Exploring IT-OT Convergence & Industrial Data Spaces
This page documents my attendance at the enerTIC Foro Tendencias 2026: Convergencia IT-OT on 15 April 2026, and how it connects to my broader interest in data spaces and interoperability across sectors.
The Forum — What It Is
The enerTIC Foro Tendencias 2026 is a gathering of technology and operational leaders from the energy, utilities, and industrial sectors, focused on the convergence between IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) environments.
Held at the Hotel Eurostars Madrid Tower, the agenda covered:
- IT-OT integration in energy and utilities: Real-time data, automation, and operational resilience
- Cybersecurity in converged environments: NIS2 compliance, OT-specific threat models, Zero Trust architectures
- Unified platforms and interoperability: From operational data silos to unified decision-making
- Strategic roundtable: How far to converge — efficiency, risk, and regulatory context
Participants included CIOs, CISOs, COOs and CDOs from companies such as Redexis, Enagás, ENGIE España, Merck, and GASIB (Cepsa GLP), alongside technology firms like Capgemini, Kyndryl, Palo Alto Networks, N3uron, and IFS.
Why I Attended — The Data Space Connection
I attended in exploratory mode, as an independent consultant with no vendor affiliation.
My interest is not in IT-OT convergence as an infrastructure challenge per se — it is in what happens when operational data becomes accessible, structured, and interoperable across organisational boundaries.
The IT-OT convergence agenda is, at its core, about the same structural question I explored in tourism through SEGITTUR LinX:
How do you make operational data useful beyond the system that generated it?
In tourism, the answer was a governed national data space with standardised taxonomy and a managed connector layer. In energy and industry, the answer is evolving — through platforms, open APIs, and emerging industrial data space initiatives aligned with frameworks like Gaia-X and the EU Data Act.
What I Was Listening For
At the forum, my focus was on themes that connect IT-OT convergence to data space principles:
- Interoperability between IT and OT systems: How do organisations expose OT data in a way that IT systems — and eventually external platforms — can consume?
- Data governance in operational contexts: Who owns the data flowing across a converged IT-OT boundary? How is it curated and made trustworthy?
- The role of unified platforms: Are these proprietary integrations, or are they building toward open, federated data sharing?
- Regulatory pressure as a driver: NIS2, the EU Data Act, and sectoral mandates as forcing functions for structured data exposure
Cross-Sector Pattern Recognition
My work in the SEGITTUR LinX tourism data space produced one clear lesson that applies directly to industrial contexts:
When the complexity of data exchange is absorbed by a governing institution or platform, the competitive advantage shifts from infrastructure capability to domain knowledge and data quality.
In energy and utilities, this same dynamic is playing out — albeit with higher stakes, tighter regulatory constraints, and far more heterogeneous legacy infrastructure.
The organisations that will benefit most from IT-OT convergence are not necessarily those with the most sophisticated integration layer. They are the ones who understand what their operational data means, can describe it accurately, and can make it available in a form that others — whether internal systems, regulators, or future data space participants — can actually use.
Areas of Continued Interest
- Industrial Data Spaces: Energy and utility sector participation in Gaia-X aligned data ecosystems
- OT Data Readiness: What it takes to make operational data interoperable — semantics, quality, governance
- Cross-sector Interoperability: Applying patterns from tourism data spaces to industrial and energy contexts
- Independent Technical Advisory: Supporting organisations evaluating data sharing strategies in regulated environments
Professional Profile
Mario Pagés Independent Consultant — Energy Technology, Digital Infrastructure & Data Spaces
I bring a cross-sector perspective shaped by direct implementation experience in tourism data spaces and advisory work in energy and industrial digitalization.
"IT-OT convergence is not just an infrastructure question — it is a data governance question in a more demanding environment."
Contact
- Email: [email protected]
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mario-pages
- Technical reference: digital.piy.es
- Forum reference: enerTIC Foro Tendencias 2026