A COMMITTED SPECIALIST

With industrial digitalization accelerating at breakneck speed, Utthunga stands apart with its depth, specialization, and vision. Delivering end-to-end servicesfrom IT-OT integration to cybersecurity and automation for industrial OEMs and manufacturersthe company’s capabilities are certainly as broad as they are deep.

Utthunga’s journey began in 2007 with a singular mission: to address the growing need for smarter, more connected systems in the industrial world. “At that time, most off-the-shelf digital solutions lacked the domain-centric understanding and capabilities required to meet the complex challenges of industrial environments,” recalls Krishnan KM, Founder and CEO, Utthunga.

The company commenced by solving connectivity and protocol-related challenges, laying the foundation for what would become a deep focus on industrial integration, optimization, and scalability through purposeful technology.

Innovation and R&D became the cornerstones of Utthunga’s journey. “We actively participated in key industrial standards bodies, contributing to technology specifications, reference designs and enabling our customers to build future-ready products. This deep involvement helped us remain at the forefront of industrial digital transformation,” he shares.

Scaling Industries to New Heights

Looking back at the company’s early focus, the CEO shares how it laid the foundation for deeper integration and scalable technology offerings and propelled Utthunga’s growth journey. “Over the years, our reputation for delivering reliable, innovative solutions with faster time-to-market has earned us the trust of leading OEMs globally,” he notes.

The company has expanded its customer base across geographies by establishing centers in USA, Europe, Japan and UK. A decade later since its inception, it launched its design-led manufacturing practice. “This strategic move allowed us to offer end-to-end services—from concept to product manufacturing—while building a robust ecosystem of partners to support our clients even better,” he adds.

Recognizing the value of real-world feedback, the company implemented customer’s products as turnkey solutions, resulting in the launch of its Industrial Solution business unit. This unit offers automation and digitalization services across sectors such as Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Metals & Mining, Pharma, Power, Utilities, and Discrete Manufacturing. “This was a major step towards realizing our vision of enabling a smart, secure, and sustainable industrial future,” notes Krishnan.

In 2023, the company inaugurated its state-of-the-art Global Engineering Center in Bangalore—a 100,000 sq ft facility dedicated to industrial innovation. It features an industrial experience center with multi-vendor systems, a control lab, hardware assembly lines, and testing labs to visualize, simulate, and experience its offerings.

Powering this continued ascent, Utthunga, today, has eight global offices and a growing team of more than 1,200 ‘Utthungites’ across multiple engineering disciplines. “We proudly serve global OEMs, MSPs, ISVs, and manufacturing companies with capabilities that span the entire value chain—product design, manufacturing, deployment, and lifecycle support,” he shares.

“Our offerings have evolved to include product engineering, digital IT solutions, process and plant engineering, industrial automation, and domain-specific consulting. This positions us as a full-fledged industrial engineering and solutions company,” he adds.

A Brand Identity Rooted in Purpose

The name Utthunga¾meaning ‘the pinnacle’¾is a fitting reflection of the company’s journey. “It reminds us daily of our higher purpose which is our commitment to empower customers and industries to scale greater heights,” aptly describes Krishnan.

The company recently returned to blue as its brand color. “Blue is more than just a color¾it’s a reflection of who we are and where we’re headed,” he explains. While the company previously adopted orange to express the company’s energy and vibrancy, the return to blue represents trust, security, and reliability¾the values that define Utthunga.

“Our logo captures the spirit of transformation. Just as a mountain rises from the depths of the ocean and reaches toward the sky, our solutions guide data from sensors on the shop floor - all the way to the cloud, bridging the physical and digital worlds,” says Krishnan, highlighting the company’s renewed focus on being a reliable, trustworthy guide for clients navigating the intimidating trails of industrial transformations.

A Specialist Among Generalists

In today’s competitive market, Utthunga sets itself apart by being the only engineering services and solutions company exclusively focused on the global industrial ecosystem.

What distinguishes the company from its competitors in the market is its ability to integrate expertise in three critical pillars–Operational Technology (OT), deep domain knowledge, and cutting-edge digital technologies. “This is where Utthunga excels,” remarks Krishnan.

Over the years, the company has made significant investments in building complementary technologies that enhance its OEM customers’ offerings. These include a robust IT-OT integration stack based on OPC UA, industrial edge computing platforms, multi-vendor system integration capabilities, ready-to-deploy asset models, and simulation modules. “These assets empower industries to accelerate their digital transformation journeys efficiently and effectively,” he notes.

“But our differentiation goes beyond just technology¾it’s how we apply technology that truly makes the difference. We combine our strong domain expertise with advanced engineering and digital capabilities to deliver real-world results,” the Founder clarifies.

The company’s value proposition is built upon four foundation pillars: Agility, Innovation, Collaboration, and Sustainability. In terms of agility, “We help customers bring products and solutions to market faster—without compromising on quality. With deep OT and field systems expertise, we are able to adapt quickly, modernize legacy systems, and scale solutions to meet dynamic business demands,” he explains.

Innovation is cultivated through Utthunga’s Industrial Center of Excellence, dedicated Innovation Labs, and co-creation platform, uSpark that fuel the development of groundbreaking solutions that directly address industrial challenges. Moreover, the company operates within a strong ecosystem of partners and adhere to structured internal frameworks that foster seamless collaboration.

Lastly, sustainability is rooted in every stage of the company’s operations, from the design to deployment of energy-efficient solutions that support sustainable operations across the industrial value chain.

Integrated Solutions Across the Industrial
Value Chain

“Today, industrial OEMs and manufacturers need smart orchestration partners that provide integrated, impact-driven solutions across the entire value chain—from product engineering to project integration and lifecycle management. That’s exactly where we add value,” he emphasizes.

The company is one of the very few that offers expertise in various solutions such as Process Technology (PT), Operational Technology (OT), Enterprise Technology (ET) & Information Technology (IT) capabilities under one roof.

This integrated solution package offers tremendous value. For OEMs, it provides a one-stop partner for product engineering who not only understands the product lifecycle but also brings a system-level understanding of their products and domain applications, backed by years of focused industrial expertise.

Meanwhile for end industries, the company acts as a turnkey digital integrator¾connecting the best-fit software and hardware solutions from different OEMs to drive automation and digitalization.

The Convergence of IT-OT

Offering his knowledgeable insights on the industry, Krishnan says, “With the advent of newer technologies and the rising need for digital transformation, IT-OT integration has emerged as a critical challenge for manufacturers, particularly in brownfield plants.”

Today, it’s not just about linking assets within a facility but also about enabling the digital journey for enterprises, including integration with multi-vendor systems and cross-functional enterprise operations. “This complex environment demands expert guidance to craft the right PT-OT-ET-IT integration strategy¾and that’s where we come in,” he explains.

Leveraging its cross-functional expertise in industrial connectivity and protocols, Utthunga adds significant value by identifying and prioritizing connectivity first and interoperability next¾the key enablers of modern industrial digitalization.

Today, manufacturers are also increasingly embracing vendor-neutral integration options, with standards like OPC UA playing a pivotal role. Additionally, this convergence also enables improved monitoring and control of industrial processes, optimizing resource usage and reducing waste. These efficiencies translate into enhanced energy performance and a lower environmental footprint.

“Ultimately, as the advantages of smarter, interconnected systems become increasingly evident, IT-OT integration emerges as a critical enabler of resilient, forward-thinking manufacturing,” the Founder adds.

Cybersecurity: Building Trust into Every Layer

Utthunga’s cybersecurity offerings cover every layer with an approach that focuses on designing and architecting end-to-end secure systems across the enterprise value chain.
They include:

Security Assessments and Audits that includes gap analysis against standards like IEC 62443, NIST, ISO 27001, OT & IT risk assessment and maturity mapping, and compliance readiness checks as per key laws and standards, such as the European Cyber Resilience Act.

Product and System Security Engineering includes the integration of DevSecOps practices across the development lifecycle; threat modeling, secure coding practices, and vulnerability management; as well as security hardening of devices, applications, and embedded systems.

Centralized Cybersecurity Frameworks include the design and deployment of end-to-end security architecture; continuous threat detection and response; and network segmentation and micro-segmentation for ICS and SCADA.

Secure IT-OT Convergence include asset visibility and segmentation strategies; secure remote access and privileged access management (PAM); and real-time monitoring of OT endpoints and IIoT devices.

Verification, Validation & Testing Services include functional, protocol, and performance testing; Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) testing for production-readiness; automated test frameworks to minimize manual effort; and compliance testing for industrial communication standards and safety norms.

Looking Ahead: Industry 5.0 and Beyond

“As we advance towards Industry 5.0, we’re witnessing a significant increase in technology readiness in the Manufacturing industry,” he keenly points out. “Government initiatives like ‘Make in India’ are also accelerating this transition, resulting in rising demand for robust, intelligent, innovative solutions for smart manufacturing.”

Agentic AI is a key focus area for the company, and it is dedicating significant R&D efforts towards enabling the shift to ‘dark factories’ with fully autonomous operations. It also looks forward to building proprietary AI-based knowledge management systems to address the skill gaps in industrial digitalization. Above it all, sustainability remains a central anchor for the future.

NITYASREE KUMARASWAMY Correspondent Magic Wand Media nityasree@magicwandmedia.in

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