EDUCATION SERIES I: Ignition Enterprise Architecture
What is it and how does it work?
Are you working in an industry, and in a business, that has multiple sites? The maintenance man with the clipboard running/driving/flying around from site-to-site is so yesterday.
If you don’t have connectivity and can’t see live information on your assets in the field 24/7, the ability to maintain your operations remotely is compromised – and therefore reduces the agility and resilience of your business.
Ignition – and an Enterprise Architecture – is your solution to this issue.
What is Ignition?
Ignition is the name of an industrial application development program that was created by a company in California called Inductive Automation.
It’s designed to create efficiencies in connectivity, collect information and present it through easily viewed web-based applications. Collecting information is one thing, but making sense of it both visually and analytically can be challenging. Ignition makes both of these things as easy as possible so that companies can use the data to make informed decisions about their productivity and, ultimately, their overall business strategies. Data collection has to lead to better business awareness and improvement – it has no value in and of itself.
The role of the System Integrator
Once a customer purchases an Ignition licence (and in Australia or New Zealand, iControls is the Authorised Distributor of Ignition – so you would contact us!), they then work together with a type of company called a System Integrator (SI) to determine the scope of their Ignition system. This means they work through what information they want to capture, and why, and how it needs to be presented visually so they can see what is going on within their operation at any given time.
System variables determine Architecture
Behind the visuals, though, lies how the system is actually put together. And how it’s put together is based on any number of variables, including (but not limited to): how many devices the company has, how many clients, how many databases, how many sites (e.g., factories, mines etc), security requirements, and degree of internet accessibility and availability.
There are several types of ‘standard’ Ignition Architectures that address the needs of the customer as dictated by the variables above. However, one of the unique features of Ignition is its architectural flexibility, which allows for systems to be built in any way that meets the pre-determined set of requirements.
‘Enterprise’ Architecture
Today’s Blog is about a specific design called Enterprise Architecture. Essentially, the Ignition Enterprise Architecture enables you to create a connected system whilst also securing data at multiple levels. It can also connect multiple sites to a central corporate server and uses Ignition Edge to ensure data from critical assets is never compromised.
Connecting through a Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) provides an additional layer of security for transferring and accessing data. A DMZ is a perimeter network that protects an organisation’s internal local-area network (LAN) from untrusted traffic.
The Ignition Gateway connects easily to cloud services like Microsoft Azure, AWS, IBM Cloud, and Google Cloud for storage and analytics.
Ultimately though, Ignition’s modular structure allows your team to build a customised solution that fits your company’s specific needs – Enterprise Architecture is just one option.
Ignition drives better businesses
Empower your teams, gather better data and drive smarter decisions with Ignition. 54% of the Fortune 100 and thousands of other companies around the world trust Ignition to improve their efficiency and expand their capabilities. Your company can do the same – contact us to organise a chat with one of our friendly technical experts here at iControls.
Next week
Join me next week as we continue the Education Series and delve into the next Architecture solution!
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