Why You Should Upgrade Ignition
Corso Systems has worked with the Ignition SCADA platform for a LONG time. Our first Ignition deployment was with version 7.3! As of the writing of this post, Ignition is on version 8.1.25, and has come a long way as an integrated platform over the past almost 15 years!
In case you were wondering what the progress from 7.3 to today looks like, we have a detailed post outlining every Ignition release from version 7.3 to 8.1.19. (Note that there haven’t been any major changes from 8.1.19 to 8.1.25. When there are items to note on a version release, we will update the post accordingly.) In the post, we also describe the easiest upgrade path to from any prior version of Ignition to the latest version.
We like to keep our customers current with the latest and greatest technology and tools available, including Ignition. Unfortunately, in the manufacturing industry we often run into the attitude of “this is working well as is, we don’t want to change anything.”
While we have seen many servers running various versions of Ignition with uptimes in YEARS, there are some important things to keep in mind as Ignition continues to improve as a platform. In this post today, we’ll highlight the top reasons Corso Systems recommends that everyone should upgrade their Ignition gateways to the latest and greatest version available. Upgrading Ignition is a very easy process and we are happy to do the work for you, including setting you up with support at a discounted rate if you need version upgrade protection.
Changes to Oracle’s Java Support
Back in 2018, Oracle announced that they were changing their Java support offering. They would start requiring companies using Java for commercial purposes to have a paid support contract in place. While Oracle has been the go-to standard for Java for many years, there are also many open-source alternatives.
Inductive Automation announced that they would be bundling an open source Java version with the Ignition installers to eliminate the reliance on Oracle’s Java version. This change applies to all Ignition versions 8.0 and above, and anything after 7.9.10.
If you don’t upgrade Ignition, you will likely have already needed to upgrade your Oracle Java installation to a paid support version, or you have chosen an open source installation as you could no longer launch clients and designers using Java Web Start with .jnlp files from previous versions of Ignition.
It is imperative to keep your Java versions up to date. As with any computer technology, there are always opportunities for security vulnerabilities to be exploited in older versions. And software companies usually provide patches to fix these issues in later versions. This is especially prevalent with Java as we saw with the Log4J Vulnerability in 2021.
The best approach for keeping your Java version updated is to upgrade Ignition to the latest version. As new versions of the open source Java libraries are released they will also be included in the Ignition installer packages.
Increased Security Protections
Over the last 15 years, Ignition has undergone many improvements across the board, including in regards to security. To get the most up to date information on Ignition security, be sure to monitor the Inductive Automation Ignition Security Portal.
The most recent version of Ignition containa all of the improvements, patches, and fixes to any known bugs, including—most recently—the patches to fix the vulnerabilities found at the Pwn2Own Hack-a-Thon in February 2023.
If you are not keeping your Ignition installation(s) up to date, you will be exposed to any security vulnerabilities that Inductive Automation hasn’t fixed since your version was released.
Ignition 8.1 even supports Identity Providers (IdP) for Perspective, Vision, and the Gateway itself. Now you can enable single sign on from any account that supports SAML or OpenID connect. For example, we use Google Workspace at Corso Systems and have all of our emails tied into our Ignition demo and internal development servers, simplifying our user account management tasks.
The Ignition Perspective Module
One of the biggest reasons to upgrade to Ignition 8.1 is the Ignition Perspective Module. Ignition Perspective gives you the ability to use Ignition on just about any device. Phones, tablets, Smart TVs, and even dashboard screens in Teslas can all run Perspective clients!
We have written plenty about the differences between Perspective and Vision and are happy to share a demo with you of the exciting things we have built over the last few years using Perspective!
Ignition Exchange Integration
Taking advantage of the Perspective Module also gives you access to many of the free community-developed resources on the Ignition Exchange. Corso Systems has over a dozen resources listed there, and the community at large is constantly releasing new resources. Since most of them are developed in Perspective, you will need to upgrade to take advantage of them.
Corso Systems Can Handle Everything For You
Over the last 15 years of working with Ignition, we have done many upgrades. As mentioned earlier in this post, we have even detailed the process of upgrading from Ignition 7.3 to 8.1. We even mapped out the four upgrades you need to do to most easily go from 7.3 all the way to 8.1.
We can typically perform an upgrade and full validation of any Ignition system in less than a day. At the same time we will also find ways to optimize your deployment—this includes mapping out where you can leverage User Defined Types (UDTs), graphic templates, style classes, and even how to structure scripts and project resources to maximize how your system uses them.
We would be happy to help guide you on the upgrade path, and provide white glove service to get you to the most current version of Ignition. Please reach out and let us know how we can help!
