JR: That's a very important question. Traditional SCADA systems obviously need to gather the data and apply it relatively simply. Traditionally, they are quite effective in terms of when something's above or below a certain threshold, creating an alarm, and driving an action. Now, with the greater processing power at the edge, we gather more data, and then we kind of create tension. A plant isn't generally constrained by what type of data it consumes. It can pull out everything that a PLC or edge computer can provide. The question is do you process the data at the SCADA level? We see some industry trends where there's a desire to push more of that processing into the SCADA or use it to pre-process data and then pass it to a tool further up the chain, residing perhaps in the cloud or in premise specifically designed to analyze it.
If you look more at the telemetry aspect there are two additional challenges outside the plant. You must consider the security of the data you're transmitting and the cost and bandwidth restrictions you're under while moving the data.
What is clear to me, though, out of all of these competing trends or needs, is that the expectations the industry has for visualization and presentation capabilities of the SCADA, are increasing. Users demand tools to create mechanisms to present the data or correction to present the products of the data as information to their users, operators, and supervisors.
Q: How can organizations be ready for all these changes?
AT: There isn’t a magic wand for us to get industry ready, but there are some actions that companies might start looking at to prepare for the technology. First, consider the power of edge systems. I know that cloud solutions are powerful and very common, but the cloud is not for every aspect of our processes. We might start with powerful, yet accessible, solutions on the edge to harness the potential data from connected products in our premises. Edge solutions are powerful and safe, and our cloud component can be an element of reinforcement for data processing, providing our industries with a higher level of insights and AI driving solutions. This hybrid approach is probably the best way to bring industries from zero to 100 in a safe and smart way.
JR: Those looking ahead to how they can best take advantage of these trends to improve their operational effectiveness should have a clearer idea of what they're trying to accomplish and what would be a meaningful improvement as they're looking to conduct an experiment or an exploration, or to create a prototype of a possible system. I think that kind of focus makes the experiment or the exploration a lot more successful.
Q: Everyone wants to maximize value. What is the value proposition for this kind of hybrid approach?
AT: We have different solutions designed to maximize the value of data in our industries. For example, we have solutions specifically designed to gather information related to environmental conditions from a pump. The value on this type of edge device application is it is connected to our cloud service where we process the data to provide our customers with a single user interface, and you can see data in near real time.
The value is to be able to process as fast as we can in edge devices and reinforce that data processing with AI-powered solutions. With this type of solutions, you are one step ahead of any kind of failure you might have in the facility. This type of architecture lets us process both at the edge and in the cloud, while the users receive real value from its connected products.
JR: I think the one thing I’ll add is our ability to provide the seamless integration across a series of tool sets to provide that information right from the edge to the control room. We also have mechanisms to bring that information directly to the technicians, operators, supervisors and engineers.
