SCADA in the Cloud
With the momentum of MQTT building in the past few years, SCADA and the cloud are two technologies coming together more than ever.
What is SCADA in the Cloud?
Running a SCADA system in the cloud is a fairly straightforward concept: you have a server running somewhere in the cloud, and you install a SCADA system on it. Functionally, this is the same as putting a server in your office or facility datacenter and installing a SCADA system on that machine. But, the major difference lies in access. Barring any network security on the cloud machine, you can access it from anywhere with an internet connection. Compare this to the server running in your facility—you can likely access it from anywhere with an internet connection provided you also have access to the network. Usually, you’ll use a VPN connection so the network is not exposed directly to the outside world.
You can run a server in the cloud in many ways: as a shared or dedicated machine using a cloud hosting provider like Linode or Digital Ocean, or with a computing instance with a cloud computing service like AWS or Azure. Depending on the platform, you may also be able to use a Docker image hosted in the cloud for additional scalability options. Each of these approaches has its own pros and cons.
Recently, Inductive Automation has even released Ignition Cloud Edition. Learn more about it on our new post: Ignition Cloud Edition Made Easy.
The major driver will be overall cost which can be influenced by many factors including:
How much bandwidth do you need?
How fast does the server need to be?
What type of instance do you need?
When choosing a cloud solution, be sure to keep your estimates conservative so you don’t end up with a monthly bill an order of magnitude higher than you budgeted for!
Who Benefits from SCADA in the Cloud?
Across many cloud based projects Corso Systems has worked on, we’ve found three main use cases where SCADA in the cloud works well.
1. Companies with many remote sites or OEMs
SCADA in the cloud makes sense for companies who have many sites deployed with their own local HMI and PLC implementations. Especially if they need a centralized repository for data collection, reporting, and potentially control.
This applies directly to OEMs who offer an analytics or maintenance package for their systems, including some with mobile apps to provide real-time notifications.
Companies with many remote sites benefit from SCADA in the Cloud by saving SCADA license costs for each facility by using just one larger scale central license. Example licenses include IIoT Architecture using Inductive Automation with Ignition Edge Licenses at the remote sites, or using Opto 22 groov VIEW running on their groov EPIC processors. It could be as simple as a Raspberry PI running the Codesys runtime for local HMI control, or many other scenarios.
Once the data is in the cloud, you can access it using SCADA clients, data analysis tools, mobile devices, or any other software integrations you might require.
2. Combining small systems into a larger SCADA implementation
Similar to one company running many remote sites, there is also a healthy market for combining small control systems into a SCADA as a Service platform. Essentially, a company will host an Ignition gateway in the cloud, and customers will sign up to pay a monthly fee to have their SCADA system managed in the cloud. This usually allows them to connect their PLCs to the SCADA platform and save on overall licensing costs.
This is very prevalent in the Western US where in states like NV there are many small water treatment systems for various towns. The towns may not have a large enough budget or requirements for their own dedicated SCADA system, but their business model can easily absorb a monthly fee to use someone else’s with shared resources .
3. Large scale operations that need enterprise level data collection repositories
On the opposite end of the spectrum, consider large companies with many plants, sometimes located throughout the world. They may have process engineers who are tasked with analyzing data to find patterns with the process, or on the business side, they may need to run reports on production across the entire organization.
In these scenarios it is common to have a SCADA system at the plant controlling everything within the facility, and a duplicate data repository in the cloud for the analysts. The benefit of this approach is you can let the local SCADA servers control the process without the added bandwidth from the corporate users. Likewise, you can build separate projects for the corporate level system designed to accommodate those users without impacting the plant level projects.
With the prominence of large scale cloud-based SCADA systems, there is even a product from Amazon Web Services (AWS) called AWS Outpost where you can host an AWS instance at your facility. This gives you the best functionality of the cloud without the additional bandwidth costs from pumping data into AWS directly.
Plant Floor Communications
Remember, SCADA in the Cloud requires getting data from somewhere to put in the cloud. Typically, a SCADA system will use direct PLC connections. When PLCs are on the same physical network as the SCADA server, overall security risk is low. But, moving to a cloud-based model can expose many security vulnerabilities.
This is such a common issue that Inductive Automation removed the capability for direct PLC connections from their newly announced Ignition Cloud Edition.
Ideally, to get data into the cloud you will use a protocol like MQTT, database replication, or other tools such as key value stores like Apache Kafka, MongoDB, or Redis. This will give you the same data as the plant level system without the security vulnerabilities of direct PLC connections.
Pricing Models
Typically, pricing models for SCADA in the cloud are wrapped up into a fixed monthly service cost, or set up on a “pay-as-you-go” plan. For a stable system not expected to grow, a fixed monthly cost can be easy to calculate based on the expected bandwidth. Pay-as-you-go options can be geared to more scalable setups like using Docker—or they can act as a usage-based bucket, adding the cost of the SCADA platform into the overall cost of associated services when using an AWS instance.
Understanding the pricing model of SCADA in the Cloud is important for avoiding unexpected bandwidth costs. It might require you to filter out some data, or use MQTT with exception-based reporting, rather than a polling type communication protocol like OPC UA.
Additional Benefits of SCADA in the Cloud
Some additional benefits of using SCADA in the cloud are the additional tools and technologies you will have access to when using a cloud platform like AWS or Azure. You can easily put your data in front of other systems to take advantage of Machine Learning, Predictive Maintenance, System Health Monitoring, Data Lakes, and Asset Monitoring frameworks.
While all these tools all exist at the plant level, they might require extensive integrations to fully utilize them. One of the selling points of cloud-based platforms is their flexibility and interoperability between various modules. Using AWS, you can get the power of a few handfuls of integrations at the plant level at the flip of a switch and an increase in your cloud-based budget.
Wrapping Up
SCADA in the Cloud is not only possible with the various platforms on the market, it is being implemented regularly.
But, there are considerations—both from a cost/value standpoint and from a security/privacy one. Securely setting up SCADA in the Cloud takes more know how than setting up a SCADA server in your facility. That said, there are many examples of how to do it properly across many industries.
Please reach out and let us know if you have any questions about how to migrate to SCADA in the Cloud from your current setup, or what you need to know if you are starting from scratch!
