SolutionsPT releases hardware and AVEVA software bundle

SolutionsPT says Plant Portal is a unique solution to a common issue for UK industrial enterprises seeking to gain the benefits of digital dransformation technologies.

The solution, which packages world-class hardware and software from the SolutionsPT portfolio into a single purchase order, reduces the complexity, cost, and time it takes to connect OT environments to cloud-based software, allowing data to be accessed and analysed in real time, from anywhere, via a simple web interface.

Plant Portal can be tailored to meet the needs of a variety of applications, and assembled on site by qualified staff or a trusted systems integrator. With two bundle options, Plant Portal Solo, which is ideal for connecting remote assets and Plant Portal Connect, which can bridge the IT and OT divide of an air-gapped security approach, the SolutionsPT offering makes good on the company’s commitment to help create a time where every enterprise is successfully harnessing the possibilities of digital technology.

Benefitting from encrypted outbound-only connection to the cloud via either a 4G router or a corporate network, Plant Portal Solo makes it easy to bring data from disparate and remote assets to the cloud, opening the door to the benefits of data-enabled operations control and management to all.  

Kyle Lion, pre-sales engineer at SolutionsPT, said: “Manufacturing, critical infrastructure, renewable energy, or indeed any industrial setting that sees stranded assets can’t achieve the operational excellence needed to stay competitive without connecting data to stakeholders. To move away from reactive maintenance and enable a predictive and preventative approach, operators and managers need real-time asset data but will often run into challenges in rural areas or remote plants without a strong internet connection.

“Plant Portal completely changes this picture by offering simple, secure cloud connectivity in-a-box and bringing the latest, most powerful software from the AVEVA suite to unlock trapped data for operators and managers everywhere.”

Any number of variables in plants old and new can impact an asset’s ability to connect to the network; from legacy assets without modern IoT sensors, to multiple assets from different OEMs creating incompatible protocols. These issues become more complex when considering critical infrastructure, a sector that often sees multiple high-cost assets remaining in operation, often in remote locations, which creates even more barriers to overcome.

“Connecting stranded assets to the network will also bring up cybersecurity concerns, and rightly so,” says Lion. “Businesses must remain on a constant alert for the always evolving threat. Plant Portal represents a culmination of digital transform and specific cybersecurity expertise with world-class solutions that will allow every industrial enterprise to successfully harness the benefits of enterprise-wide visibility and analysis. Plant Portal removes the complexity of cloud computing while overcoming all the environmental and time investment challenges of stranded assets without risk of cyber-attack.”

Plant Portal Solo connects remote and stranded assets that are frequently not connected to the network or internet enabled due to the complexity of the IT operation required to configure a tiered network. The Solo offering is a configuration solution bundle which supports a ‘plug and play’ approach with in-built industrial grade security and over 250 communications drivers, removing the risk and time investment required to connect remote assets using traditional IT methods.

Plant Portal Connect safely bridges the IT and OT divide (air-gapping) which many industrial enterprises have in place to reduce cybersecurity risk. Importantly, and without a substantial investment in time and expense, isolated OT automation networks can be connected to the enterprise-level IT with the simple addition of the Plant Portal Connect solution, providing immediate connectivity and security and enabling a single digital thread from the plant floor to the enterprise and cloud.