The true value of an Operational Technology (OT) modernization project is realized long after the go-live date. Ongoing maintenance and optimization are essential to sustaining the health, security, and performance of modernized systems. This phase focuses on building a methodology and culture of proactive maintenance, embedding the practices, tools, and mindset needed to protect your investment and sustain long-term operational performance. 

Enabling a Culture of Proactive Maintenance

The Run & Maintain phase marks the shift from maximizing uptime and production. Instead of resolving issues that disrupt production, proactive maintenance anticipates problems before they occur. This approach is enabled by Champion’s 24UP® Solutions, which combine continuous monitoring, analytics, and targeted improvement strategies. 

• Condition-Based Monitoring: 24UP® implements real-time monitoring of system performance and health. Using data analytics, early signs of degradation are detected, allowing for condition-based maintenance and eliminating costly unplanned downtime. 
• Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM): Maintenance activities are prioritized by asset criticality and failure risk, ensuring resources focus on the systems most vital to safety, production, and compliance. Data from control systems, historians, and sensors supports reliability metrics to guide decisions. 
• Continuous Improvement: Maintenance doesn’t mean standing still. Through 24UP®, opportunities are continually identified to optimize control strategies, enhance efficiency, and introduce new features that drive added value from your assets. 

Sustaining Security, Compliance & Performance

A modernized system is only as secure and sustainable as its maintenance program. With evolving cyber threats, regulatory requirements, and technology changes, sustaining reliability requires continuous vigilance and structured lifecycle management. 

• Vulnerability & Patch Management: 24UP®  enables a disciplined process for vulnerability scanning and patch deployment, tailored specifically for OT environments. Systems remain secure and compliant without disrupting critical operations. 
• Compliance & Configuration Management: Regular audits confirm alignment with ISA/IEC 62443, NIST CSF, and corporate cybersecurity policies. Configuration backups, user-access reviews, and change-control logs ensure the environment remains both secure and supportable. 
• Lifecycle & Obsolescence Planning: Clear visibility into hardware and software lifecycles allows for proactive planning of upgrades and replacements, reducing exposure to unsupported technologies and avoiding last-minute procurement challenges. 
• Spare Parts & Asset Health Management: 24UP®  tracks asset condition and spare-inventory status, helping facilities avoid downtime due to unavailability of critical components. 

Integrating People, Process & Technology 

Technology alone doesn’t sustain performance, people do. Champion’s maintenance approach aligns operators, engineers, and maintenance staff around shared visibility and accountability. 

• Operator Training & Knowledge Retention: Continuous upskilling ensures operators remain confident with modern interfaces and procedures, strengthening both safety and performance. 
• Collaboration & Knowledge Capture: Maintenance activities and troubleshooting insights are digitally documented, preserving institutional knowledge for future teams. 
• Integrated Workflows: 24UP® can interface with enterprise asset-management (EAM) systems such as SAP PM or Maximo, ensuring maintenance coordination and visibility across departments. 

The Champion Advantage

A successful modernization doesn’t end at commissioning; it evolves into sustained performance. Champion’s 24UP® Solutions transforms traditional “break-fix” maintenance into a proactive lifecycle-management strategy that drives long-term value. 

By combining real-time visibility, cybersecurity vigilance, and continuous improvement, 24UP® helps organizations: 

• Extend asset life and reliability 
• Maintain compliance and security 
• Optimize performance and efficiency 
• Empower personnel through shared insight and training 

Modernization is sustained through performance, and Champion can help you achieve your goals, long after the project is complete. 

Expanding Footprint, Escalating Complexity: What's Next?

Industrial operational technology (OT) is evolving fast. Once-isolated systems now rely on interconnected virtual machines, edge devices, software agents, and cloud connectors. At the center of this transformation sits the Industrial Data Center (IDC), the control hub for real-time operations, data acquisition, and analytics.

But with greater digitalization comes a challenge: How do you maintain and secure your IDC in a scalable, reliable, and cost-effective way?

It starts with moving beyond traditional IT approaches and adopting frameworks built specifically for OT environments.

What Makes IDCs Different?

Unlike enterprise data centers, IDCs operate in high-stakes environments where uptime is non-negotiable. A failure isn’t just an IT issue, it can halt production, cause safety incidents, or trigger regulatory violations.

IDCs in critical infrastructure sectors demand special attention in four key areas:

• Operational Continuity: Real-time control requires zero latency and uninterrupted uptime.
• System Reliability: All components, hardware and software, must perform predictably.
• Legacy Integration: OT systems often blend decades-old tech with new platforms.
• Cyber-Physical Risk: Digital breaches can cause real-world harm.

Three Pillars of IDC Reliability & Security

1. Infrastructure Resilience for OT Uptime

Reliability begins with the physical and virtual backbone of the IDC:

• Hardware Redundancy: Use failover-ready servers, networks, and storage to eliminate single points of failure.
• Component Health Monitoring: Proactively monitor CPUs, memory, storage, power, and network performance to identify issues before they impact operations.

2. Cybersecurity Built for Converged OT/IT Environments

Cyber threats don’t stop at the firewall and in OT, they can be catastrophic:

• Network Segmentation: Isolate OT networks (e.g., control, historian) to contain breaches and reduce risk.
• Patch Management: Develop OT-specific strategies that prioritize safety, vendor compatibility, and availability.
• Endpoint Security: Secure all IDC assets, servers, workstations, devices, with antivirus, firewalls, and intrusion detection.
• IAM & Remote Access Control: Enforce least-privilege, MFA, and regular access audits.
• Vulnerability Management: Continuously assess and remediate weaknesses in software, firmware, and configurations.

3. Proactive Monitoring & Lifecycle Governance

Resilient systems don’t just react, they anticipate:

• Full-Spectrum Monitoring: Utilizing a blend of passive, active, and predictive monitoring methods for comprehensive OT visibility and anomaly detection.
• Lifecycle Planning: Implementing scalable strategies for Asset Management across your asset inventory to prevent reliance on unsupported components.
• Change Management: Apply strict controls to manage updates, configurations, and network changes with real-time logging and approval workflows.

The Champion Advantage

For organizations modernizing their OT backbone, Champion Technology Services offers deep experience in building and securing IDCs in high-risk industrial sectors. From hazardous midstream operations to specialty chemical plants, we deliver:

• Turnkey Infrastructure Solutions— From power and cooling to server and storage design
• Secure Network Architectures— Segmented, fault-tolerant, and built for OT
• Integrated Cybersecurity Controls— Aligned with industry standards like ISA/IEC 62443
• Lifecycle & Modernization Planning— Keeping your systems future-ready

You may have experienced it before:

• Your operator experiences an abnormal situation that costs you production time, and your in-house staff is too busy to identify the REAL root cause.

• Extended downtime because a critical part of your control system fails and you don’t have a replacement.

• You are striving for maximum uptime and production, but your control system is not allowing you to reach your goals.

• Your control system reaches end-of-life and you can’t get support.

The list goes on. How can you proactively address these issues while ensuring that your control system is not an impediment in reaching your goals?

Partnership with a solution provider may be the key

24UP® Solutions is Champion’s premier Industrial Control System, Operational Technology, and Industrial Cybersecurity solution led by the experts who have seen it all. Clients rely on 24UP® to ensure a proactive response to issues that often arise, but are often not considered – or simply haven’t had the time to address.

Whether simply providing you with the tools to be prepared for unexpected challenges, or being your primary provider of maintenance and 24/7 emergency support – we work with you to tailor a plan that fits your needs and budget. Your company’s 24UP® Solutions could include your highest need to help you achieve your goals, including:

• PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE such as routine Control System hardware and OT system diagnostics, backups, and imaging, and other preventative maintenance services
• ASSET MANAGEMENT such as critical spare parts assessments, inventory, and the services to replace the parts that keep you up at night
• 24/7 SUPPORT for general maintenance or simply staff augmentation to provide reliability and flexibility
• CYBERSECURITY MAINTENANCE services such as scheduled audits to help identify your OT system vulnerabilities and implement solutions to protect you from the ever evolving cyber threats
• PROCEDURE & DOCUMENTATION to enable your team to perform simple control system maintenance without formal training