The First Five Decisions You Need to Make When Choosing a SCADA Platform

If you are looking to implement a SCADA Platform at your facility right now, you have a ton of options. Industry elders like FactoryTalk View, Wonderware, Indusoft, or iFix—updated offerings include Inductive Automation’s Ignition platform, Tatsoft’s FrameworX platform, or Wonderware’s Archestra platform. Or you can take full advantage of things like MQTT and Industry 4.0 and roll your own using any number of web development frameworks. If you are wondering if you should roll your own using a web framework, please let us know, we can help guide you down that path with a number of our past projects.

1. Do You Need a Database?

Will you simply need an HMI to run your plant floor, or will you collect data from your process to understand and continually improve your operation?

If you are going to use a database—and let’s be honest, in this day an age you should take advantage of them—you will want to skip the industry elders. Yes, you CAN build a full scale MES system on FactoryTalk View SE, but that doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Modern tools like Ignition, Tatsoft, and Archestra are well suited to databases with built in support for just about anything you might want to do, even without SQL experience!

You will also want to consider what you plan to do with the data. Do you need reports, dashboards or trends? Or will it only be necessary to file it away in the case you need it in the future? Again you will find the more modern solutions are better suited to handling these tasks, as they were built with data analysis in mind.

2. Will Your SCADA Need a Mobile App?

If you are reading this post, chances are you have at least one smart phone or tablet within arm’s reach. Most business software has a browser-based version if not a dedicated mobile app.

If you want to use mobile devices to monitor and manage your process, you will to want to focus on Ignition or FrameworX. If you want a dedicated mobile app that can also tie into your mobile hardware you are going to want to use Ignition.

You can get away with a browser-based experience using FactoryTalk View, Wonderware, or Indusoft, but it will be severely limiting and rather cumbersome to set up. Worse, you will have to maintain a second application and update it any time you make changes to the base application!

Instead, if you are using Ignition for your SCADA system, their web-based Perspective Module will allow you to develop a single application with a seamless operator experience, including a mobile app.

3. Do You Need a SCADA Platform or an Integrated Suite of Specialized Tools?

In the spirit of full transparency, the industry elders might have a leg up on the newcomers if you want a suite of specialized tools you can use for world-class capabilities for your task. Using integrations with software like FactoryTalk VantagePoint, Arena, and the FactoryTalk InnovationSuite FactoryTalk View, can be one spoke on the wheel of an amazing tool. But, you will need to use separate programs for everything and getting it all under one roof can be tricky. You will also need to learn how to manage and develop in a number of different platforms simultaneously.

On the other hand, platforms like Wonderware (especially with Archesta), Ignition, or Tatsoft only require you to learn one development environment for their platform to get the job done. Since these are singular platforms, you might not get the most powerful version of a tool available, however that doesn’t mean you can’t extend it to do just about anything you want. The trade off is that these platforms require more involved development and know-how than most companies will have in house.

You can use multiple software packages with just about any SCADA platform. So, if you do want tools for more advanced trending and analytics, in the Ignition world there are a number of options available that can connect directly to your gateway.

4. Communication Is Key, What Will You Need To Connect?

SCADA stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. Those last 2 words have the potential to get you into a lot of trouble in the right circumstances.

For example, if you are using Allen Bradley PLCs, FactoryTalk View SE is easy to set up. If you are using Siemens PLCs and you want to use FactoryTalk View you need to use something like Kepware to communicate unless you can use the built in OPC servers in the S7 PLC Processors. If you want to use Modbus, same thing. Sure, there are hardware options to do it in the PLC itself, but this is something to take into consideration.

Wonderware has many built-in drivers for the most popular PLCs on the market, while FrameworX and Ignition are not bound to any hardware and support just about everything natively.

If you are on the cutting edge and using MQTT for your data integrations (especially from remote sites) you are best served by choosing something like Ignition and the MQTT Modules from Cirrus Link—founded by one half of the team who invented MQTT in the first place.

5. What Comes After SCADA?

While none of us can see the future, we usually hear about some of the most innovative technology in this industry. Nothing in our industry moves quickly, yet it seems like we are still fighting hard to get to where Silicon Valley was in 2017.

Whether it is IIoT, Industry 4.0, Machine Learning, AI, or even Quantum Computing, it is wise to keep the horizon in mind when selecting a SCADA platform. Even cloud computing or fully distributed systems are something to consider. Looking at the architecture of each SCADA solution will help you understand how they keep up with the times.

Companies like Rockwell keep up to date by acquiring software companies—thus adding more platforms you need to learn until they eventually get it somewhat integrated. Others like Inductive Automation will add new modules on to their platform over time to enable new functionality within the same development environment you are already familiar with.

These approaches impact how you will be able to deploy SCADA solutions in the cloud. Ignition is based on a client/server architecture, so whether it is running on a computer in your facility or one in a datacenter halfway across the country ,it can be a seamless experience to your operations. Conversely, some of the Wonderware and Rockwell offerings make implementing a cloud based system very difficult without some overhauling.

The Easy Answer

It would almost be laughable if we could say anything other than “It Depends” when asked what SCADA solution is right for you.

“It depends” is the only correct answer to that question for most people. It really does depend on a number of factors, some of which we outlined in this post. Past the basics, more discussion is necessary to narrow down exactly what platform works best for you, because no SCADA solution is one size fits all.

What works for companies of a particular scale might be complete overkill for larger or smaller company. The decision might be based on what development talent you have in house (or are able to contract), what experience you or your purchasing people have with various vendors, or even what you did or didn’t like about a particular vendor’s website. You will also want to consider their licensing model.

At Corso Systems, we can quickly help you narrow it down to a couple of options that will work well for you. We can help you figure out the pros/cons, where you will run into the limitations of any solution, and how to mitigate those limitations to get the best bang for your buck. We can guide you through the right decision with confidence, and we have the ability to help you develop and deploy anything you might need to make your operation run more smoothly and make your people more productive. We’ll also hopefully make your day much less “interesting” because automation and your new SCADA platform will do exactly what it is designed to do for you.