Bridging IT OT in Manufacturing Scaling, Security, and the Future of Industrial Technology

This panel discussion will explore the evolving intersection of IT and OT in the manufacturing industry, focusing on the challenges and opportunities in scaling, security, and infrastructure. Experts will discuss how new technologies, like containers and AI at the edge, are reshaping the landscape, and what this means for the future of industrial operations. We’ll also delve into the organizational and technical barriers that must be overcome to fully realize the benefits of these advancements over the next 3 to 5 years.
About the speakers:
Tobias Schneck is a Principal Architect at Kubermatic, an open-source platform for Kubernetes management. He is a passionate advocate for open-source technologies and has a deep understanding of cloud-native infrastructure. Tobias has over 10 years of experience in the IT industry and has held various positions in development, operations, and architecture. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has written numerous blog posts and articles on cloud-native topics. Bringing the advantages of cloud native technologies and development workflows to everybody is his aim.
Johannes Mundorf is a Software Architect at SmartFactoryKL and Researcher at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern, specializing in the domain of Edge-Cloud for manufacturing. Prior to joining the research institute, he gained hands-on experience in the global SmartFactory team of a leading manufacturing company, contributing to the development of an IIoT architecture. His current research explores how modern IT technologies in edge and cloud systems can be integrated with Operational Technology (OT) environments to create flexible and resilient manufacturing systems.
Alfred Schmid focuses on microservice architectures with Kubernetes on premise and in the cloud. For him, the focus is on ensuring that the software offers added value for both users and developers. Work should be efficient, productive and enjoyable at the same time. Fun at work and clear benefits are inextricably linked.