Sample System Architecture
Solution Overview
Today, industrial companies use a variety of technologies to store and analyze the operational data generated by their automation systems in what can be called an automation data pipeline. This pipeline may include operation data infrastructure such as the PI System®, ERP systems, industry-specific reporting systems, SCADA, field controllers, communication adapters, etc. The quality of this pipeline is dependent on the consistent configuration of data across all the involved systems. Most organizations use individual manual processes to maintain each system, which is labor intensive and error prone.
To overcome these challenges, CSE ADaPT was built. It automates the process of keeping an organization’s automation data pipeline in sync, which:
- Increases the confidence in the validity of operational data
- Eliminates the time needed to manually correlate data between systems
- Allows users to focus on using their data for adding value to the organization
- Reduces the overall time needed to administer systems making up a company’s automation data pipeline
- Provides auditing capabilities of the automation data pipeline configuration, and consequently, the ability to detect any manual changes made to systems included in the pipeline
Solution Approach
CSE ADaPT utilizes a customizable architecture that supports most automation data pipeline scenarios. It leverages a web-based architecture for providing the user interface and workflow management. A database backend is used for state management, queuing, and configuration data. A Windows service is provided which utilizes native APIs, including the AF SDK, to manage configuration of the pipeline systems, including the configuration of tags and templatized AF elements. In the sample system architecture shown, the origin of asset information changes is a web server. From there, the changes are propagated using CSE ADaPT to the Data Archive, AF, and other operational technologies.