I recently published some thoughts on Overthinking on another of my websites. It fits my thoughts on the Schneider Electric/Foxboro announcements on an “open controller.”
Elias Panasuik, Schneider Electric Sr. Director of Offer Enablement, talked with me yesterday to answer my many questions about this news.
Turns out that Foxboro SDA is essentially a new DCS. Rather than integrated into a traditional tightly integrated hardware/software solution, SDA decouples the software from hardware. This affords a user the ability to find available compute to target the application. The solution can coexist with older systems while enabling engineers to extend into a new process at the plant. What I find interesting is what underlies the thinking—this utilizes a lot of the best thinking from the IT realm used in a distinctly OT environment.
Panasuik told of customers looking for recent computer science grads to fill part of the process control function. The teams should be composed of both chemical engineers and computer science engineers—these latter conversant with things like Python and scripting and security and the like.
Developed by listening to real customer challenges; aging systems, rising costs, and the need to do more with less, Foxboro SDA decouples hardware from software to protect existing investments and enable a smooth, lower-risk modernization path. The result is simpler workflows, faster insights, and sustainable performance gains.
Key Features
• Open, Software-Defined Architecture: Foxboro SDA decouples software from hardware to deliver vendor independence and interoperability, enabling flexible, scalable architectures that simplify
• Cybersecure & Future-Ready: Foxboro SDA is built with secure-by-design principles and IEC 62443-3-3 compliance, delivering a future-ready platform that enables IT/OT convergence, AI/ML integration, and autonomous operations for Industry 4.0 and energy transition.
• Simplify Operations & Reduce Costs: Customers can lower CapEx and OpEx, streamline deployment with intuitive tools, and minimizes downtime by avoiding obsolescence and enabling predictive maintenance.
As the first software-defined distributed control system, Foxboro SDA is a validated, software-defined automation architecture for distributed control systems powered by EcoStruxure Automation Expert (EAE). It enables interoperability, rapid deployment, and fit-for-purpose configurations while maintaining high availability. The system ensures digital continuity by keeping data connected and consistent throughout the plant lifecycle—from design to production to maintenance. This enables automated workflows, better product quality, and easy integration with analytics for smarter, real-time business decisions.
Customers benefit from a future-ready upgrade path, built-in cybersecurity, and simplified operations that support IT/OT convergence and advanced technologies like AI and machine learning. Foxboro SDA provides our customers with a control solution that is unbound by hardware, engineered for agility and empowered by data. It’s more than a system – Foxboro SDA is a strategic enabler for digital transformation.
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