Brainstorming the Future of SCADA Systems

监督控制和数据采集（SCADA）系统在自动化项目中起重要作用。尽管60年来发生了很多变化，但在过去20年中，SCADA系统的改进并不多。发生了一些重要的变化，例如从DOS到Windows平台的转变，以及采用开放协议和高性能HMI，但是SCADA系统通常落后于其他类型的软件。

尽管如此，SCADA巩固了其在自动化系统上的必要性。您无需向买家解释为什么他们需要SCADA系统。SCADA也被视为通过工业协议与任何设备通信的绝佳工具。

But in the era of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), what’s the role of SCADA systems? Will they still have a long life? How can SCADA evolve for the future?

Several SCADA platform providers are forgoing the large base of protocol interfaces to rely instead on third-part gateways with OPC UA or OPC DA. Tools like the Intel IoT Gateway allow users to create an industrial gateway using free software and affordable hardware, meaning SCADA is no longer required at the collector level. With real-time data being streamed using open-source software, people can also create reliable interfaces to monitor real-time data.

So, is SCADA dying?

There is still a lot that can be done by SCADA that won’t be covered by other tools. One example is alarm management, for which SCADA systems are very reliable. They are also very robust tools for working on premise, where availability is key.

但是，对于IIOT，SCADA系统将需要发展（一些提供商已经处于正确的道路上）。SCADA系统将需要能够处理数千或数千个，而是数十万甚至数百万个设备及其数据点。为此，不仅需要权力下放，而且还需要一种处理消息流量的有效方法，因为Apache Kafka分布式流媒体平台发生了。历史数据库将不再是标准的SQL解决方案（尽管我并不是说SQL在时间序列中已经死了），而是可以水平扩展的。

Perhaps one of the biggest changes has to do with the real-time databases. Today, in many systems, there are variables in random access memory (RAM). In a scalable scenario, they will have to use a database system—in memory or not—that will allow for instant delivery of real-time data to thousands of possible users. It might be weird to think about thousands of users in a SCADA system, but I believe SCADA is entering this stage with IIoT.

In his book “Crossing the Chasm,” Geoffrey A. Moore presents the challenge in sales and adoption of new technology between the early adopters and the early majority. The last tail refers to the laggards—those people who would never buy your product anyway, unless there is no other option or the product is part of another solution. Guess what—that is probably already happening with SCADA. Most people don’t even think about buying a SCADA system for their homes; they don’t even know what it is. But a lot of them are users, monitoring their power generation on solar panels or accessing their thermostats on smartphones. So SCADA is probably now on the late majority, reaching its first laggards. Being at the late majority stage means SCADA is still in its peak. But with IIoT, I believe the laggards tail might be much longer than we think.

Having worked with automation software for my entire career so far, I believe a lot still has to evolve, especially with regard to security, architecture and user experience. But this is already happening in new markets where SCADA does not seem as viable, where innovations such as voice commands and image recognition are being used along with old standard SCADA features. There is a big market for SCADA. It’s just changing.

Mario Gonsales Ishikawa是Scadahub技术, a member of the控制系统集成商协会（CSIA）。有关Scadahub的更多信息，请访问其个人资料Industrial Automation Exchange.