Executive Summary
About This ShortList
Operational Technology (OT) security has become a critical component of enterprise cybersecurity as industrial systems increasingly connect to IT networks, cloud platforms, and remote operations. Industries such as manufacturing, energy, utilities, and healthcare rely on OT environments to support safety-critical and mission-essential processes, making disruption or compromise a direct business and operational risk rather than a purely technical concern.
Modern OT security solutions focus on gaining continuous visibility into industrial assets, network communications, and operational behavior without disrupting fragile or legacy systems. Agentless monitoring, protocol awareness, and passive inspection remain essential to understand normal operations and detect anomalies that could indicate malicious activity or unsafe conditions. As environments scale and converge with IT, OT security platforms are also expected to integrate with broader security operations, asset management, and incident response workflows.
OT security is increasingly recognized as a practical enabler of Zero Trust strategies in industrial and clinical environments. While Zero Trust is not a discrete technology category, OT security platforms help enforce least-privilege access, reduce implicit trust between systems, and limit lateral movement within operational networks. This ShortList reflects OT security’s evolution from isolated monitoring tools to an integral layer in protecting critical infrastructure, supporting resilience, and aligning industrial environments with modern cybersecurity and Zero Trust principles.
Threshold Criteria
Constellation considers the following criteria for these solutions:
Core Capabilities
- OT asset discovery and visibility
Provides continuous visibility into OT and industrial assets, including PLCs, DCSs, HMIs, sensors, and IIoT devices. - Support for OT and industrial protocols
Monitors and analyzes traffic across common OT and ICS protocols such as Modbus, DNP3, PROFINET, and other industrial communications. - Agentless monitoring and deployment
Enables security monitoring without requiring software agents on OT devices, minimizing operational risk and disruption. - Network traffic analysis for OT environments
Observes east-west and north-south traffic to detect suspicious activity and unsafe communication patterns. - OT-specific threat detection
Detects threats and malware targeting industrial systems using OT-aware analytics and threat intelligence. - Anomaly detection based on operational behavior
Identifies deviations from established baselines that may indicate cyber threats, misconfigurations, or unsafe operations. - Vulnerability and exposure awareness
Identifies known vulnerabilities and risky configurations in OT assets to support risk reduction and remediation planning.
Differentiated Capabilities
- Risk prioritization aligned to operational impact
Correlates threats and vulnerabilities with asset criticality, safety impact, and business risk. - Integration with IT and security operations platforms
Integrates with SOC tools, SIEM, XDR, and incident response workflows to support coordinated detection and response. - Support for Zero Trust principles in OT environments
Helps enforce least-privilege access, segmentation, and reduced trust between operational systems. - Hybrid IT-OT visibility and context
Bridges OT and IT environments to identify attack paths and lateral movement risks across converged networks. - Scalability across large and distributed industrial estates
Demonstrates the ability to operate across multiple sites, facilities, and geographically distributed OT environments.
The Constellation ShortList
Constellation evaluates more than 15 solutions categorized in this market. This Constellation ShortList is determined by client inquiries, partner conversations, customer references, vendor selection projects market share and internal research.
- ARMIS
- CLAROTY
- DARKTRACE
- DRAGOS
- MICROSOFT
- NOZOMI
- PALO ALTO NETWORKS
- TENABLE
- TXONE
- XAGE SECURITY
Frequency of Evaluation
Each Constellation ShortList is updated at least once per year. Updates may occur after six months if deemed necessary.
Evaluation Services
Constellation clients can work with the analyst and research team to conduct a more thorough discussion of this Constellation ShortList. Constellation can also provide guidance in vendor selection and contract negotiation.