Why OT Cloud Should Be Part of Your Mission-Critical Infrastructure
From virtualisation to AI-driven maintenance, Nokia’s Benoît Leridon highlights how OT clouds and data centres are becoming essential pillars of resilient, intelligent rail operations.
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As digitalisation accelerates across the rail sector, operational technology (OT) is emerging as the backbone of smarter, more efficient operations — from signalling to predictive maintenance.
Over the past 40 years, OT advancements have steadily increased, but the most transformative progress has come in the last decade, as operators shift toward a digital operating model. The deployment of technologies such as GSM-R, digital signalling, computer-based interlocking and automatic train operation has accelerated the infrastructure digitalisation, with the next major milestone being the shift to FRMCS, the future wireless communication standard for rail.
As this digital momentum accelerates, rail operators are embracing more adaptive and intelligent systems. Modern rail infrastructure no longer consists solely of physical assets; digital components like application software and real-time operational data have become equally critical. Leveraging this data through cloud-native tools and analytics platforms enables smarter decisions, enhances operational reliability and drives proactive, optimised maintenance.
The OT cloud
OT clouds, where OT applications are hosted and data is consumed, demand the expansion of the mission-critical railway communications network into the data centre. This evolution has introduced stringent performance, resilience and latency requirements to the data centre fabric: the networking infrastructure inside an on-premises data centre hosting cloud-based systems that monitor and manage the rail network in real time.
The cloud now supports a range of essential services including signalling, ticketing, asset monitoring and surveillance. As a result, the data centre fabric has become a mission-critical component of the rail communications network. Its primary function, along with the wide-area transport network, is to provide seamless, scalable connectivity to applications, but reliability and uptime are just as essential. Even the best-designed systems must be able to withstand faults, spikes in demand and application movement without compromising operations.
Consolidation and Virtualisation
One major trend is the move toward data centre consolidation. Operators are shifting from multiple regional facilities to interconnected purpose-built shared environments. In mainline rail networks, these data centres can even be strategically located near energy sources to reduce power and cooling costs, leveraging the flexibility and scalability of the multi service network.
Virtualisation is another important driver. By moving workloads to shared infrastructure, operators can better use compute resources, reduce hardware overheads and deploy new services with greater speed and agility. This shift also improves maintenance workflows. Legacy monolithic applications that took time to upgrade are also being replaced with modular, cloud-native systems that support fast, flexible micro-services updates.
While physical architecture forms the foundation, the real differentiator is how the data centre is operated. Operators must decide whether to adopt highly virtualised, dynamic environments or more static setups, and often land somewhere in between depending on application needs and even regulatory constraints.
A major focus here is de-risking. This involves not just fault tolerance, but forward planning; using digital twins to simulate data centre network infrastructure changes, testing upgrades before deployment and establishing controlled rollout processes with clear rollback paths. The goal is to ensure safe, predictable operations even as networks evolve.
Advanced data centre network operations are also beginning to integrate AI and natural language interfaces. These enable engineers to interact with systems in more intuitive ways and reduce manual workloads, lowering the risk of human error in high-stakes environments.
AI and Predictive Maintenance
One of the most promising applications for OT cloud and data centres is AI-powered predictive maintenance. By installing sensor networks along the tracks and throughout station systems, operators can collect the data needed to detect anomalies and schedule maintenance before failures occur.
Cloudification also brings operational flexibility. For instance, when resources are depleted in one data centre or maintenance is scheduled, applications like monitoring systems can be shifted to another facility. However, this only works if connectivity is dynamically maintained across the entire infrastructure.
Connecting the Dots: WAN and Data Centre Integration
Applications have long been deployed in distributed data centres statically connected to the the wide area network (WAN). However, OT cloud introduces new demands: dynamic, flexible and seamless interworking with the IP/MPLS wide-area backbone network, ultra-low latency and uninterrupted uptime. This results in less but bigger data centres, driving more efficiency in IT operations, and lowering costs of maintenance, power and cooling. This can only be possible if the multi service network – i.e. the WAN – is providing unlimited bandwidth, using DWDM, and unlimited flexibility using IP/MPLS.
To bridge these diverse networking environments, many rail operators now deploy data centre gateways using BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) to connect the WAN with the data centre fabric. This creates a unified infrastructure with the flexibility, security and reach needed to support dynamic, cloud-native operations.
Building Rail’s Digital Future With Nokia
Though many deployments are still in early stages, it’s clear that OT cloud and data centre integration is no longer an option, it’s a requirement. In the past, rail tenders often overlooked IT and connectivity. Today, those capabilities are written in as core components.
Nokia has proven expertise in delivering mission-critical infrastructure, from highly reliable WAN solutions to scalable, secure data centre networks tailored for OT environments. As rail operators accelerate their digital transformation journeys, Nokia’s end-to-end approach ensures seamless interworking between systems, enabling smarter operations, proactive maintenance and long-term resilience.
To learn how Nokia can help your railway modernise its network and harness the full potential of OT cloud, visit www.nokia.com/industries/railways/rail-ot-cloud-networking/.
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