the operational imperative to minimise downtime, makes unified security strategies essential for organisations managing critical infrastructure.
About This Event
This 45-minute virtual session, presented by Claroty and Copia, provides a practical framework for securing critical data centre infrastructure. The webinar format includes expert-led discussion followed by a live question-and-answer segment, allowing attendees to engage directly with specialists on implementation challenges specific to their environments. The programme draws on Team82 research to illustrate real-world vulnerabilities and remediation approaches.
The Challenge of OT/IT Convergence in Data Centres
Modern data centres operate at the intersection of information technology and operational technology, a convergence that has fundamentally altered the security landscape. Traditional IT security tools and methodologies, while effective for protecting servers, networks, and applications, were not designed to address the unique characteristics of operational technology systems. Building Management Systems control environmental conditions, access points, and fire suppression. Electrical Power Monitoring Systems manage power distribution, backup generation, and uninterruptible power supplies. These systems increasingly connect to enterprise networks for monitoring and management purposes, yet they often run on legacy hardware with proprietary protocols that IT security teams may not fully understand.
This architectural reality creates what the session describes as “gray space”—areas of vulnerability that fall between traditional IT security coverage and OT operational management. Neither team may have complete visibility into these systems, and neither may have the tools or expertise to secure them effectively. The consequences of exploitation can extend beyond data theft to physical outcomes: power failures, cooling system malfunctions, or access control breaches that directly impact facility uptime.
Unified Approaches to Asset Discovery and Backup Recovery
A central theme of the webinar concerns the integration of asset discovery with backup and recovery processes. Many organisations treat these as separate operational functions, with asset management handled by one team and backup procedures managed by another. This separation creates gaps in protection and extends recovery timelines when incidents occur.
The session advocates for unified baseline configuration tracking across multi-vendor automation environments. Data centres typically operate equipment from numerous manufacturers, each with different configuration interfaces, firmware versions, and backup requirements. Without centralised visibility into these configurations, organisations struggle to identify unauthorised changes, verify system integrity, or restore operations quickly following an incident.
Automated configuration and integrity checks represent a practical mechanism for addressing this challenge. Rather than relying on manual audits or periodic reviews, automated systems can continuously monitor for configuration drift, detect unauthorised modifications, and maintain verified backup states. This approach directly impacts Recovery Time Objectives, potentially reducing restoration periods from days to hours by ensuring that known-good configurations are always available and verified.
Regulatory Compliance and Audit Preparation
Data centre operators face an evolving regulatory environment that increasingly addresses operational technology security alongside traditional IT compliance requirements. Regulations governing critical infrastructure, data protection, and operational resilience now frequently require organisations to demonstrate visibility into OT systems, maintain documented recovery procedures, and prove the integrity of backup configurations.
The webinar addresses how unified cyber-physical security approaches can support audit readiness. Centralised configuration management provides the documentation trail that auditors require, while automated integrity verification demonstrates ongoing compliance rather than point-in-time assessments. For organisations operating in regulated industries or managing infrastructure deemed critical, these capabilities have moved from operational preferences to compliance necessities.
Setting Realistic Recovery Time Objectives
Recovery Time Objectives define how quickly an organisation must restore operations following a disruption. For data centres, where downtime translates directly into service unavailability, financial losses, and reputational damage, RTOs represent critical operational commitments. However, many organisations set RTOs without fully understanding the recovery capabilities of their OT systems.
The session examines how to establish achievable RTOs based on actual recovery capabilities rather than aspirational targets. This requires understanding the dependencies between systems, the time required to restore configurations across different vendor platforms, and the verification steps necessary before returning systems to production. Automated backup and recovery processes can dramatically compress these timelines, but only when implemented with full visibility into the OT environment.
Who Should Attend
The webinar is designed for professionals with operational or security responsibility for data centre infrastructure. This includes IT and OT security managers tasked with protecting converged environments, data centre operations managers responsible for maintaining uptime, and facility managers overseeing building systems. Compliance officers and risk management professionals will find value in the regulatory compliance and audit preparation content, while technical leads working with multi-vendor automation environments can benefit from the practical implementation guidance.
The content assumes familiarity with data centre operations and basic security concepts, making it most relevant for mid-level to senior professionals and decision-makers. Organisations operating critical infrastructure, utilities, or large enterprise facilities with complex operational technology deployments represent the primary audience, though the principles discussed apply broadly to any environment where OT and IT systems intersect.
Bridging the Gap Between Security and Operations
The fundamental challenge addressed throughout the session is organisational as much as technical. Security teams and operations teams often work from different priorities, use different tools, and speak different technical languages. OT systems were historically isolated from enterprise networks and managed by facilities teams with engineering backgrounds rather than cybersecurity expertise. The convergence of these environments has outpaced the convergence of the teams responsible for them.
Effective cyber-physical security requires bridging this gap through shared visibility, common processes, and integrated tools. The webinar presents a framework for achieving this integration, recognising that technology solutions alone cannot address what is fundamentally a challenge of organisational alignment and operational practice.