Remote industrial plant viewing gets even easier
1 min read
Operations directors wanting to move up to remote monitoring of plant and equipment via the Internet are being advised that safe digital communications have recently become easier.
Stuart Hannah, of HMS Industrial Networks, explains that rather than using VPNs, M2M SIM cards etc, to ensure secure and reliable Internet communication, engineers can now adopt HMS's Netbiter Argos 3.
Hannah says the new technology provides a simpler, firewall friendly solution that enables users to focus on plant issues without specialist IT skills.
Using a cloud based architecture, a secure online data centre automatically gathers and stores both site and equipment data from remote communication gateways at intervals specified by the user.
Then, via a remote server, users can access industrial installations, machines and devices from anywhere in the world. "The information the user is viewing is effectively a mirror site in real-time on the secure server," he says.
He also states that, in addition to basic reporting, Netbiter servers provide a browser-based graphical dashboard/user interface for plant data.
"This enables users to quickly and easily create a graphical layout of their remote installation," states Hannah.
"The dashboard includes functions for loading pictures into the layout, and analogue and digital graphical components, which makes it possible to detail a remote system with a visual layout that is easy to understand," he explains.
"Where appropriate GPS data makes it possible to view the location of each device in the field on an overview map [using Google maps] and the system also lets you build multiple installations," he adds.
