Future of SCADA Summary Report Version 4€¦ · Future of SCADA Summary Report ... which focused...

Future of SCADA Summary Report “A Perfect Storm”

Prepared by: Gregory Tink, President and Samantha Wood, Business Development Coordinator

Future of SCADA Survey Summary of 21

Table of Contents Synopsis ..................................................................................................................................................... 3

The Perfect Storm ..................................................................................................................................... 4

The Process. Lessons Learned .............................................................................................................. 5

Document Organization ........................................................................................................................... 6

Market Share ............................................................................................................................................. 8

SaaS/Cloud .............................................................................................................................................. 10

Security ..................................................................................................................................................... 11

New SCADA System. Key Features .................................................................................................... 12

Standards.Governance .......................................................................................................................... 15

Mobility and Bandwidth .......................................................................................................................... 16

Multipurpose versus Fit for Purpose .................................................................................................... 17

Cost Controls ........................................................................................................................................... 18

IT versus Automation ............................................................................................................................. 20


SYNOPSIS

The purpose of this document is to summarize the results of a survey created by The Streamline Group, which focused on the Future of SCADA systems. Interview, workshop and survey responses from industry experts in IT/IS, Automation, Business Management, Operations, Marketing and Production Accounting were analyzed to create this document, based on the survey questions and topics discussed throughout. The research detailed within this document was primarily focused within the Oil and Gas industry, drawing from conversations, which took place over a period of time with Upstream, Midstream and Downstream clients, without the engagement of outside vendors or integrators.

This document focuses on successful technologies and architectures, and does not point directly to, or name, any specific technology brand or vendor. Its purpose is to maintain the objectivity and independence of the perception of responders, based on the survey questions, which may or may not represent the marketing strategies or desired focus of the vendors or integrators discussed.

The Operational Technology industry currently faces a number of divergent influences and is changing, as a result. In fact, the industry is at a point, where any resistance to the change is seen as futile. The culmination of the influences has established a “Perfect Storm” in the industry and these impacts are changing the perception of SCADA, and consequently, affecting how it is being utilized. This Perfect Storm is powerfully influencing the innovation of the Industrial Internet of Things (“IIoT”), and changing the expectations for data and system utilization in the Industrial Control environment.

This document will discuss the Perfect Storm, which is made up of the following influences on the Future of SCADA, and how they are affecting the world of IIoT:

§ Workplace Demographics § Consumer Technology § Cyber Security § Cost Controls § Commodity Volatility § Resource Availability § Network Advancements § Technology Advancements


THE PERFECT STORM

The Operational Technology industry currently faces a number of divergent influences and is changing, as a result. In fact, the industry is at a point, where any resistance to the change is seen as futile. The culmination of the influences has established a “Perfect Storm” in the industry and these impacts are changing the perception of SCADA, and consequently, affecting how it is being utilized. This Perfect Storm is powerfully influencing the innovation of the Industrial Internet of Things (“IIoT”), and changing the expectations for data and system utilization in the Industrial Control environment.

This document will discuss the Perfect Storm, which is made up of the following influences on the Future of SCADA, and how they are affecting the world of IIoT:

§ Workplace Demographics § Consumer Technology § Cyber Security § Cost Controls § Commodity Volatility § Resource Availability § Network Advancements § Technology Advancements


THE PROCESS. LESSONS LEARNED

Streamline developed a three-pronged approach to getting feedback from the industry experts and the presentation of this concept, ensuring that the appropriate forums were offered, encouraging feedback and discussion that could be utilized for the purposes of this document. First, we held personal, face-to-face interviews, second, we created an online and email-based survey, and finally we completed the process with two industry workshops with experts who were experts in our key focal areas, which are detailed below. We found the most valuable opinions were discussed in the personal interviews, as well as through the interaction between experts who attended the workshops. The online and email-based survey information was valuable, however, it offered minimal additional information. With that said, it should be noted that the email surveys received a high percentage of response, and were preferred over the online survey by our audience.

Participation in this survey was primarily weighted on Automation experts (90%), with IT/IS experts accounting for 55% of that total. Of the groups invited to participate, the attendance was notable, because an equal number of invites to participate were sent out to each group. In total, over 400 participants were engaged in the discussion of the Future of SCADA.


DOCUMENT ORGANIZATION

This document is organized into the Survey and Workshop Areas of Focus. The Areas of Focus were:

1. Market Share – This topic was positioned first to look at the history of what has been successful in the Oil and Gas market, which can often be a predictor of results in the future. The discussion then turned to how Market Share will be attained in the future, relating to Industrial Control and Operational Technology.

2. Software as a Service (SAAS)/Cloud Influence on SCADA – These two key trends for software deployment are seen as driving critical future movements in the IIoT. This focal area discussed how the experts saw these trends influencing SCADA systems in the future, and how the market may respond to these concepts.

3. Cyber Security – This discussion focused on the influence of Cyber Security on future SCADA systems, primarily as it concerns new technology and the capacity of automation required as the industry progresses.

4. New SCADA Systems/Key Features – This discussion was focused on what is and will be expected, required, and foreseen for the Future of SCADA systems specifically. The responders were enthusiastic about identifying the challenges the next generation of SCADA systems would bring forward.

5. Standards and Governance – The purpose of this area of focus was to understand how the experts in this field view the need for Standards and Governance in the IIoT, and how prevalent these are in the market.

6. Mobility – This topic was prepared and discussed with its own list of specific questions, which opened up the dialogue focused on Mobility in the Automation ‘world’ and the future of technology in this space.

7. Multipurpose vs. Fit-for-Purpose – This focal area discussed traditional SCADA systems and their multipurpose offering, and compared it against the future “fit-for-purpose” offering which may oppose the current trend.

8. Cost Controls – The budgets for Industrial Control and Operational technology were the focus of this discussion, both from the perspective of the origination of current budget allowances, as well as in their direction and priorities going forward.

9. IT versus Automation – The problematic relationship between the two main technological groups in oil and gas organizations was the topic of focus for this


discussion. The issues of whether or not the relationship is improving, and what each group identified as the cause of this negativity were raised.


MARKET SHARE

The question about how a SCADA company can gain market share raised a number of suggestions and conversations amongst the group. Most of the responders agree that the best system historically has not necessarily been the system that wins the market share. Instead, typically the system that had the most exposure to buyers, and its ability to position itself to demonstrate features and applications that were desired by the customer was the market leader. The way in which SCADA systems are architected and marketed in the future need to reflect the changing perspectives on innovation, as well as the requirements and expectations of the customer. Legacy SCADA systems indeed met the needs in the traditional Industrial Control environment, however, research has shown that adaptation and advancement is required to maintain market share.

Participants discussed a variety of approaches they have seen from SCADA vendors in the past, examining which were successful, and why. The successful vendors have demonstrated flexibility in their sales approaches including selling from the top/down and/or the bottom/up, packaging their applications as a part of a bigger sale, as well as selling the product independently. The successful companies typically have used local resellers, who had access to both the management and field personnel to take advantage of market options.

“Guerrilla Marketing” (a term used in our working sessions) was seen as the approach a number of successful SCADA vendors have used. The discussion participants used this term to describe experiences with vendors, who either marketed “aggressively” to various levels of the organization, and/or have bundled their software with other service offerings to cultivate sales. This approach allowed successful vendors to get involved with organizations, selling to multiple people, departments, and at differing price points to solidify the sale. The participants also discussed historical successes of pairing the SCADA system with another product, and that this has been a very successful way of saturating the market quickly.

In the future, marketing language needs to be simple, to-the-point and allow customers to select what they need from a menu of options, rather than purchasing components of a package that are not required to solve the business problems at hand. This approach will allow a vendors’ presence in the market to grow as the customer requirements change. SCADA vendors will be able to continuously provide solutions, which demonstrate flexibility, simple integration, and adaptation of the software without purchasing components they don’t need. Clients no longer want to feel as if they have to purchase features they don’t need to get what they want.

The agreement amongst participants in the discussion of marketing to the Oil and Gas industry is that new technologies, innovation, and other sales should be field and head office focused. The vendors, who adapt this method of sales and marketing will have the ability to build software for the field and plant floor, which meets the needs of the ‘top’ floor. Traditionally, the field could make technology decisions in isolation; however, this is not the trend in the future as


the need for data and system integration to the head office grows. The plant and field personnel will influence the “purse holders” to adopt newer technologies, however, when technology standards and policies are not met, this migration will not be allowed to move through the enterprise.

The majority of participants felt the SCADA market will continue to grow, as the Oil and Gas market grows and as future technology is utilized. In addition, over the next several years, many legacy SCADA systems will come to the end of their life cycle and require replacement. The advancement of consumer technology, IT, and the growth in low-cost mobile devices will create opportunities, which increase automation and user productivity. The demographics of an aging workforce will force companies to utilize automation to a greater extent. This change will present opportunities to vendors with newer, better, and more, cost effective solutions.

Typically, companies require reliability, scalability, availability and technical support with their SCADA system, and at present, view the system as a commodity. There is a variety of well-known vendors who share similar base capability, with consumer-driven requirements that are seen to be driving the new focus on updating SCADA systems. Too many SCADA vendors are selling software that was designed decades ago, and this will need to change in order to keep these vendors in the market of the Future of SCADA.

The key to market share growth will be to offer low-cost solutions that exploit new technology and standards, support mobility, provide greater integration and security and enable greater automation as an aging workforce retires. We will look to resolve the current and future business problems, migrating the focus from business problems surrounding legacy SCADA systems.


SAAS/CLOUD

The vast majority of responders felt that Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Cloud systems will be an important part of the future, but the general feeling is that for SCADA systems in the oil and gas industry, companies are not yet ready. The decision-makers in companies are starting to see the power of the cloud in the IT/IS world, but are hesitant to trust the new technology paradigm for control systems. Most participants talked about the private versus “pure” cloud concepts and agreed that there are key concerns that need to be resolved first around security, network reliability, IT/IS support models and possible regulatory concerns (audit trails and controls).

The majority of participants felt that cloud technologies and SAAS will become increasingly important over time, as long as security is improved and industry becomes more comfortable with outside services for SCADA. This is seen to be the case especially for small to mid-sized organizations where there may be opportunities to obtain the benefits of SCADA without the need for in-house hosted SCADA systems. The further evolution of smart sensors and RTUs with Internet capability will facilitate cloud-based SCADA.

Another theme focused on how the cloud concept is not new, and is already working very well in areas and industries even where control and a real time presence is needed. Other industries have lead the charge to the cloud and the prediction is that cost drivers alone will push SCADA in oil and gas in this direction as well. There are many companies, which provide data access in a SAAS or cloud-like model, though many of these are not SCADA systems and serve smaller companies with niche requirements, the services are secure and have been proven to work well. The suggestion made was that larger SCADA companies should learn from this and offer more scalable models in order to grow into a wider variety of markets.

The largest benefit from the cloud concept was that companies would be able to get more done than with the traditional IT model in organizations. This will be discussed more in the IT versus Automation section, but the feeling is that IT/IS will need to move fast or the business will be taking their service requests to the cloud. In many companies this is already happening in a very rogue way, but the business experts we interviewed talked about this trend as enabling technology innovation.


SECURITY The interviewees all agreed that cyber security was a concern moving forward with control systems. There were a few notable comments that, while cyber security is important, physical security was a greater threat, because it is far easier to physically get access to remote sites and do damage. The feeling is that as new technology is released with mobility and increased integration, it will alter the way we look at security in companies. Various industry threats are raising the awareness of security, and there is a concern about the security threats being misunderstood and overhyped across the industry. This is where the IT/IS versus Automation issue will be highlighted in the future, because while IT/IS will want to restrict and control, the new security challenges will be introduced by the industrial control technology that has been influenced by IT and consumer technology advancements.

There was an acknowledgment that vendors, integrators and oil and gas companies need to engage in transparent dialogue about the long-term challenges, and also about how to manage the “low-hanging fruit” like password controls, firewall usage, patching and software upgrades, because most companies do not have a complete handle on even the simple issues. The control software vendors generally have not helped and have not been seen as leaders in the industry when it comes to developing realistic security models for the software they develop. Balancing data access with security requires careful analysis and planning. Although SCADA operating data may not always be seen as highly confidential, there is agreement among the majority that security needs to be in place to protect the SCADA system form malware and protect any integrated corporate systems from threats.


NEW SCADA SYSTEM. KEY FEATURES

When SCADA systems were first developed, a few decades back, they were relatively simple self-contained systems. The required components were all built and deployed by a single SCADA vendor. However, recent trends are revealing that the end of the traditional SCADA architecture is near. The responders singled out the following trends as being significant in reshaping the industry:

1. Proprietary protocols and data management have been a concern with SCADA systems for a long time, but there hasn’t been a clear solution. The panel for the sessions discussed the problem at length and agreed that as long as SCADA systems were coupled tightly with devices using proprietary protocols, innovation and change was excessively difficult and costly. They agreed that a common protocol like MQTT used by device and SCADA vendors would free up and allow innovation and creativity again, while cutting costs on upgrades and change.

2. SCADA as middleware in the environment is seen as a bottleneck. Many of the responders agreed that SCADA was doing too much in current environments and was setup to be the bottleneck for data flowing back to the corporate systems. This often causes SCADA support resources to be in awkward positions of data management experts when their jobs should be focused on ensuring critical systems are supporting critical equipment.

3. The variety and complexity of requirements in recent times have given rise to the need for niche single purpose products that all have to integrate. The challenge with the distributed and modular architecture is that most SCADA systems traditionally have been very application specific and each component is tailor made to its specific application. In the future, components have to also work across a number of application-specific platforms. MQTT and the use of middleware is seen as being the key to ensuring systems can be distributed and data is kept flowing.

4. Another area where the responders feel current SCADA systems are lacking and middleware can help is with extensibility. In other words, they are not equipped to connect to new applications such as safety alarm systems, real-time communication networks based on new technology. This in turn limits the ability of the devices to take proactive measures to prevent accidents. Even the connectivity between modern transmitters and a SCADA system can be challenged: SCADA systems and most control rooms are not set up to process the numerous alarms that a modern transmitter generates. Due to the number of alarms that a typical traditional SCADA system needs to process, an Alarm Management system has become a requirement.


5. Companies are now often buying different components according to their individual requirements and “hooking” them together. Therefore, vendors have to ensure interoperability of the components they sell. In other words, the components have to be developed in such a way that they can be used with a variety of applications developed by different vendors.

6. Increased availability to network access and the prevalence of the IP technologies combined with ever increasing demand for data, has given stand-alone field-based SCADA systems visibility on the corporate networks.

7. The influx of wireless networks and devices is an emerging area that can tackle the problem of interoperability that has historically made SCADA systems rigid in the past. With wireless technology, instrumentation/sensors can be deployed with more ease and flexibility. For example, in a SCADA system developed for gas/oil fields, sensors are typically placed at production wells and injection walls. With wireless sensor networking technology, sensors can be placed at other crucial places like pipelines and tanks at relatively lower costs. This greatly enhances the efficiency of the SCADA system by making more information available. Most current operational SCADA systems are still not enabled with wireless technology, but new systems and software with this capability are being developed to exploit this benefit.

8. In addition to current capabilities, SCADA systems of the future will better support mobile workers, have increased and secure access to wireless sensors, be easier to integrate with other systems. They will be more open by adhering to industry standards and offer both in-house or out-sourced cloud solutions.

The participant responses about the Future of SCADA requirements are divided into the following general categories:

1. First of all, the communication architecture has to move on from being rigidly centralized. They have to develop a flexible structure that allows communication between different RTUs and other systems like embedded sensor networks and mobile users on field. This can be achieved by adopting IP technologies for networking, rather than previous proprietary or link-level connections. The use of IP empowers the physical network with software and logical networks.

2. Further, open and interoperable protocols for communication and data management have to be developed. The protocols have to address the issue of what types of data is sent and to whom. For instance, raw data can be sent only to the data server for archival. The supervisors, engineers or managers have to be sent only status summaries, and so on.

3. Finally, the RTUs and other components have to be designed in such a way that unauthorized accessing and altering is not possible. In other words, data security has to


be maintained. Use of IP and open protocols especially can cause more vulnerability and security threats. The need for specialized industrial firewalls and VPN solutions is therefore another high priority area.

In summary, the participants see future requirements adding to and not taking away from what SCADA systems do well now. Therefore, in addition to current capabilities, SCADA systems of the future need to better support mobile workers, have increased and secure access to wireless sensors, be easier to integrate with other systems, be more open by adhering to more industry standards and offer data distribution and mobility solutions.


STANDARDS & GOVERNANCE

Generally, very few participants thought that standards were not required. Most suggested that standards and governance should be up to the companies purchasing the technologies and thought it is unfortunate that most oil and gas companies waited for Automation standards to be thrust upon them by the vendors instead of proactively helping to set the standards for the industry. Oil and Gas in Canada is seen as very reactionary around technology usage in Automation.

Most thought that this wouldn’t change quickly but that the industry and individual companies would be forced to set up controls and governance if they want to capitalize on the future SCADA technology. Companies need to stop making decisions in isolation and develop strategic technology plans for Automation. The most desired standard for the responders was one around protocols to allow for more open integration and simpler innovation.


MOBILITY AND BANDWIDTH Generally, based on the survey responses, mobility is seen as one of the key enablers for the future. Exposing SCADA data to varied audiences through mobility is seen as critical, but the group was wary of the return on investment. Like Cloud and SAAS, the group felt that influence of mobility and “consumer” devices, such as the iPad are inevitably changing SCADA. In fact, it was pointed out that most software vendors are developing mobile versions of their software and this is seen as a trend that will continue to grow. The participants were also wary of the oversimplification seen in requests from the user base that just want the mobile devices without thinking through how they will be used, secured and generally how applications will be developed and architected for mobility.

Mobility is seen as an enabler for greater automation and greater staff productivity. The use of new technology will facilitate younger staff recruitment and allow senior staff to focus on a higher level and more strategic work than before, thus aiding organizations in staff retention. Safety was a repeated focus, as a key driver in using mobility to “reduce windshield time”. The effects of the demographics of an aging workforce are forecasted to result in what was described as the "great crew change" forcing organizations to increase automation and staff productivity. Especially in oil and gas, the trends indicate there will be a significant shortfall between staffing demand and the availability of staff with the right skills. Most participants felt that companies will start demanding creativity and new ways of working will become more critical to organizations in the future.

Generally, mobility is seen as being fueled by:

1. Consumer Awareness – As the next generations of workers come on board, they are used to certain common technologies in their day-to-day lives and they will demand them in their control systems. They know things are possible and are sophisticated; telling them that they can’t have access to data on their new device won’t fly. They will leave the company rather than have to deal with basic data gathering and management that used to “part of the job”.

2. Bandwidth – Breakthroughs in network technology have allowed mobility to take off like never before. The increased bandwidth but also the increased access to the bandwidth from remote areas has also increased the demand for more mobility. What used to be impossible is now commonplace.

3. Resourcing restrictions and HR – In the future, there will be an increased concern about finding people to fill highly skilled roles and mobility is seen as an enabler for companies to manage the industry resource requirements. Allowing people remote access and an ability to see the data required to make key decisions wherever they are means increased productivity and flexibility.


MULTIPURPOSE VERSUS FIT FOR PURPOSE The general reaction to this topic was that multipurpose systems can still work if companies allow the products to be modular. They should be scalable for big and small companies, and allow the customers to choose functionality, as if choosing from a menu. As well, the expectation is that the components chosen should have the tools in place to integrate with whatever systems the customer has. If the tools in the offering from a vendor all only integrate with each other, this will not be attractive for future customers. As well, technologies that couple to each other using proprietary protocols are seen to be hurting innovation in the industry. Similarly, SCADA systems that have applications embedded into them are also seen as restrictive and excessively costly to change. The future architecture therefore, needs to ensure that the systems, applications and devices can be decoupled and distributed to allow for more innovation, choice and cost effectiveness.


COST CONTROLS Cost Controls and the impact of commodity volatility is seen to be a major issue with future budgets and technology changes. The focus for the future needs to be on how money can be saved and cost effectiveness. Many companies are starting to reorganize themselves to manage cost based on a commodity price far lower than what the oil and gas industry was dealing with. A common grievance among the Automation group, who responded to the survey is that typically the budget for automation is an afterthought of the large construction project and is often simply allotted a budget that applied to a previous project. Apparently, the construction project managers and management will sometimes even apply a formula to determine the automation budget for a large project without consulting the automation subject matter experts. This unfortunately leaves little room for strategy and planning. However, the budget for implementation is at least consistently accounted for, while the budget to support, maintenance and enhancements is often not even considered. Sometimes the budget to support is part of the operational budget for an area and therefore is very restricted. Management will often attempt to defer enhancements and upgrades to hardware and software and they will keep integrators at arms-length so very few proactive assessments of the system health are done. The comment, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is still something quoted quite often by control system experts as they are looking for budget. It was pointed out repeatedly that, this cannot work in the future, if the plan is to take advantage of technology innovations as enablers to operations staff. The feeling is that the oil and gas industry needs significant technology investment before the new requirements can be met. The questions asked were about whether the budgets were in place for the future and where the budgets would come from. The answers were mixed and lacked consistency about where technology investments would be coming from in the future. Most felt that adequate budgets wouldn’t be put in place for enhancements, but there is generally more budget available for new technology as opposed to enhancing the old technology. The participants had consistent accounts of control system upgrades not being budgeted while a new SCADA system gets implemented “down the road”. The budgets were not consistently managed from company to company either. Some companies were starting to look at budgeting for technology changes for control systems holistically, but most are apparently not looking at their automation investments from an enterprise perspective.

Across the board participants believe that companies need to improve upon the controls around budgeting for technology innovations. As well, there is a common interest in seeing organizations take their investments more seriously and educating managers. Technology is seen as core to everything companies do and yet the investments into technology are looked at


as a hassle. Many participants shared stories about how companies were risking significant production losses because of a lack of money being available for technology innovations and general upkeep.


IT VERSUS AUTOMATION Generally, the automation experts we interviewed acknowledged that IT/IS is having more and more influence, but feel that this increased influence is not necessarily a good thing. The participants believe that typically IT/IS does not understand automation and that there is a chasm between the two groups that needs to be bridged. However, the discussion was that IT/IS is so loaded with bureaucracy that this is not an easy task. The Automation groups usually do not engage IT/IS early on purpose, because they feel that the more time they have the more time it will take them to get the job done. If they notify IT/IS it is at the last minute so that IT/IS will get the critical job done quickly. It is felt that these two camps do not know enough about each other and most organizations do not handle the issues between the two groups well. Having said that, there seems to be an interesting trend happening in that both IT/IS and Automation experts, who participated realize that they need to work together more in the future and the majority were open to this. The conclusion was that there is a definite generational bias where some older resources were unwilling to change and wanted to be left alone (literally) and the younger resources wanted to engage “the other side” and learn. Most realized that the lines were blurring between what is a traditional IT/IS and what is an Automation device. The influx of the Windows operating system and IT network technologies tracing back to the introduction of the Internet and email means that the worlds are colliding. The fear is that they will collide in very violent and uncontrolled way. Most Automation resources expressed a level of anxiety about the prospect of becoming IT/IS. IT/IS resources were typically very open, but hesitant about dealing with the control system experts. Many of them view the Automation world as not having enough control and change management. However, they will also admit to being frustrated about IT/IS going overboard with bureaucracy and many look forward to learning from their Automation counterparts, but feel as if they are on the outside looking in, often looked down upon and the last to know about things that are happening. This was a comment coming from both IT/IS and Automation.

From Streamline’s perspective, we find it ironic that the two groups that are technology focused in organizations and could support and help one another, avoid each other instead of coming together and supporting each other. Both groups see themselves as being left out of future strategy and planning sessions, both groups see that there are many unrealized gains for the oil and gas industry that could be realized by expanding the use of technology in companies and

yet for the most part there is very little movement across the oil and gas industry for companies to bring these two groups together. Streamline feels the company that figures out how to make sure IT/IS and Automation groups are innovating together will be a force within the industry. The participants were asked why the problem exists and they all agreed that this has developed because traditionally IT and Automation have been viewed as different worlds with different


needs and technologies. As technology has evolved automation systems started using more of the same operating systems and protocols as IT systems. Today, many automation and IT groups remain as separate islands within organizations simply because this has always been the case, but also because Automation does work differently. However, we did notice a trend toward greater co-operation, or in some cases, even a merging of the groups. Many spoke of an industry trend of creating hybrid groups combining IT/IS and Automation focused on Field and Operations support. Predictably, today many companies seem to be debating about whether automation teams should be in the business organization or in the IT/IS department, or in a new hybrid group focused on Technology and Innovation. Many Automation groups require their IT/IS departments for the procurement of servers and for overall network support and architecture, and are starting to learn about asset life cycle management from IT/IS. However, many talked about how these new conversations are adding more confusion and barriers, because once the servers are on the IT network, there are advantages but also sometimes confusion about ownership of the server, the operating system and the overall system.

When asked what Automation staff can learn from IT, some participants pointed to the benefits of standards and more robust testing, technology approaches to increase security and the use of open rather than proprietary technology. Conversely, when asked what IT/IS staff can learn from automation the response was how to manage the need for 24/7 availability, real-time information access and the benefit of staying very close to field and operations staff. Generally, responders from both IT/IS and Automation suggested that “we can’t live with them, but we can’t live without them, so we better figure out how to make the relationship work”.

Future of SCADA Summary Report Version 4€¦ · Future of SCADA Summary Report ... which focused...

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