Released in January 2010, Ignition is the world’s first truly universal industrial application platform because it empowers any business to connect all of the data across its entire enterprise, rapidly develop any type of industrial automation system, and scale its system in any way, without limits.

Ignition’s modular architecture makes it easy for businesses to customize their system by building the exact industrial automation applications that they need. Its server-centric web-deployment model is flexible enough for any architecture and scalable enough for companies of any size. Ignition’s power and flexibility make it perfect for SCADA, EMS, IIoT and MES systems that work together seamlessly on one platform.

Older models of SCADA software have their series of drawbacks and limitations.

1. The biggest among them is that they are incredibly hard to customize to one’s needs and it can be somewhat difficult to integrate with other software or systems. On the other hand, Ignition was built with the possibility of customization in mind. In fact, it is an application-building platform, which allows the creation of the ideal application for a certain process. As a result, businesses are not obligated to mould their daily operations by the software, which can easily make their competitive advantages that result from the internal processes disappear.
2. Second, they didn’t make use of communication protocols, which means that it was difficult to get different hardware to broadcast and connect with each other. As a server software, Ignition acts as a hub for every system present on the plant floor. This system of total integration can assimilate all brands, models, and platforms, and can communicate with them, creating a stable and streamlined connection between IT and the production process. Furthermore, Ignition is the ideal platform for IIoT because it’s the only platform on the market that has the three core elements needed to make IIoT work: open connectivity, unlimited storage possibilities, and agile applications.
3. Third, SCADA, on its own, also doesn’t allow users to have easy access to real-time data. Most of its software designs use historians, which, in turn, use proprietary technology to store information. This means that time-series data is often kept away from the rest of the company’s data. This can lead to miscommunication or other time-sensitive issues. The information will be available, but only after hours or even days have passed, often making it irrelevant by that point. Luckily, however, Ignition has the ability to connect to different SQL databases simultaneously to log and store data. This means that it is available in real time. This will allow you to view and analyse real-time trends as they happen, or cross-reference any number of information points for greater precision and accuracy. Another advantage Ignition has in this context is that it facilitates a better understanding of what is going on by also giving you access to historical data for comparison.

Ignition is nothing more than a blank slate on which you can customize and adjust to your company’s needs. It works equally as well with any database or any operating system, regardless of the version and has a robust toolset for data acquisition, real-time status and process controls, optimized HMIs, and analytics. In short, Ignition is the ultimate and unlimited integrated software platform for SCADA, EMS, IIoT and MES.

Glossary:

• SCADA – Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition – a system of software and hardware elements that allows industrial organizations to control locally or remote industrial process by interacting directly with sensors and actuators and to monitor, gather and process real-time data;
• MES – Management Execution System – a system used in manufacturing to track and document the transformation of raw materials to finished goods. It provides information that helps manufacturing decision makers understand how current conditions on the plant floor can be optimized to improve production output;
• EMS – Energy Management System – a system used for monitoring, controlling, and optimizing the use of electricity, water, air, gas, etc;
• IIoT – Industrial Internet of Things – enables the acquisition and accessibility of far greater amounts of data at far greater speeds and efficiency by decoupling devices from applications;
• SQL – Structured Query Language) is a domain-specific language used in programming and designed for managing data held in a relational database management system;
• IT – Information technologies;