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The IT/OT Handbook
By David Ariens & Willem van Lammeren · Published by IT Revolution Press · Paperback, Ebook or Audiobook · ISBN: 9781966280323 · Pages: 240
A practical guide to bridging IT and OT in manufacturing, process industry, and critical infrastructure.
Why this Book
After more than a decade of Industry 4.0, digital twins and AI, you might feel as if you’re lagging behind. But the truth is that most companies still don’t know how to scale beyond those first two flashy pilots, let alone bridging the gap between IT and OT.
We looked for a book that shows the full picture: how technology, organisational dynamics, cooperation patterns and the cultural challenges all link together, but we couldn’t find one.
Two years ago, the two of us decided to write a book ourselves. A book rooted in the reality of the shopfloor, not on buzzwords and slides.
The IT/OT Handbook is the result of two years of research, hundreds of conversations with practitioners, and everything we’ve learned across decades digitalizing chemicals, food & beverage, and critical infrastructure, distilled into the three-step framework we wish someone had given us when we started.
The framework
Three steps: Understand, Cooperate, Scale.
Understand
Before we attempt to bridge the gap between IT and OT we first need to understand what exactly makes them different. We take a deep look at their differences, limitations and assumptions but also what it takes for both to be successful. This understanding will explain a lot of the problems we all encounter when digitalizing the shopfloor, but they also pave the way for the next step.
Cooperate
Understanding alone won’t move the needle. But just telling people to cooperate also doesn’t. We present you with seven common IT/OT cooperation patterns — from ad-hoc pilot teams to enterprise-wide product organisations with their strengths and how to avoid common pitfalls. These patterns will change the way you talk about cooperation, transforming it from fluff to something tangible. You’ll use this vocabulary for years.
Scale
True success in digitalization requires you to scale easily. This is where most companies get stuck, leaving pilot purgatory in their trail. You’ll learn how operational data is fundamentally different from IT data, how to build a platform that compounds value, why context is super important, how UNS fits in (and where it doesn’t), and finally, how to recognise — and surmount — the inevitable plateau.
These 3 steps are the framework our blog, the Handbook and the Academy are all built on. Not because it sounds neat, but because in that order our work actually holds together 🙂
Each step builds on the one before it, a bit like levelling up in a video game: you do not get to fight the final boss before you have learned to move. Everyone knows this. Plenty of organisations still try to skip straight to buying a platform nobody asked for.
But getting through the three steps once is not the finish line. Digital transformation is not a project with a start date, an end date and a closing slide. It is a cycle. Done well, every solution you deliver sparks the next idea, and the whole thing starts again with deeper understanding, stronger cooperation, and broader scale each time round.
Who is this book for
Written at the intersection of IT and OT
IT & OT Practitioners
Automation engineers, data scientists, plant IT managers, control-system specialists — the people implementing digital change on the shopfloor. You’ll get the frameworks to navigate the organisational mess that usually kills your technical work and the language to explain your problems to your management.
Operational & Technology Leaders
Plant managers, CIOs, CTOs, heads of manufacturing excellence — the people who fund, sponsor, and scale initiatives. You’ll understand why pilots stall, how to avoid failure and how to make transformation stick.
Consultants & Advisors
If you’re advising industrial clients on digital transformation, this book gives you the playbook. Cooperation patterns, data platform architecture, organisational maturity models — all grounded in manufacturing reality, not theory.
Vendors & System Integrators
If you’re delivering technology into industrial environments you only get a partial view. This book will help you understand the context in which your solutions and customers operate. From recognizing the hidden factors that can make or break a project, to how you can unblock them by bridging IT and OT.
Praise for the book
What early readers are saying
“Ariens and van Lammeren have written the book the industry has needed for a decade, because writing it well requires having genuinely lived on both sides of the divide. These authors have. It shows on every page. The next generation of practitioners—whether from IT or from operations—has more capable technology at their disposal than any before them. What they need is what this book provides: a shared language for the organizational problem, a framework for cooperation that compounds rather than collapses, and the discipline to build foundations before chasing horizons. The goals haven’t changed. What’s now possible in service of those goals has.”
“In the Age of Digital and AI, optimizing for outcomes requires us to work together with shared goals and a shared identity aligned to the value we create. This book is a valuable guide for organizations ready to make that journey.”
“This book is a wonderful and overdue handbook for all Industry 4.0 practitioners who have been trying to access the value that we all know remains to be unlocked.”
“The IT/OT Handbook promises to be everything and more than the authors’ blog and podcast are. Based on hands-on experience, thorough analysis, and critical evaluation, it points to a world where, after many years of stagnation, we can finally move forward, making industrial production better, safer, and more efficient.”
“For anyone in manufacturing, energy, or other industries undergoing digital transformation, this is the guide you need to bridge the divide and unlock the full potential of your teams by aligning people and technology.”
“David and Willem have put together a ‘must read’ for anyone who works at or near the intersection of IT and OT. This book provides helpful, practical, and actionable insights that you’ll be able to apply to your own efforts right away.”
“David and Willem have written a practical guide to one of the hardest problems in industry today: getting IT and OT to actually work together….This book stands out because it connects this organizational shift to the technical foundation required to make it real. It’s a clear, actionable path to building systems that scale and turning data into action.”
“David and Willem always bring a grounded and pragmatic view on the realities around manufacturing digitalization and transformation.”
“This handbook is a masterclass in industrial convergence, providing a timely and practical guide for navigating that shift. By cutting through the noise to provide a blueprint for breaking down silos, it helps organizations move from fragmented infrastructure to unified, intelligent operations. It is a must-have resource for anyone serious about the future of industrial automation and data-driven decision-making.”
“I spent over thirty years in steam crackers, and I learned early that the people who want to understand your world—not just sell you solutions—are rare. David was one of those people. When we worked together on digitalisation at the Antwerp cracker, he grasped quickly what it means to operate a facility where a single day of downtime costs a million dollars. That shared understanding is exactly what this book delivers: not theory, but the hard-won logic of making digital initiatives work in environments where failure has real consequences.”
“The authors bring deep, real‑world experience to one of the most critical challenges facing modern operations while also recognizing that true IT/OT unification is as much about people, shared understanding, and accountability as it is about technology. This book provides a clear, credible path to bringing those worlds together successfully.”
“With a pragmatic, iterative, and realistic approach, the book shows how any organization can start small, scale effectively, and continuously improve—always with a clear end state in mind.”
“Lots of CIOs and operations leaders I speak with are trying to bolt intelligence onto an industrial stack that was never designed to carry it. This book treats the gap between operations and information as a real engineering problem, and makes the case that digital and AI do not replace the work of modeling how a factory actually runs. They depend on it. This is a book the industry needed.”
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The perfect gift for your customers and events
Looking for something meaningful to give away at your next conference, user event, or end-of-year gift? Forget the branded USB sticks. Give your customers and prospects a book they’ll actually read — and that positions you as a company that understands the real challenges they face every day.
Bulk orders are available at reduced rates. And we’re not just authors sitting behind a desk — we’re happy to make it an experience:
- Host a webinar for your customers around the book’s themes
- Speak at your event or user conference
- Run a live book signing session
- Co-create a workshop combining our frameworks with your technology
Bulk orders available starting at 20 copies
Custom prints with your logo and custom page are also possible.
People are talking about the book
![LinkedIn post from Jos Vankevelaer, retired from BASF Antwerpen: "Should be so interesting to read this book about IT and OT written by David Ariens. […] I felt so happy to be able to contribute a very little bit to it!"](https://itotinsider.com/img/handbook/linkedin-jos-vankevelaer.png)
