I’ve accumulated a couple of news items from Emerson. The most interesting tidbit lies in the standard company description found at the beginning of all corporate news releases. This one highlights Emerson as a software company, as in “Emerson, a global software, technology, and engineering leader.” I’ve written a post and recorded a podcast (which is popular, by the way) on the “software is eating the industrial world” topic. There is no income for media coming from software, but it’s an interesting direction for this market.
The two items include moving its SCADA SaaS platform to Microsoft Azure in the cloud and registering its AMS Device Manager with FDI.
Emerson Supports Sustainability with Improved Cloud-Hosted Industrial Control Platform
Emerson explains the benefits of moving to the cloud as improved scalability, data protection, and threat intelligence, not to mention sustainability as it moves its Zedi Cloud SCADA software-as-a-service to Microsoft Azure.
The more robust cloud host enables customers to securely scale their supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems quickly and easily to achieve environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments, better safeguard critical business assets, and empower users to adapt their operations to changing requirements while mitigating risks and operational costs.
Emerson’s Zedi Cloud SCADA platform uses advanced automation and software, including proven machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to build predictive models that lead to autonomous operations over time, helping support sustainability efforts in oil and gas, water/wastewater and other data-intensive industries. Critical data from those predictive models can then be stored in an operation’s data historian to more easily track and trend performance and emissions and demonstrate compliance to regulators.
The Zedi Cloud SCADA platform helps personnel manage advanced analytics in formats that present authorized end users with clear, easily understood data accessible in the cloud anytime from anywhere. This improved access to intuitive data enables easy remote monitoring of assets, helping users improve operational performance even in rugged, dangerous, or distant locations. Increased layers of cybersecurity and the more robust network afforded by the Azure platform enable customers to further protect data for advanced continuity of operations.
Emerson Improves Device and Process Visibility with FieldComm Group Registration
AMS Device Manager is the first software of its kind to be registered under the Field Device Integration standard, making it easier to monitor and optimize plant health.
Field devices collect and transmit important data that personnel use to improve plant health, performance, and reliability. FDI registration will reduce the need for plants to support two different technologies to integrate and maintain field devices. Full FDI registration is important to avoid having a patchwork of systems and devices that only support individual elements of FDI but still require extensive integration effort. Because manufacturers can pick and choose individual FDI features to support, some device management applications will likely not contain every feature a plant requires. Emerson worked side by side with FieldComm Group for nearly two years to enable AMS Device Manager to pass the group’s rigorous testing process for registration, which requires all features to be supported by the software.
The newest release of AMS Device Manager will make it easier, more secure, and more cost effective to access device data. FDI integration technology eliminates the need for plants to support the two most common technologies for installing and configuring devices: Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) and Field Device Tool/Device Type Manager (FDT/DTM). Instead, all FDI devices support a single installation package, so organizations will no longer have to double up on time, training, and effort when installing field devices.
