The launch of CitectSCADA V7.0 helps industrial companies of all sizes improve agility in both engineering and runtime operations, by allowing them to design architectures that significantly enhance performance and lower the cost of ownership.
This release offers the latest in advanced clustering technology to help safeguard plant reliability and rapid change deployment, as well as a number of enhancements to help increase security and maximise engineering productivity.
According to Craig Resnick, Research Director, ARC Advisory Group: "In the past, manufacturers were forced to select between centralised and independent local systems for monitoring and controlling their operations.
"Now, with the latest HMI/SCADA offerings such as CitectSCADA V7.0, manufacturers can put local systems and centralised servers into redundant pairs, giving the benefits of standardisation through the use of a single configuration across all displays, while at the same time locating alarms, reports, trends and I/O servers local to the process they control."
V7.0 provides companies with many new architecture options, such as supporting clustering across multiple sites. It also provides hybrid solutions of centralised and distributed control; with the ability to pair many local control servers with a single central standby server, or to simply segment the control system on the same hardware to add separation between parts of the control system to reduce the impact of system expansion.
Version 7.0 also helps provide standardisation and a single point of change when CitectSCADA is used as the central control system and on local control panels.
Customers also benefit from the improved licensing included in this version. The same project configuration can be used across an entire site, but only the tags used at each operator display are counted.
"The new architecture elements are the first step in our significant product improvement strategy," said Stephen Flannigan, Global Director, CitectSCADA.
"The clustering enhancements continue to build on our existing reliable, high performance and flexible control system while opening many new and exciting possibilities for our customers. Most importantly, we are doing this while keeping our upgrade path, so our existing customers can benefit from these enhancements without having to completely reconfigure their control systems."
Advanced clustering technology allows users to:
* Provide a seamless operator view across existing control systems;
* Offer a combination of control (including alarms, reports and trends), local to the process, paired with a central standby server;
* Support additional processing for expansion requirements by simply adding a new server to the control system;
* Segment the control system to ensure changes in one business unit do not affect others;
* Connect to multiple control systems to analyse alarms and trend data directly from the SCADA systems; and
* Use cluster swapping to re-use graphics screens between matching systems or for simulation or replay.
Rapid change deployment allows users to:
* Roll-out changes to graphics screens without restart;
* Permit changes, without client restart, to alarms, trends and reports; and
* Deploy changes to the entire system in a single step.
Other enhancements:
* Increased network fault tolerance support with the addition of TCP/IP support;
* Greater communication control with priority levels for standby communication paths;
* Reduced code overhead by processing code only when tags change;
* Simplified logging of user actions;
* Support for MS Windows XP-embedded;
* Support for Virtual Machine environments; and
* New dynamic-point licensing whereby customers only pay for the points they use.
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Citect is a global provider of industrial automation, real-time intelligence, and next generation manufacturing execution systems (MES). Leveraging open technologies, CitectHMI/SCADA and Ampla connect to multiple plant and business systems. Its products are complemented by professional services, global customer support and educational services. Distributed in more than 80 countries worldwide, Citect solutions are installed in numerous industries: mining, metals, food and beverage, manufacturing, facilities, water/wastewater, oil & gas, power generation/distribution and pharmaceuticals. Citect has offices in Oceania, Africa, the Americas, China, Europe, India, Japan and Southeast Asia.
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