Which Ignition Edition Is Right For Your System?

Inductive Automation offers multiple editions of Ignition created for specific use cases. See what differentiates Ignition, Ignition Edge, Ignition Cloud Edition, and Ignition Maker Edition, as well as examples that highlight where each edition excels and situations they are not designed for.


Transcription:

Here at Inductive Automation, we offer multiple editions of Ignition, and we sometimes get asked about the differences between them. And so in this video we’ll go through the different Ignition Editions, explain what each one is, what they’re best for, and what they’re not suited for. Let’s begin this edition expedition with our flagship product: the standard version of Ignition.

Ignition is flexible enough to do virtually anything you need in the realm of SCADA, industrial automation, and so much more. If you can dream it, you can do it with Ignition.

By combining OT and IT, Ignition gives you everything you need to create next-gen systems and applications, from running a single process to centrally managing the entire enterprise from the plant floor up to the c-suite. Its unlimited licensing model gives you unlimited tags, clients, devices, and designers. Your only limit is server size.

Ignition’s modular structure lets you build the exact system you want, customizing your system’s functionality. And with third-party modules from IA technology partners, there’s really no end to what you can accomplish.

The modules work like apps on your phone, so they can be installed, removed, and upgraded without impacting your operations in any way, and they all work together seamlessly. There are also packages with pre-selected modules proven to excel in a variety of use cases.

There are the two visualization modules in Ignition. Vision is the classic, and it is incredibly powerful. Perspective is relatively newer, and built from the ground up to be mobile-responsive for devices like phones and tablets. Throughout the Ignition 8.1 lifecycle, Perspective has received enough updates that it can now be considered the more feature-rich module of the two, so if you’re starting a new project today or in the near future, we would recommend Perspective.

Where should you use the standard version of Ignition?

Everywhere. Ignition is already used in virtually every industry across the globe. It’s robust enough to get the job done, no matter the job. And with features like Docker integration, even the deployment methods are flexible. As of the filming of this video, 65% of Fortune 100 companies use Ignition to improve their operations.

So why would you use any other edition of Ignition?

Well, if you have a particular need at the network edge or in the cloud, you might not need Ignition’s full suite of functionality, modularity, or a full license.

The other big factor is cost. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, the standard version of Ignition might not be the most cost effective way to get it done.

And that brings us to Ignition Edge.

The lightweight counterpart to Ignition — the Robin to Ignition's Batman — Edge is made for field devices located, appropriately enough, at the edge of the network. Edge gives you the same unlimited tag and device connections, plus it lets you run scripts, synchronize data, turn any field device into an MQTT-enabled edge gateway and an EAM agent gateway and, oh yeah, it also has an internal historian that can store locally up to 35 days or 10 million data points, whichever comes first. No big deal.

It’s a powerful product, or more accurately, it’s two powerful product options: Edge IIoT and Edge Panel.

The big difference between the two is that Edge Panel provides visualization along with all the functionality of Edge IIoT. And it truly has a lot of functionality.

Unlike our standard Ignition, Edge has no database connectivity and does not run modules. Edge only allows for one tag provider and can only run one Ignition project at a time. However, that opens up all sorts of architecture options by combining Edge with a central Ignition Gateway, as well as local client fallback with Edge deployments at remote locations or on the plant floor. There are a lot of creative ways to combine both Ignition and Ignition Edge to create complex yet cost-effective systems.

You should use Ignition Edge when you need a lightweight, affordable edge computing solution that doesn’t require the full Ignition platform. Don’t use Edge on its own if you need to connect directly to a database, or if you need functionality of additional modules.

Now let’s talk about the newest version of Ignition: Ignition Cloud Edition.

Cloud Edition gives you the power of Ignition with all the convenience of the cloud. Using Cloud Edition, you can spin up instances of Ignition, complete with a pre-selected module suite, for as long as you’d like through either AWS or Azure, taking advantage of either cloud platform’s incredible compute power.

You can use the standard version of Ignition in the cloud, and many organizations do, but Cloud Edition allows you to leverage elastic architectures that you can scale up and down depending on your needs. And to match that sense of flexibility, Cloud Edition features pay-as-you-go pricing directly through the cloud provider of your choice, so you only pay for how much you actually use.

While we’re on the subject of money, we need to mention that Cloud Edition is not software as a service. Circle-slash Saas. The payment model may be similar to SaaS, but Cloud Edition is not a service, meaning that Cloud Edition users are responsible for configuration, backup, and upgrades.

Use Cloud Edition if you want to take advantage of pay-as-you-go pricing, quick and flexible deployments, or if you want to easily hybridize your architecture with cloud and on-prem assets. 

If, however, you want to leverage any additional modules that do not come with Cloud Edition, you should run standard Ignition in the cloud because Cloud Edition features a locked-in module set.

Between the standard version of Ignition, Ignition Edge, and Ignition Cloud Edition, you’d be forgiven for thinking that covers every use case you could ever think of.

And I do forgive you. For being wrong. Because there is another.

Ignition Maker Edition is a free, non-commercial version of Ignition for hobbyists and educational use. 

Whether you want to automate the lights in your home, manage a personal weather station, or simply learn Ignition from anywhere, Maker Edition is your personal innovation engine. With up to 10,000 data points and 10 concurrent user sessions, Maker Edition gives you all the power of the standard version of Ignition for your DIY automation ambitions.

And did I mention it’s free?

For more in-depth details about each edition of Ignition, check out any of the links in this video. If you’ve made it this far and you’ve never experienced Ignition’s capabilities for yourself, then you can download a free trial in about three minutes. That link is also in this video so that you can discover why Ignition is the ultimate platform for SCADA, building and deploying industrial applications, and so much more.