OTTO

Industry is becoming increasingly connected. Control systems and production equipment need to communicate with modern IT systems, cloud services and digital platforms. This creates new opportunities for more efficient production, smarter decision-making and better resource utilisation – but also introduces new requirements for security and resilience.

The central question addressed by OTTO is how industrial control systems can be connected to modern digital solutions without compromising security or operations. The goal is to develop practical solutions, methods and guidelines that help Swedish industry build secure, robust and resilient digital infrastructure in real-world OT environments.

Broad collaboration
Together, the project partners represent a wide range of sectors – from forestry and process industries to building automation, energy, water and urban infrastructure. This enables the project to test solutions in different types of OT environments and identify approaches that can be applied broadly across Swedish industry.

A common foundation for secure connectivity
Industrial control systems, known as OT systems (Operational Technology), are often designed to operate reliably for many years. At the same time, there is a growing need to connect these systems to modern IT environments, local digital solutions and cloud services.

This creates new challenges. Data needs to be shared securely and systematically between different systems and vendors. Networks need to withstand disruptions and attacks without bringing production to a standstill. At the same time, solutions must take into account the long lifecycles, high availability requirements and security needs that characterise industrial environments.

OTTO takes a holistic approach to these challenges. The project builds on an industry-initiated OT conference held in July 2025 and brings together industrial companies, technology developers, testbeds and researchers. Together, the partners develop and test solutions designed to work in practice – not just on the drawing board.

What is OTTO developing?
The project focuses on several areas that are central to secure and resilient digitalisation of industry:

• Common architectures and interfaces for connecting OT systems with IT systems and other digital environments.

• Secure and structured data sharing between control systems, local equipment and cloud services.

• Robust communication and security solutions, including segmented networks, redundancy and the ability to withstand disruptions.

• Secure use of AI close to production, with a focus on rapid response, traceability and protection against intrusion.

• Testing and demonstration in real-world environments, where solutions are evaluated across several areas of industry.

OTTO aims to make it easier for industry to pursue digitalisation without compromising security, availability or operational reliability.

The project will deliver architectures, methods and guidelines that can be reused by companies across different parts of Swedish industry. In particular, the project will demonstrate how security and resilience can be built in from the outset when local systems, private IT environments and public digital services need to work together.

In the longer term, the results can contribute to greater resilience in critical services and strengthen Sweden’s ability to protect critical infrastructure. The project will therefore share its experience and results through open workshops, seminars and public reports.