The Protection Is Across Converged IT and OT Environments
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, 31 August, 2026: Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) and CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) today announced an expanded collaboration to introduce Cognizant Cybersecurity for Operational Technology, an Operational Technology (OT) security service powered by CrowdStrike Falcon® for XIoT. The service combines Cognizant's industrial engineering expertise and managed security operations with CrowdStrike's unified visibility and protection across XIoT and IT environments designed to help protect mission-critical assets.
As IT and OT environments continue to converge, industrial organizations face increasing cybersecurity risk. Legacy assets, expanded connectivity, remote access, and the proliferation of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies are creating attack surfaces that traditional security approaches may not fully address. In OT environments, a successful cyberattack may disrupt production, affect safety systems or damage to critical operations. This underscores the need for cybersecurity strategies tailored to each organization's unique operational environment.
"Organizations are increasingly looking for cybersecurity solutions that reflect the realities of their unique operating environments," said Vishal Salvi, SVP & Global Head of Cybersecurity, Cognizant. "As an AI Builder, Cognizant understands that effective cybersecurity must be tailored to each client's operational context. Together with CrowdStrike, we're bringing a unified approach that combines CrowdStrike security technology with deep industrial expertise to help clients reduce risk, strengthen resilience and protect critical operations."
Cognizant's OT Security service, powered by Falcon for XIoT, is designed to provide unified visibility and protection across XIoT and IT environments, combined with 24x7 managed operations to help protect critical assets while helping minimize disruption to industrial processes. Cognizant's engagement model follows an assess, architect, act and assure lifecycle across six OT security domains, supporting a structured, end-to-end approach from initial asset discovery through continuous governance.
"IT and OT convergence has erased the boundaries adversaries once faced," said Daniel Bernard, Chief Business Officer at CrowdStrike. "Together, CrowdStrike and Cognizant are bringing AI-powered protection across IT and OT to stop breaches without disrupting the critical operations businesses depend on – all on cybersecurity's winning single platform, Falcon."
The service's capabilities span OT asset discovery and visibility, threat detection and response, vulnerability management, attack surface management, identity and data protection, and governance and compliance. The partnership, which originated in 2025, has already secured clients across manufacturing, energy and critical infrastructure sectors.
Together, Cognizant and CrowdStrike aim to help organizations modernize OT security while protecting the critical operations their businesses depend on to run.
