Control room operators need to look at a wide variety of sources to make decisions. If they are lucky, their workspace is organized in a way that sources are presented as efficiently and ergonomically as possible. This might seem trivial at the surface, but it’s not. Behind the scenes, an efficient integration of different content sources brings a lot of challenges for control room IT departments, often leading to headaches for the IT staff. Let’s look at some of the most important ones.
#1 Seeing information from isolated networks
The common operational picture (COP) and operator workspace of today have become a mix of operational technology (OT) and IT sources. In many cases, control center operators are monitoring operational systems like SCADA, PLC or industrial applications, together with typical business IT systems, like Office applications, news channels, weather information or social media.
Due to the proliferation of smart devices and the Industrial Internet of Things, OT and IT networks are increasingly exchanging data. But as OT systems are connecting to IT networks, it has become more attractive for cyber criminals to target critical systems that provide power, communication, or production capacity.
Operators may be looking at OT and IT sources through the same keyhole, but keeping the two information systems separated and safe, while using them to their most effect, is the challenge for control room IT departments for years to come.
#2 Managing access levels and user roles
Related to the previous challenge, a control room operation needs to have clear roles and security levels defined. Not just any control room operator will be able to access every part of the system, or do just anything when they have access.
IT departments will need to organise granular permissions, which enable control room managers to control the type of access their operators have. Depending on their role, some users could be granted access to all information sources, while others could only need to access certain applications.
#3 Secure communication and collaboration with different locations and agencies
Combining knowledge and viewpoints from different stakeholders often leads to better insights. That’s why there is an increased need for control rooms to work together. Agencies from different institutional levels and working on different locations, need to exchange information, which often resides on different, isolated networks.
Operators need visibility of other agencies’ operations at all times, and need to be able to compile the COP with content residing on different networks, without compromising the security of their operations.
#4 Integrating information from legacy and new systems
To reach a higher level of situational awareness, control rooms are always adding more and newer source types to the COP. The addition of content coming from all kinds of devices – phones, CCTV cameras, smart sensors, has made it more difficult for legacy systems to keep up. The challenge here for IT departments is to go for a software architecture that allows systems to scale and which offers high flexibility for additional content types and workflow changes.
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https://www.barco.com/en/news/2020-12-01-5-operator-workstation-challenges)