Industrial DevOps is revolutionizing the way Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) engineering processes are managed and executed. This transformation is driven by the need for more efficient, secure, and scalable solutions in industrial automation. Software Defined Automation, a company founded in Munich in 2021, is at the forefront of this change, offering a comprehensive Industrial DevOps platform that addresses the challenges faced by automation engineers today.
The Challenges in PLC Engineering
Managing Multi-Vendor PLC Code
Automation engineers often struggle with managing PLC code across various versions of vendor-specific engineering software. These versions are frequently incompatible, making it difficult to maintain and update systems. Poorly documented legacy code further complicates the process, leading to operational inefficiencies and increased downtime. The lack of standardization among vendors exacerbates these issues, requiring engineers to navigate a labyrinth of inconsistent documentation, fragmented tools, and disparate methodologies. This fragmentation not only slows down development but also increases the likelihood of errors, which can be costly and time-consuming to rectify.
The problem is particularly acute in industries with stringent regulatory requirements, such as pharmaceuticals and automotive manufacturing, where even minor errors can lead to significant compliance issues. Without a unified system to manage these diverse codes, engineers often rely on ad-hoc solutions that are neither scalable nor robust, further amplifying the challenge. Additionally, the need for ongoing maintenance and updates adds another layer of complexity, as engineers must continually adapt to new versions of software and hardware. These challenges collectively create a bottleneck, limiting innovation and reducing the overall efficiency of industrial operations.
Talent Shortage and Outdated Environments
The scarcity of young, skilled talent willing to work in outdated environments exacerbates the problem. Many engineers are reluctant to engage with legacy systems, resulting in a talent gap that hinders the industry’s ability to innovate and maintain operational efficiency. This shortage leads to higher costs and increased security risks. The appeal of modern, flexible work environments in other tech sectors contrasts sharply with the often rigid and outdated systems found in industrial automation. This discrepancy makes it challenging to attract and retain young talent who are more accustomed to agile development methodologies and modern tools.
The reluctance to work in these environments is also driven by the steep learning curve associated with legacy systems. Young engineers, trained in contemporary programming languages and development frameworks, find it daunting to adapt to outdated, vendor-specific languages and tools. This skills gap not only hampers productivity but also leads to a reliance on older engineers who are nearing retirement, posing a significant risk to knowledge transfer and continuity. The result is a vicious cycle where the lack of skilled talent perpetuates the use of outdated systems, further deterring new talent from entering the field.
The Industrial DevOps Solution
Centralized, Cloud-Based Platform
Software Defined Automation offers a centralized, cloud-based platform that manages multi-vendor industrial automation assets, such as PLCs, robotics, and drives. This platform eliminates the need for on-premise software installations, streamlining the management process and reducing the burden on IT infrastructure. By consolidating all automation assets into a single, cohesive system, the platform enables seamless integration and management of diverse tools and systems. This centralized approach not only simplifies the operational landscape but also enhances scalability, allowing organizations to easily adapt to changing needs and emerging technologies.
The cloud-based nature of the platform further enhances its flexibility and accessibility. Engineers can access the system from anywhere, at any time, facilitating remote collaboration and ensuring that critical tasks can be performed without geographical constraints. This level of accessibility is particularly beneficial in today’s globalized industry, where teams are often dispersed across multiple locations. Moreover, the platform’s centralized management capabilities enable organizations to maintain a consistent, company-wide approach to automation, ensuring that best practices and standards are uniformly applied across all operations.
Extending DevOps Principles to Industrial Systems
Industrial DevOps integrates and automates software development and IT operations, streamlining the systems development lifecycle. This approach supports both new and legacy PLC systems programmed in various languages within a vendor-neutral framework. The tools provided enable remote collaboration, approval workflows, scalability, accessibility, and project management. By applying the principles of DevOps to industrial automation, organizations can achieve a higher degree of agility and responsiveness, allowing them to rapidly adapt to changing market demands and technological advancements.
One of the key advantages of this approach is the ability to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, freeing up engineers to focus on more strategic and value-added activities. Automation of testing, deployment, and monitoring processes not only accelerates the development cycle but also reduces the risk of human error, enhancing the overall quality and reliability of the systems. Additionally, the collaborative nature of DevOps fosters a culture of continuous improvement, where feedback loops and iterative development processes drive ongoing enhancements and optimizations.
Key Features of the Industrial DevOps Platform
Version Control
The platform’s version control feature allows teams to efficiently collaborate by tracking changes, identifying who made them, and understanding their nature. This is crucial for industries with strict manufacturing change control regulations, such as pharmaceuticals and medical devices. It also enhances productivity by enabling engineers to quickly review and compare program versions directly in a browser. Effective version control ensures that all changes are meticulously documented, providing a clear audit trail that is essential for compliance and accountability.
In addition to facilitating collaboration, version control also enables organizations to manage complex project histories, allowing them to quickly revert to previous versions if needed. This capability is invaluable in scenarios where newly implemented changes introduce unforeseen issues, enabling engineers to quickly identify and resolve the root cause. By providing a robust and transparent mechanism for managing changes, version control enhances the overall stability and reliability of industrial systems, ensuring that they operate smoothly and efficiently.
Browser-Based Engineering
Browser-based engineering, offered as an IDE as a Service (IDEaaS), allows users to securely access integrated development environments from any browser and internet connection. This service supports multi-vendor IDEs like Rockwell and Siemens, providing license sharing to boost utilization and save costs. It simplifies management by ensuring that IDEs are always up to date, removing hardware burdens. The ability to access development environments from any location not only enhances flexibility but also promotes collaboration among distributed teams.
This browser-based approach also eliminates the need for cumbersome and expensive hardware, allowing engineers to perform complex tasks on standard computing devices. By centralizing the management of IDEs, organizations can ensure that all tools are consistently configured and up to date, reducing the risk of compatibility issues and enhancing overall efficiency. Furthermore, the ability to share licenses among multiple users optimizes resource utilization, reducing costs and ensuring that the necessary tools are always available when needed.
Secure Remote Access
The platform’s cloud-based secure remote access is significantly more secure than self-managed VPNs. It uses encrypted MQTT and WireGuard VPN for secure operational technology (OT) device access, recording every action for complete transparency and auditability. This feature is particularly important in mitigating the risks associated with ransomware attacks. By providing a secure and controlled means of accessing critical systems remotely, the platform enhances the overall security posture of the organization.
Secure remote access is particularly valuable in today’s increasingly distributed and interconnected industrial landscape. Engineers often need to access systems and perform maintenance tasks from remote locations, making robust and secure access mechanisms essential. The platform’s use of encrypted communications and rigorous audit trails ensures that all actions are securely logged and traceable, providing a high level of accountability and transparency. This capability not only enhances security but also fosters trust and confidence among stakeholders, ensuring that critical systems are always protected and compliant with regulatory requirements.
Virtual PLC Management
Virtual PLC orchestration allows independence from vendor-specific hardware, enabling users to run soft PLCs with real-time performance on standard IT servers with edge virtualization. This feature is designed for quick deployment, allowing virtual PLCs to launch in seconds and incorporate both real-time and non-real-time tasks on the same hardware. By decoupling PLC functionality from specific hardware, organizations can achieve greater flexibility and scalability, enabling them to adapt to changing needs and requirements more effectively.
Virtual PLC management also enhances the overall efficiency and reliability of industrial systems. By leveraging standard IT infrastructure, organizations can reduce the complexity and cost associated with managing multiple, vendor-specific hardware platforms. This approach also facilitates more efficient resource utilization, allowing multiple tasks to be performed on the same hardware without sacrificing performance. The ability to quickly deploy and reconfigure virtual PLCs further enhances operational agility, enabling organizations to respond more rapidly to changing conditions and requirements.
Automated Backup
Automated backups from Software Defined Automation help avoid costly setups by supporting multiple vendors and versions from a single interface. The central management of backups across various factory locations ensures consistent business continuity and disaster recovery. The system automatically checks, reviews, and compares code, generating new versions if discrepancies are found. This proactive approach to backup management ensures that critical data and systems are always protected and that recovery processes can be quickly and efficiently executed in the event of a failure.
The ability to centrally manage backups across multiple locations not only enhances consistency but also simplifies the overall backup process, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring that all systems are adequately protected. By automating the backup and recovery process, organizations can minimize downtime and ensure that critical operations are quickly restored following an outage or failure. This capability is particularly valuable in highly regulated industries, where compliance with stringent data protection and continuity requirements is essential.
AI for Automation
The platform utilizes AI to translate PLC code into human language, simplifying the comprehension of complex automation projects and aiding in faster onboarding of new employees. This reverse translation ensures that program documentation is always up to date, making it easier for engineers to understand and work with the code. By leveraging AI capabilities, organizations can significantly enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of their automation processes.
AI-driven documentation not only reduces the burden on engineers to manually maintain and update documentation but also ensures that all program details are accurately and consistently represented. This capability is particularly valuable in complex and dynamic automation environments, where frequent changes and updates are the norm. By providing clear and comprehensive documentation, AI helps to accelerate the onboarding process, enabling new employees to quickly become productive and contribute to project success. Additionally, the ability to translate code into human language enhances collaboration and communication among team members, ensuring that everyone has a clear and accurate understanding of the system’s functionality and design.
Advantages and Benefits
Increased Efficiency and Reduced Costs
Adopting an Industrial DevOps approach leads to increased efficiency and reduced costs. By centralizing code repositories, enforcing enterprise and regulatory standards, and streamlining testing and deployment, manufacturers can achieve greater operational efficiency and security. This approach minimizes downtime and enhances control over the automation lifecycle. The ability to standardize and automate processes ensures that best practices are consistently applied, reducing the risk of errors and enhancing overall system reliability.
The cost savings associated with this approach are also significant. By optimizing resource utilization and eliminating the need for redundant or underutilized hardware, organizations can reduce their overall IT and operational expenses. Additionally, the ability to rapidly deploy and update systems ensures that any necessary changes or improvements can be implemented quickly and efficiently, further enhancing the overall cost-effectiveness of the automation process. The enhanced operational efficiency and reduced costs ultimately contribute to a more agile and competitive organization.
Enhanced Cybersecurity
The growing threat of ransomware attacks in the manufacturing sector underscores the importance of robust cybersecurity measures. Software Defined Automation’s cloud-based approach offers significant advantages by isolating backup and recovery processes from the on-premises infrastructure, thus mitigating the impact of such attacks. This ensures that critical data and systems are protected from potential threats. By leveraging advanced encryption and secure communication protocols, the platform ensures that all data is securely transmitted and stored, reducing the risk of unauthorized access or tampering.
The comprehensive audit and monitoring capabilities provided by the platform further enhance its cybersecurity posture. By continuously monitoring all actions and changes, organizations can quickly identify and respond to any suspicious or unauthorized activity, minimizing the potential impact of any security incidents. This proactive approach to cybersecurity not only protects critical assets but also fosters a culture of vigilance and accountability, ensuring that all stakeholders are actively engaged in maintaining a secure and compliant industrial environment.
Future Vision
Simplified and Secure PLC Management
Looking ahead, Software Defined Automation envisions a future where PLC management and development are simplified, secure, and efficient. The goal is to increase factory uptime, reduce mean time to recovery, and maximize productivity. Their solutions facilitate quick code backup and recovery, track PLC code changes across multiple vendors, secure remote access control, streamline development, translate PLC code into human language, and gain independence from vendor-specific hardware. This vision represents a fundamental shift in the way industrial automation is approached, emphasizing flexibility, scalability, and security.
The ability to quickly and efficiently manage PLCs from a centralized platform not only enhances operational agility but also ensures that all systems are consistently monitored and maintained. This level of control and visibility is essential in today’s fast-paced and dynamic industrial environment, where rapid adaptation to changing conditions is critical. By enabling organizations to efficiently manage and optimize their automation assets, Software Defined Automation is paving the way for a more resilient and productive future in the industrial sector.
Maximizing Productivity and Operational Resilience
Industrial DevOps is transforming the management and execution of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) engineering processes. This shift is largely driven by the growing demand for more efficient, secure, and scalable solutions in the field of industrial automation. Companies are seeking ways to optimize their operations, reduce costs, and increase productivity. Enter Software Defined Automation, a pioneering company founded in Munich in 2021, which is leading this transformation. Their innovative platform is specifically designed to tackle the myriad challenges that automation engineers face today.
This comprehensive Industrial DevOps solution integrates advanced technologies to streamline workflows, improve system reliability, and ensure scalability. By leveraging these modern tools, automation engineers can now achieve greater efficiency and security in their projects. The ability to deploy updates rapidly and maintain continuous improvement cycles without significant downtime is a game-changer for the industry.
Software Defined Automation’s platform supports a wide range of industrial applications, making it a versatile choice for various sectors. Additionally, their focus on security means that engineers can trust that their processes and data are well-protected. This holistic approach ensures that industries can meet the ever-evolving demands of both current operations and future growth.
In essence, Industrial DevOps, with the help of innovators like Software Defined Automation, is setting new standards in industrial automation, paving the way for a more efficient and secure future.