Full OT visibility still leaves 49 percent of operators struggling with legacy equipment

Seeing every OT asset barely moves the legacy problem ^[18]. In the Palo Alto Networks sample of more than 1,600 security and operations leaders ^[2], 52 percent name legacy OT as their most common visibility problem ^[3]. Among those who say they see everything, 49 percent still list it as a challenge ^[5]. The two figures sit three points apart, on different bases ^[18].

The seven tools large operators run on average have not given most of them a full view of their OT assets ^[1]. Respondents put the cost plainly: 59 percent say the tools make operations more complicated ^[6], and 56 percent report higher operating costs ^[7]. Alert handling has not kept up. Just over half still sort alerts by a standard severity score or by hand ^[8].

The survey write-up ^[2] does not break out breach rates by tool count or say how many respondents claimed full visibility. It supports the complaint about complexity and cost, and it cannot show whether a bigger stack meant fewer breaches.

The respondents' preferred next step is more automation. Asked what would most speed IT and OT convergence over the next two years, 52 percent picked automated alert correlation ^[15]. Correlation software speaks to incompatible technology, cited by 44 percent of operators that have not merged the two security operations, and 44 percent cite differing priorities between the teams ^[14].

For gear that cannot be patched, the survey's measure of response is containment speed ^[11]. Fifteen percent contain incidents in minutes through automation, up from 10 percent a year earlier ^[11]. Half of respondents, 51 percent, want to reach that point within twelve months ^[12], a target 36 points above today ^[19]. Last year's gain was five points. At that rate the 51 percent mark is about seven years away ^[20].

The AI figures say little about defense ^[17]. Ninety-five percent worry about attacks driven by Frontier AI, the survey's term, and 91 percent think AI-based security tools will help fend those attacks off ^[16]. Only 19 percent use AI across four or more operational areas, and that count includes process optimization and predictive maintenance, so it does not isolate security use ^[17].