K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
Skye Controls & Design in Spencerport, New York, is using Skkynet software to implement secure, real-time, bidirectional industrial internet of things (IIoT) systems for many industrial and commercial applications in companies across north-eastern US. Universities, manufacturing plants, supermarkets and even a zoo that require remote monitoring and supervisory control of mission-critical systems in real time, have replaced poorly functioning virtual private network (VPN) based systems with Skkynet software running on embedded devices, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and the Microsoft Azure cloud.
It all started when Rick Lisowski, president of Skye Controls, was contacted by a zoo in a nearby city. Management needed to monitor and control the water systems in a newly opened amphibian and reptile centre.
“They had a VPN-based internet of things (IoT) system in place,” said Lisowski. “But there were three problems: it wasn’t secure, the data flow was one-way, and it didn’t work. They were using a Modbus converter connected to a VPN router that was supposed to send data to their own cloud service, where they hoped to access the data. But neither of the components worked properly and married together, they were worse. The zoo management staff never actually got any data.”
After considering a costly and unsuitable IoT platform, Lisowski found out about DataHub technology on a web search. After some tests, Lisowski decided that a Skkynet solution would be the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective approach. He first replaced the zoo’s PLC with his DataHub-equipped PLC. He then made an outbound connection from the PLC DataHub instance to a second DataHub instance running on Microsoft Azure. By making an outbound DataHub tunnelling connection, he was able to keep all firewall ports closed on the zoo’s PLC and router. On Azure, he connected the DataHub instance to the Skye Controls Cloud IoT Service, a Windows-based IoT service used by the zoo.
The result is a real-time, end-to-end, bidirectional data path from the water filtration systems to the zoo management offices. “The staff and management are really pleased,” said Lisowski. “Now they can monitor each specialised environment from anywhere that has internet access. They can make changes to temperature and humidity settings in the real-time graphical display right from their desktop. And a huge plus is that the DataHub software is secure by design, running behind closed firewalls yet it still lets you read and write data in both directions.”
Soon other organisations started asking for remote access to their data. Some had the same VPN-based system that the zoo had been using. The facilities manager at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), responsible for water filtration, had been tinkering with such a system for months and had not managed to get any data flow at all. They had a high-tech process that needed precise, robust, real-time control, and they were willing to try a new approach.
Continue reading: https://www.technologyrecord.com/Article/secure-and-simple-industrial-internet-of-things-128271
It all started when Rick Lisowski, president of Skye Controls, was contacted by a zoo in a nearby city. Management needed to monitor and control the water systems in a newly opened amphibian and reptile centre.
“They had a VPN-based internet of things (IoT) system in place,” said Lisowski. “But there were three problems: it wasn’t secure, the data flow was one-way, and it didn’t work. They were using a Modbus converter connected to a VPN router that was supposed to send data to their own cloud service, where they hoped to access the data. But neither of the components worked properly and married together, they were worse. The zoo management staff never actually got any data.”
After considering a costly and unsuitable IoT platform, Lisowski found out about DataHub technology on a web search. After some tests, Lisowski decided that a Skkynet solution would be the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective approach. He first replaced the zoo’s PLC with his DataHub-equipped PLC. He then made an outbound connection from the PLC DataHub instance to a second DataHub instance running on Microsoft Azure. By making an outbound DataHub tunnelling connection, he was able to keep all firewall ports closed on the zoo’s PLC and router. On Azure, he connected the DataHub instance to the Skye Controls Cloud IoT Service, a Windows-based IoT service used by the zoo.
The result is a real-time, end-to-end, bidirectional data path from the water filtration systems to the zoo management offices. “The staff and management are really pleased,” said Lisowski. “Now they can monitor each specialised environment from anywhere that has internet access. They can make changes to temperature and humidity settings in the real-time graphical display right from their desktop. And a huge plus is that the DataHub software is secure by design, running behind closed firewalls yet it still lets you read and write data in both directions.”
Soon other organisations started asking for remote access to their data. Some had the same VPN-based system that the zoo had been using. The facilities manager at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), responsible for water filtration, had been tinkering with such a system for months and had not managed to get any data flow at all. They had a high-tech process that needed precise, robust, real-time control, and they were willing to try a new approach.
Continue reading: https://www.technologyrecord.com/Article/secure-and-simple-industrial-internet-of-things-128271
