Among the earliest conversations I had about using Ethernet in industrial control were with Mark Fondl—then vice president with Modicon, now Schneider Electric. He was a strong advocate long before anyone else (other than Benson Hougland at Opto 22) foreseeing the power of Ethernet as the networking medium of choice.
After the Schneider acquisition of Modicon and the subsequent downgrading of that type of automation within the company, Fondl left, founded Network Vision, and developed a handy little tool for managing industrial Ethernet networks called IntraVUE.
In what I hope a success story for an entrepreneur, Fondl has sold the assets of Network Vision and the IntraVUE tool to networking supplier Panduit. That company has been an integral part, along with Cisco and Rockwell Automation in the Industrial IP Advantage project.
Press Release
Here is the news from the press release. Panduit Corp. announced it has completed the acquisition of IntraVUE by Network Vision Inc. This acquisition increases the Panduit Industrial Automation Infrastructure offering to its customer base with a tool for visualization and diagnostics of Industrial Ethernet control networks.
“The Panduit offering and route to market complements IntraVUE by combining our ability to bridge the physical installation of the infrastructure to the applications supported by the network with the world-class developer and provider of physical infrastructure solutions”
Automation networks are susceptible to interruptions which often result in downtime, and lost production. While conventional tools are frequently unable to detect many types of network interruptions, IntraVUE provides the capability to identify and report information critical to improving uptime of the Industrial Ethernet infrastructure.
According to Matthew O’Sullivan, Panduit EVP of Industrial Automation Infrastructure business, “The proven capabilities of IntraVUE and the expertise of the team will provide our customers with the ability to increase the reliability of their network infrastructure and as a result, improve operational uptime.”
“The Panduit offering and route to market complements IntraVUE by combining our ability to bridge the physical installation of the infrastructure to the applications supported by the network with the world-class developer and provider of physical infrastructure solutions,” said Mark Fondl, founder, Network Vision Inc.
Deployed globally, IntraVUE is a tool trusted by industrial controls professionals to assure network uptime for manufacturing plants that use Ethernet technologies as a part of their controls and automation network. This tool provides network diagnostic capabilities in addition to real-time visualization and monitoring of the Industrial Ethernet network, helping manufacturers proactively improve the uptime of their Industrial Ethernet infrastructure.
