How do you protect factory floors, utilities, and critical infrastructure when IT and OT finally run on the same nervous system? That is the challenge at the heart of my latest conversation with John Walsh, Field CTO at IGEL Technology, recorded live at the IGEL Now and Next event in Frankfurt.

Back in March in Miami, John and I talked about zero trust as an ecosystem rather than a product, a way to bring unified management and strong policy enforcement to the endpoint. This time, we take that thinking to the operational technology world, where the stakes feel very different. When a cyberattack hits a factory, it is not only data at risk. It can stop production lines, damage equipment, and cost millions in downtime. John explains how a prevention first mindset, backed by IGEL’s immutable OS, Universal Management Suite, and OEM ready integrations, is helping manufacturers and OEMs move security out to the edge where attacks actually begin.

Across the episode, John lifts the lid on IGEL’s work with partners such as Intel, Honeywell, Zscaler, and others who see OT as a growth frontier. We talk about US Department of Defense zero trust 2.0 requirements, European regulation, and what it really takes to extend zero trust thinking from the office to the plant. From dark industrial networks to containerized workloads at the edge, from sensor attestation to the kill chain, this is a grounded look at how endpoint security, confidential compute, and sovereign architectures are reshaping industrial resilience.

This one is for anyone who cares about the future of secure infrastructure, whether you work in manufacturing, utilities, or simply want a clearer view of where zero trust is heading as AI powered threats accelerate. Do you believe prevention first security can truly keep pace with autonomous attacks, or are we still leaning too heavily on detection and response thinking from an older era of cyber? I would love to hear your thoughts.