These are the words of Eladio García, Director of Manufacturing, Infrastructure, and Transport for Industry and Consumer Goods at Minsait (Indra Group), during his presentation at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where he addressed the importance of converging technological environments in factories and industries. Only by integrating both domains, the expert reminded the audience, can all the devices in an industrial infrastructure operate optimally; processes remain synchronized, and decisions can be made in real time.
In this context, García emphasized that mobility has become an operational necessity: it empowers the connected worker, makes data available for real-time decision-making, shortens response times, and strengthens security. “The question is no longer whether there will be IT/OT convergence, but how quickly and securely we can scale it. The business's dependence on digital operations is now structural and demands governance and cyber resilience commensurate with the impact. In other words, the critical question is no longer 'which device' to use, but whether the infrastructure can support mobility as a core part of the operation, at scale and with controlled risk,” explained the head of Minsait, while also asserting how “mobility accelerates this IT/OT convergence because it forces alignment between teams and technologies. Well-governed, it creates a framework of predictability in demanding industrial environments; poorly managed, it only adds noise and risk .
The importance of connectivity
To guarantee this process, communications—and especially private 5G networks—are becoming the critical enabler for industry. Eladio García emphasized that the new generation of connectivity provides low latency, high reliability, and high performance, essential capabilities to support advanced use cases such as autonomous vehicles, digital twins, augmented reality-assisted maintenance, real-time quality inspection, and connected worker solutions. Unlike traditional infrastructures, 5G “enables quality of service guarantees, segments OT traffic, and offers robust communications coverage, even in complex industrial environments, making connectivity a strategic asset that drives systems convergence and facilitates the scalability of digital transformation within the plant itself .
In this area, the company has highlighted its comprehensive approach that goes beyond infrastructure deployment, combining its expertise in critical communications and private 5G networks with advanced integration capabilities to ensure connectivity is fully aligned with industrial processes and business objectives. Furthermore, Minsait's proposal incorporates cybersecurity into factory processes from the design stage, protecting operations without compromising availability. "In this way, 5G not only enables new use cases but also becomes a secure, scalable, and resilient platform for the industry of the future," the company stated.
Three risks on the industry's radar: cybersecurity, governance, and organizational preparedness.
During his presentation, Eladio García emphasized that, as the industry connects people, machines, and data, the primary risk vector is cybersecurity: any incident ceases to be a technological problem and becomes a matter of business continuity and the safety of people.
The second challenge is data control: when sources and systems converge, questions emerge about ownership, traceability, compliance, and accountability; without clear rules, the organization cannot trust or scale.
And third, he pointed out, organizational preparedness is key: technology advances faster than capabilities; silos, talent gaps, and role ambiguity slow down or block initiatives, all under the constant pressure of innovating without halting production. “Companies that move forward treat these challenges as strategic decisions: they align operations, IT, and security from the top down, establish clear priorities, and define risk tolerance from the outset. A strategic approach, encompassing all levels of the organization, is needed for technology to truly scale and deliver the results and benefits for which it is designed ,” he noted.
For Minsait, it's clear that the success of IT/OT convergence over the next three to five years won't come from those who accumulate the most advanced technology, but from those who deploy the most scalable and resilient operating model. In this roadmap, connectivity becomes a strategic asset that must be reliable, secure, and predictable; security evolves from a defensive approach to being built-in and integrated across the entire value chain (IT, OT, and cloud) to withstand and recover from incidents without interrupting production; and worker empowerment becomes a priority, through mobile and automation tools that simplify, not complicate, supported by training and change management.
