By Alfredo Melendez
We had the pleasure of interviewing Tyler Miller, Director of MetroCloud at Metropolitan Industries, to gain insights into the world of SCADA, particularity in the water and wastewater sector. Here are his informative responses to our questions.
1. What is Cloud SCADA?
SCADA, is short for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. It is a collection of software and hardware that allows its users to monitor and control a process from a centralized location. In the water and wastewater world, it’s the system that monitors treatment plants, lift stations, wells, elevated tanks, and pressure stations, to name a few!
Cloud SCADA is the same concept, but without the dedicated computer sitting at a public works facility. Instead, the software collection is hosted remotely, saving the asset owner from needing to maintain complex servers.
2. What are the primary benefits of migrating Traditional SCADA systems to cloud based SCADA?
Hardware maintenance for short. Traditional SCADA requires the owner to maintain complicated servers and networking equipment. Often times, asset owners are far too busy maintaining their water systems to stay up-to-date with the latest security updates, trends, and best practices required to keep their system secure and operational.
A Cloud based SCADA system alleviates the concerns of maintaining hardware, performing routine backups of data, and keeping the software licenses up-to-date!
3. How does cloud-based SCADA enhance operational efficiency compared to traditional SCADA systems?
Often times traditional SCADA utilizes one or two stations that operators can access to monitor their entire system. As a result, they only have a few places to view the data, which then creates an operational bottleneck.
Scenario: Imagine an alarm occurring in the early morning hours. Operators will need to answer the call and dispatch to the operator station to determine what the issue is and how they can resolve it. If the affected site on their call-out is far from their station, they’ve wasted precious time and money depending on the severity of the call.
Cloud SCADA eliminates these operational inefficiencies because instead of dispatching to the operator station, the operator can instead log in remotely from where they received the call and perform the same diagnostics and deploy directly to the affected site. This time savings can be dramatic depending on the number of staff and geographic size of the system.
4. How does Cloud SCADA help with preventative maintenance and detecting issues before they occur?
By leveraging the cloud, you have access to all the other platforms and capabilities it offers, none more newsworthy as of late than AI and Machine Learning (AI/ML). By analyzing data from the infrastructure and feeding it into a model, one can begin to predict things such as motor failures, water main breaks, and much more.
Cloud SCADA has infinite resource capabilities which makes it easier to implement predictive models. On the other hand, to run a local AI/ML server with traditional SCADA would entail significant upfront costs for most asset owners.
5. What are the key security challenges unique to Cloud SCADA?
When Cloud SCADA is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is potential security concerns, and rightfully so! When using a Cloud SCADA system, the provider of the software needs to ensure that security is the cornerstone of their offering.
Unfortunately, the world we live in shows us time and time again that any system can be compromised, even the most air-gapped systems. However, the goal is to be as difficult as possible for potential attackers and should an event occur, be fast to respond and recover.
When SCADA is accessible from anywhere, be in via the cloud or a traditional SCADA system with remote access enabled, the security concerns are more similar than they are different.
6. What role does scalability play in a Municipalities’ adoption of Cloud SCADA solutions?
Scalability is something every municipality should keep in mind when shopping for a SCADA platform, cloud based or not. When purchasing SCADA software packages, they are often priced by the number of tags, or data points, in their system.
As we march towards a more connected future, we are seeing more and more asset owners asking for more data from their systems, which of course leads to needing more tags.
With a Cloud based system, adding more tags is a simple task that doesn’t impact your system. Traditional SCADA requires that you purchase additional licenses from the software vendor. On top of that, they then need to reinstall your software to apply them. A typical 20MGD wastewater plant in Illinois can use 5000-10000 tags, and these licenses can be incredibly expensive!
7. Can you discuss the impact of latency and network reliability on Cloud SCADA performance?
Connectivity is a concern when thinking about Cloud SCADA. However, we have noticed that there is little to no latency impact in regards to Cloud vs Traditional SCADA. In terms of network reliability, the nature of cloud is diversified networking.
Speaking about MetroCloud specifically, we are using multiple points of presence across the country, so that if any one area had issues impacting service, the other area makes up for it immediately with little-to-no impact on existing connections. In a traditional system, oftentimes the same internet provider or power grid connects the two redundant servers, which means that if one fails the other does as well.
8. What are the cost implications of transitioning to Cloud SCADA, and how can organizations manage them?
In consideration of cost, Cloud SCADA typically requires a much smaller upfront cost than a traditional SCADA system.
Traditional SCADA will require the purchase of 3 critical components: software, server hardware, and integration. The software is the fun part! It is often a few different packages, such as a visualization component, a database to record the values, and an alarm manager to notify in the event of an issue. These are the components an asset owner interacts with daily.
Next is the hardware, often times it is an enterprise server that hosts a version of Windows to run the above-mentioned software platforms.
Finally, you have the integration. This is where your preferred systems integrator combines, or integrates, all of the above-mentioned components into one cohesive functional system for your use case.
Cloud SCADA, on the other hand, does not require the purchase of licenses and hardware. These are immediate cost savings for the asset owner. Both platforms often come with reoccurring costs, such as license subscriptions and hardware maintenance contracts for traditional SCADA and platform charges for Cloud SCADA, but Cloud SCADA more times than not ends up being the more budget friendly option.
9. How does Cloud SCADA support remote monitoring and control of industrial processes?
From inception, Cloud SCADA was designed for secure remote access whereas it is usually an afterthought on Traditional SCADA. Most owners simply add remote access via a remote desktop viewer; however, this is not secure and does not provide the functionality needed in today’s day and age.
With Cloud SCADA, users connect with unique credentials and multi-factor authentication to ensure a private and safe connection. User inputs are then tracked and logged in the system for flawless accountability, so asset owners are always aware who is making operational changes to their system.
10. What are the considerations for integrating legacy SCADA systems with cloud-based solutions?
There are typically two primary considerations one must pay close attention to: System Architecture and System Design.
a. Regarding the architecture, you must understand how the existing PLCs/RTUs are connected to the traditional SCADA system in order to translate that to a Cloud environment. Our team at MetroCloud has encountered everything from T1 connections and Bell 202 modems to copper wire being strung along telephone pulls to bring a single data point to a pump station!
b. System design is the other primary consideration. Often times, integrators love to move in and make all kinds of User Interface changes under the guise of “we know best” or “this is the latest standard you should be following.” We have found that more times than not, this leads to immediate rejection of a new platform. Operators already have enough to learn just by accessing core functionality such as alarm management and trending. They don’t want to hunt for critical data in a redesigned application created by an engineer who has never set foot in their plant. They need quick and easy access to the information required to perform their job. This is why from the beginning our team has included our clients in the design process. We build their applications so that even seasoned veteran operators can have a familiar feel when navigating around the webapp. SCADA should be a tool, not a hinderance!
11. Can you share some success stories of organizations that have effectively implemented Cloud SCADA?
Our biggest success stories always involve the same common theme: adaptation. I couldn’t tell you the number of times when administration would be on board for a new system but the operators who run the day-to-day of plant operations aren’t thrilled to have their jobs flipped upside down with this new platform.
However, within a few days of installation, we return to check on progress, and the excitement can be felt as we pull in their driveway. We are often bombarded with questions looking forward to the future, such as what else can this new platform do? Our clients quickly realize they are not limited by the software but empowered by it instead. These are the realizations that keep us going!
12. What future trends do you foresee in the evolution of Cloud SCADA technologies?
As we progress into the future, we will begin to see a lot more AI and Machine Learning implementations into SCADA.
Operators can’t afford to spend their entire days sitting in front of SCADA attempting to identify patterns and trends pointing toward a piece of equipment failure. SCADA is a powerful collection of data, but unfortunately this much data often times leads to fatigue when a human needs to comb through it all to find the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Industry 4.0 is a popular movement in the automation space, calling for increased connectivity from data silos. Opposed to having separate sources of data; SCADA, GIS, ERP, etc., the belief is that the data gathered should be exchanged throughout the asset owners’ systems, with proper security and precaution, of course.
Which leads me to the next evolution, which is an emphasis on cybersecurity and secure remote access. Threat actors across the nation and across the sea will continue to attack our nation’s critical infrastructure. SCADA asset owners will need to be more vigilant and prepared than ever before as these attacks are rapidly becoming more sophisticated and dangerous.
By Alfredo Melendez
