Articles
Expand your knowledge with guides, industry articles, and white papers.
UNS: Unified Namespace
Digital Transformation is all about data, and companies will only achieve this goal if they manage their data differently than in the past. A Unified Namespace (UNS) is the architectural foundation of successful Digital Transformation initiatives because it enables you to make data accessible from your entire enterprise to a single database.
7 min read
What Is MES?
Simply put, a MES system is used to monitor and manage work-in-process on the factory floor, covering resource scheduling, production workflows, recipe management, traceability, inventory, quality assurance, document control, and more. A successful implementation of MES software will not only improve efficiency, but make manufacturers into better businesses.
3 min read
NERC CIP Best Practices with Inductive Automation and Ignition
This guide addresses best practices for using Ignition and working with software vendors in a CIP-compliant way, with recommendations based on specific CIP standards.
1 min read
Using Keycloak with Ignition
Keycloak is an open-source Identity and Access Management solution for adding authentication to applications or services. With Ignition, Keycloak functions as an Identity Provider to authenticate users and define roles to access client/session views.
10 min read
What Is a Panel PC?
Most people are familiar with PCs (Personal Computers), but far fewer understand the difference between a retail PC and a panel PC. Whereas PCs are typically found in offices, panel PCs are specialized units designed to be used on or near machines in industrial environments like plant floors or remote sites. Panel PCs are built specifically to run HMI/SCADA software that allows operators to monitor and control processes in virtually every industry, including food & beverage, oil & gas, automotive, water & wastewater, and many more.
4 min read
21 CFR Part 11 and Pharmaceutical Best Practices with Ignition
This guide addresses Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 21 CFR Part 11, Data Integrity and Good Automated Manufacturing Practices (GAMP). It provides best practices and guidelines supporting regulated Ignition applications in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries.
1 min read
Digital Transformation: Your Guide to Business Success
Digital Transformation is not just a buzzword or a passing fad businesses can afford to ignore. It’s the evolution of business.
12 min read
What SCADA Systems Need in the Modern Era
Learn about the features you need to guarantee that a SCADA system is powerful and flexible enough to excel in the modern era.
10 min read
Ignition Server Sizing and Architecture Guide
This guide is intended to provide some tips to help you determine the correct architecture depending on your requirements. It is important to note that any architecture that you come up with needs to be fully tested and verified. Throughout that process you can observe the performance characteristics of the server in order to make any necessary adjustments to the architecture. There is no guarantee on performance since it is based on your design choices.
33 min read
Ignition 8 Deployment Best Practices
Inductive Automation provides this helpful guide for deploying Ignition applications. The guide offers Ignition 8 best practices for setting up development and testing workflow.
30 min read
PLC: Programmable Logic Controller
Learn Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) basics: what it is, what its functions are, how it operates, and its importance in the world of automation.
7 min read
3 Major Reasons Why Water Utilities Choose Ignition
Inductive Automation serves 600-plus water/wastewater facilities around the world and the number keeps growing. As more and more water utilities face the need to upgrade their current aging SCADA systems or install brand-new ones, we teamed up with Water & Wastes Digest to take a closer look at three of the biggest reasons why our customers choose Ignition for their projects.
8 min read
Let's Encrypt Guide for Ignition
Ignition 8.0.3 introduces support for hot-reloading the Gateway’s SSL keystore. This capability enables Ignition to play well with services such as Let’s Encrypt which provide for automatic SSL certificate management. This article walks through one example for integrating Ignition with Let’s Encrypt.
11 min read
Design Like a Pro: Best Practices for IIoT
The industrial automation industry is benefiting from the incredible opportunities made possible by the Internet of Things (IoT). While the IoT has shown promise within the corporate and consumer environment, there is a great opportunity to unlock the data in the industrial space.
20 min read
Combining the Best of OT and IT
Two worlds are converging as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) takes the controls industry by storm. This white paper examines how professionals from Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) can find common ground to establish the IIoT. Through IIoT solutions such as MQTT, a lightweight communications protocol, industrial organizations can gain the ability to easily collect data from large remote systems and share it with the enterprise level.
15 min read
Inductive Automation Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
This document outlines information on Ignition versioning, release schedule, security/vulnerability fixes, and an overview of our Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) including Quality Assurance (QA) processes.
1 min read
What Is A System Integrator?
Whether you call them “control system integrators,” “systems integrators,” “system integrators,” or just “integrators,” these technology professionals combine different hardware, software, and communication protocols to create an automation system for their customers, and they are becoming increasingly important with the rising adoption of new automation technologies.
8 min read
Experience The Updated Ignition Water Treatment Demo App
This demo is a vivid showcase of how Ignition's capabilities, such as real-time control, historical trending, alarming, reporting, and more, can be leveraged to enhance water treatment management and operational efficiency.
1 min read
What Is Edge Computing?
Edge computing means moving computation and data storage capabilities closer to the source of data. Narrowing the distance between data generation and collection can reduce latency, bandwidth usage, and overall cost for the enterprise.
3 min read
Enhancing the Student Learning Experience Via Ignition Software
Dr. Saeed Farahani, an Assistant Professor of Smart and Hybrid Manufacturing Systems at Clemson University, provided a dynamic real-world learning experience that reinforces engineering theory for automotive and mechanical engineering students with a semester-long class project utilizing Inductive Automation’s Ignition software platform.
8 min read
See the New Ignition Data Center Demo App
Made specifically for the Data Center industry, the new demo app is a highly realistic, detailed view of what a real Ignition project for data centers looks like.
1 min read
Hosted/Multi-tenant Ignition Cloud Edition Guidance
Inductive Automation is proud to permit the licensing use of hosted and multi-tenant applications at no additional cost to the licensee when using Ignition Cloud Edition. Hosting enables flexible resource sharing and “pay as you go” service models. Multi-tenancy can enable the broad delivery of custom Ignition applications as a service. This change enables new service provider roles with the potential to benefit the greater Ignition community. However, these models inherently introduce risk to stakeholders.
13 min read
What Does ‘Ignition Edge Ready’ Mean?
Ignition Edge is a line of limited, lightweight software solutions designed for the edge of the network. Ignition Edge solutions allow you to easily and affordably expand your system to capture, process, and visualize critical data at the edge.
1 min read
Choosing the Best SCADA Software: 6 Important Features
Discover how to choose the best Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software, with the six features you need and how to choose the right vendor.
5 min read