Dave Perkon is technical editor for Control Design. He has engineered and managed automation projects for Fortune500 companies in the medical, automotive, semiconductor, defense and solar industries."Regardless of the device, it must exchange data with other devices through the Internet and through the cloud if necessary," says Fabio Terezinho, director of consulting services, InduSoft at Schneider Electric Software. "IT determines the particular Internet of Things (IoT) approach and decides whether the cloud is needed or not, and whether the network is in plant, public or private domain. InduSoft is open for device integration and is ready to drive on any road, as we are connecting machines together, to the Internet and to the cloud."
InduSoft is releasing InduSoft Web Studio v8.0, the latest version of its award-winning software, comments Terezinho. "InduSoft Web Studio v8.0 continues our commitment to innovation and openness," he says. "In addition to HMI, SCADA and embedded instrumentation solutions, this new version offers unique, enhanced IoT and interface capabilities for use on a variety of smartphones and tablets, as well as unparalleled revision control and application lifecycle management."
InduSoft began as a privately held company in 1997 and has been making InduSoft Web Studio, for over 15 years. InduSoft was acquired by Invensys in 2013, and then again by Schneider Electric in 2014. It has now grown to be a part of Schneider Electric Software and soon a segment of Aveva, when finalized.
Also read: Why you might have HMI design backward
Despite all the changes in the parent company, InduSoft has continued to develop and evolve InduSoft Web Studio, CEView, EmbeddedView, and now IoTView, and has a clear roadmap for the future.
New devices welcome
InduSoft aims to offer a platform-agnostic HMI/SCADA solution that is highly flexible and able to support emerging technology trends.
Call 512/349-0334, email [email protected] or browse to www.indusoft.com.
"The number of Internet-connected devices in the world is increasing, and InduSoft Web Studio is ready to connect these devices with the portability and small footprint required for deployment on any platform and the same user-friendly development environment as previous versions," comments Terezinho. "There is a growing number of connected devices, and this new demographic doesn't always run Windows. InduSoft will continue to support these new classes of devices with its HMI software, reducing custom coding and development time."InduSoft Web Studio is a complete solution, with no need to purchase add-ons for necessary functionality, notes Terezinho. "It scales easily, and applications can be developed quickly for deployment on almost any device," he explains. "InduSoft was the first HMI/SCADA solution for Windows CE devices and is now the first software package with a dedicated version for IoT and Industry 4.0 applications. Because InduSoft Web Studio is platform-agnostic, it’s easy to connect to a huge variety of disparate devices with native communication drivers."
The new runtime, IoTView in particular, was designed with a very small footprint capable of running on most devices designed for the Internet of Things, says Terezinho. "It offers a core runtime for some Linux and VXWorks operating systems," adds Terezinho.
Other enhancements
InduSoft Web Studio also offers improved functionality for mobile access, better security and improved collaboration with integration to Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server, states Terezinho. "Improvements to the collaboration server add-on and its integration with Team Foundation Server make it even easier for multiple engineers to work on the same InduSoft Web Studio project," he explains.
InduSoft Web Studio 8.0 incorporates new enhancements. The software provides new options for native tag integration, in addition to the more than 240 drivers already included with the software.
"The easy configuration options for mobile and remote HMI and SCADA solutions have been improved with our new multiple screen support feature," notes Terezinho. "The ability to simultaneously open multiple screens on the Studio Mobile Access (SMA) thin client solution is part of this release. Multiple screens such as screen groups, pop-ups and dialogs can be opened on thin client stations using any HTML5-compatible Web browser. Not only is this an important feature for new applications, it also allows visualization of multiple screens from existing applications on SMA thin clients, with no additional screen creation needed," continues Terezinho.
This InduSoft Web Studio v8.0 release is a natural evolution of the product's lifecycle, comments Terezinho. "Using agile program development methods, InduSoft has been releasing minor and major enhancements to our software since v7.0," he says. "This new release is just the starting point for future enhancements."
InduSoft was the first HMI/SCADA solution for Windows CE devices and is now the first software package with a dedicated version for the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 applications.”
- Fabio Terezinho, director of consulting services, InduSoft at Schneider Electric Software
