SCADA Solutions for IoT Projects
Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) Solutions for IoT Projects
Our ready-to-integrate SCADA system is an IoT enabled solution, designed to perform remote monitoring, real-time reporting and management of your Industrial Assets.
Our experienced teams of IoT developers and Industrial Automation domain experts have partnered with global customers to build highly secure and customized SCADA solutions.
Leverage our web-based SCADA solutions to:
- Reduce the reaction times
- Enhance the Production and Operator efficiency
- Gain better visibility of your Industrial Assets and Operations
- Reduce task overheads and simplify operations
- Maximize performance
Features of SCADA Solutions for IoT Enabled Automation
Designed and developed by a team of IoT veterans, our advanced SCADA solutions are designed to help your business achieve the winning ROI.
Following are some of the key features of our SCADA solutions for industrial automation:
Responsive web application
User Role Management
Zone/Site Management
24/7 Online IoT systems and back-up management
Data analytics & Report generation
SCADA System Security
Firmware & Security Patch updates
E-Mail alerts to users
System Architecture of a SCADA Solution for IoT Projects
Meet Our IoT Leaders
Technology Frameworks and Platform Details
Our reference SCADA software solution can be customized as per your Industrial Automation use-case and business objectives. Following technology frameworks and platforms form the backbone of our typical SCADA Solutions.
| Component/Framework | Technology |
|---|---|
| Operating System (supports SCADA) | LINUX |
| Frontend Development | HTML5, CSS, Bootstrap, Javascript, Ajax, HighCharts |
| Database for analytics and processing | PostgreSQL |
| Platform for SCADA Software implementation | Python Scripting |
| Communication Protocol ( Server and Gateway) | MQTT |
| Web framework | Django |
| Communication Protocol (Server and Devices) | MQTT, RESTful APIs |
| Security Services/ Encryption | HTTP and/or HTTPS |
| Web Server | Nginx or Gunicorn (WSGI) |
| Framework for Big Data Processing | Apache Spark |
| Cryptographic protocols | TLS/SSL |
FAQs Regarding SCADA Solution for Industrial Asset Management
- A. At Embitel Technologies, during our global customer engagements in the last 11+ years, we have leveraged following business models for SCADA solution development:
- Fixed Cost Model: Based on a pre-agreed fixed cost, we take care of the Development (On-premise) + Deployment (client premises or on 3rd party cloud platform) of custom designed SCADA solution as per the client’s business requirements.
- Time & Material ( T&M) : We perform 24×7 support and maintenance of the SCADA solution post-deployment, based on the time and infrastructure costs
- A. Yes. Our SCADA post-deployment support and maintenance services include:
- Support for post-production issues (if any), the feature enhancement requests, the change requests (CR), and software/security patch updates.
- 24*7 monitoring and maintenance of the SCADA system.
- A. Yes, the SCADA solution supports both horizontal and vertical scalability to deal with the increasing volume of data and number of devices.
- Most of the Industrial Automation and other IoT applications require SCADA system to work on non-structured data.
In order to support the scalability of our SCADA solution, we store the collected data from IoT devices in a non-relational database. A non-relational database does not store data in the conventional tabular schema of rows and columns. The schema less data management architecture ensures that our SCADA system is capable of supporting the scalability in terms of volume as well as variety of the collected data.
- To cater to the increasing number of IoT devices that need to be deployed and monitored through the SCADA system (horizontal scalability), we fork multiple instances of the database in a distributed environment. This helps us in load balancing and maintaining the performance of the SCADA system even as the IoT devices grow in huge numbers.
- A. We ensure end-to-end security throughout the SCADA solution. The three main security components of our SCADA solutions are:
- Device Side Security:
- Generate a Root CA (client authentication) certificate from SCADA.
- These certificates are installed into the target IoT devices that are part of the network.
- Whenever, the SCADA receives a data from a remote device, it first verifies the root CA certificate to check if has been sent from a trusted source.
- Cloud/Server Side:
Within the cloud server, role based access control mechanism is implemented to prevent access to the critical data by unknown users.
Such a role based access management of data within the SCADA helps in streamlining the data access (supervisor, admin etc.). There is a separate interface within SCADA to perform important admin related activities. - Encryption: All the data interactions of the SCADA system are secured using SSL encryption mechanism, to protect the network against security threats. Only authorized recipient can decode and access information.
Thus SCADA system verifies the data for integrity and authenticity and thus protects the network from interaction with any random device.
As an additional layer of security, device ids of each device are matched against authenticated list of devices to prevent the data ingestion from devices.
- A. Yes. In an IoT network where the connected devices support multiple interfaces and protocols, our SCADA solution indeed ensures seamless operations. This is achieved because:
The SCADA solution is independent of the low-level hardware design and is capable of supporting a multi-device environment. Hence, it will be able to communicate with these devices via multiple communications protocol.
Additionally, the modular design of the SCADA solution provides our developers with the freedom to support various kinds of industry recognized communication protocols.
- A. Our SCADA solution can be customized to support analysis like historical graphs, time-trend series and other analysis related to the IoT devices in the network.
High-performance business intelligence dashboards and tools such as Power BI, Amazon Quicksight and others can be integrated for analyzing the stored (field) data and transforming them into actionable insights.
The data from the server can be displayed on the operator dashboard as bar graphs, charts – as per your project requirements.
Further, instant reports can be generated from the SCADA web interfaces in various file formats like PDF, Excel, or CSV.
- Ans. Improved RoI:
SCADA provides valuable information in the form of real-time & historical data about the industrial assets.
With the help of advances Business Intelligence tools and efficient algorithms, this data can be used to address design and system loopholes, perform maintenance to preempt failure. Thus SCADA makes way for an improved ROI by optimizing maintenance and repair costs, & minimizing the machine downtime.
- Remote Device Management:
SCADA system facilitates remote device management through standard methodologies such as configuration management, Firmware-over-the-air (FOTA) upgrade, & more. The capability to remotely manage your critical industrial equipment trims down the operational and re-call related costs.
Additionally, SCADA helps improve the operational efficiency of the connected devices by enabling the authorized users (operators and maintenance teams) to report and issue and implement necessary corrective actions.
- A. We have developed our SCADA system based on modular design principles. This makes it easy to integrate any new platforms or automation system environments.
The modular architecture design of our SCADA solution ensures that the system upgrade is easily executed without impacting the field-deployed connected IoT devices. This also facilitates us to add additional functionalities to your SCADA system to support the changes in business needs.
- A. Right now, our SCADA system doesn’t support accessing the data from a different interface other than the dashboard. But SCADA data can be accessed with the help of a REST APIs, in a secure way.
- A. We have been partnering with organizations around the world for successfully developing and deploying the SCADA systems.
- End-to-end design, development, and deployment with 24*7 maintenance of SCADA solution for India’s Largest IPP (Independent Power Producer).
- Our team also partners with this customer for SCADA hosting
Following is the snapshot of one such engagement (more details and success stories will be shared during more detailed discussions)
- A. Typically, a team developing SCADA system development should comprise of:
- Cloud Platform development experts
- Experts in IoT communication protocols ( MQTT, CoAP, HTTPS)
- Cloud security experts
- Front –end (UI/UX) Engineers
-
SCADA is an acronym for ‘Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition’. A SCADA system is an automation control system that aggregates real-time data from industrial devices or systems, in order to monitor and control them.
SCADA systems are widely used in industrial plants and manufacturing facilities, to remotely manage large-scale industrial processes and systems operating in geographically distant locations.
-
Following are some of the basic components of a typical SCADA solution:
- Remote terminal units & Programmable logic controllers: RTUs and PLCs are connected to the actuators and sensors integrated with the field-deployed devices. They do the hard work of aggregating data from these sensors, in real-time. They are also responsible for monitoring various field parameters like equipment current and voltage measurements, ambient temperature, moisture levels and much more. The RTUs and PLCs are connected to the supervisory computers.
- Supervisory Computers / Master Units: A Supervisory computer or Master Unit consists of software components responsible for initiating communications, storing data collected from RTUs and PLCs into a database, sending alarm notifications, generating reports – among others.
- Human-machine interface: An HMI acts as the interface allowing the operating personnel to monitor and control the on-field devices. The HMI is an UI on computer screen or any other hand-held device, through which an operator can view the real-time status of the field-deployed devices in the form of schematic diagrams.
The operators control the field devices by sending commands using a keyboard, mouse pointer or a screen touch.
- Communication infrastructure: The communication infrastructure is the nervous system of a SCADA solution. This facilitates exchanging of data amongst the different entities of the SCADA system viz. HMI, supervisory computers, PLCS& RTUs. The data communication within SCADA can happen via wired or wireless network, depending on the application requirement.
Related Blogs: Learn More About SCADA Software Solution and its Application in “Internet of Things”
- “Build or Buy the SCADA Solution?”: A Million Dollar Question Asked by every Enterprise before kick-staring their IoT Journey!
- What is SCADA system? Learn About its Application in IoT Projects
- A Million Dollar Question – Should I Build or Buy the SCADA Solution, for an Enterprise Industrial Automation Project?
- [Video] What is A SCADA System? Find Your Answers in the ‘S’, ‘C’, and ‘A’ of a SCADA Solution
