Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation - is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It is critical to advance the business enterprise but not easy to implement.

One of the largest issues to overcome is gaining access to the operational data or bridging the OT - IT gap. The problem is described below from the nature of OT data and IT needs.

OT Data Consists of :

  • Proprietary Protocols
  • Multiple Data Formats
  • No Contextual Information
  • Designed for Operations
  • Different Across Market Segments
  • Poll / Response Date Retrieval
  • Directly Coupled to Applications
  • Isolated Networks

IT Data Needs :

  • Data Objects/Modeling
  • Standard Data Formats
  • Contextual Information
  • Decoupled to Enterprise
  • Publish / Subscribe Methodology
  • Easy to Integrate
  • Secure

IT has attempted to overcome these technical hurdles by writing code on operating systems at the edge.  This has led to many costly failures as IT has no tribal knowledge of the OT systems.

Digital Transformation

The Cirrus Link solution makes it simple with the Ignition Platform and our MQTT modules to provide the tools that offer business enterprises an easy to implement digital transformation path using open standards without needing to rip and replace current operational systems. How is this done? By following the following three steps.

Connect – Ignition connects to most of the OT system data producers such as PLCs, RTUs, and sensors in their native protocols gaining access to the data.

Data Standardization – Ignition has the tools to configure, not code, and transform the OT data into contextualized IT data with modeling and properties such as engineering units, serial numbers and scaling for quick consumption and utilization.

Decouple – With MQTT & Sparkplug on the Ignition platform, the data is self-discoverable in a open data standard decoupled from a point-to-point proprietary closed architecture into a one-to-many open system where data is freely accessible by any application.

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Download Ignition and the MQTT Modules to get started on your successful digital transformational journey today!