Inductive Automation Blog

Technology Panel: Open Technology's Impact on Industrial Automation

Industrial automation is changing faster than ever, and the adoption of open technologies is a big reason why. In this panel discussion, you'll hear from many of the innovators and thought leaders behind some of the open technologies that are impacting industry the most, such as MQTT, OPC UA, the Ignition platform, and more. In this fascinating session, our panel will also discuss the benefits and challenges associated with using open technologies as well as the potential role of these technologies in the continuing evolution of the industrial automation industry.

Midstream Middleware - An Evolutionary Journey with MQTT

In this engaging session from the COO of Streamline Control Solutions, Peter Boyle, you'll gain insight into the innovative process Plains Midstream Canada used to move their SCADA serial communications infrastructure to middleware using MQTT. You'll learn more about the successes and challenges of the journey, including the initial objectives of the decision, the process to get there, the early-stage benefits of the conversion, and more.

Top 6 Tips for Delivering a Successful MES Project

A successful MES project has the potential to deliver huge efficiency improvements that can boost production and save money. In this session, you'll hear specific strategies you can put into action right now to improve your MES implementations. Make your next MES project a success with great tips about how to plan your project, map your process, fully leveraging actionable information, and designing a great UX for OEE projects.

20-Year Anniversary of the Genesis of MQTT

It’s been 20 years since Arlen Nipper and Andy Stanford-Clark sat down in the IBM labs at Hursley, England, and started to devise a solution to a recurring problem in the oil & gas industry: how to send data over a bandwidth-constrained communication channel and share the data with an ever-increasing number of data consumers within the enterprise. They invented MQTT, but little did they know it would become the de facto standard for IoT 20 years later. This presentation will step you through the challenge they were trying to solve and the process they went through in the creation of the MQTT specification as we know it today.

Firebrand Awards Panel (2018)

At the end of each conference, the Ignition Firebrand Awards are given to the most outstanding real-world Ignition projects featured in our yearly Discovery Gallery project showcase. Join us to celebrate the creative spirit of the Ignition community as we honor this year’s Firebrand Award winners and hear their stories of struggle, innovation, and triumph in a fun and informative panel discussion led by Inductive Automation’s chief strategy officer, Don Pearson.

Connecting at the Edge: Real Hardware Solutions for the Real IIoT

For years, the Industrial Internet of Things was more of an idea than a reality; now that's all changing because there are many solutions you can start using today to quickly and easily connect to all the "things" at the edge of the network. In this session, you'll get to see the many IIoT-ready products you can start using with Ignition to connect all kinds of devices like PLCs, panels, edge gateways, and more. You'll also learn some great tips and strategies for how to put them into action in brownfield situations so you can start leveraging legacy infrastructure to build a modern IIoT architecture.

Industry Panel: Using Ignition to Adapt and Stay Competitive

This panel discussion brings together Ignition users from leading companies in a number of different industries. They'll talk about how they're utilizing Ignition within their enterprises to help meet their customers’ changing demands, manage growth, and fuel innovation to strengthen their competitive advantages.

Integrator Panel: Positioning Your Integration Business for Success

At this panel discussion, some of the leading system integrators in the Ignition community will talk about many aspects of success for integrators today, including the Integrator Program, strategies for business growth, technology trends, and how Ignition helps transform challenges into opportunities.

Big Access: Unleashing the Real Value of Your IIoT Data

In the transition from accessing purely operational information to accessing IIoT information, Ignition IIoT becomes the perfect platform for Big Access. The next disruption in the IIoT market sector will be providing IIoT information to Big Data platforms where customers can discover greater knowledge about their process: trends, correlations, equipment optimization, and predictive analytics. Integrators and end users can use this knowledge to improve processes and performance, and realize greater cost savings. In this session, Arlen will present some new features built into the IIoT MQTT tooling, and some new Ignition modules providing direct connectivity to Big Data platforms. Without Big Access, you can’t implement Big Data!