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article Guide

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

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article Guide  |  Data Center

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

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article Guide

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

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article Guide

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

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article Guide

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

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article Guide  |  Pharmaceuticals

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

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article Industry Article

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

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article White Paper

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

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article Guide

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

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article Guide

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

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article Guide

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.

6 min read

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article Industry Article  |  Water/Wastewater

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

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article Guide

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

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article White Paper

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

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article White Paper

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

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article Guide

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

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article White Paper

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

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article article  |  Data Center

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

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article article

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

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article Guide

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

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article Guide

New to Ignition? Learn the Lingo With This Glossary.

When you're a newcomer to the world of Ignition, it’s exciting to learn about all of the things you can do with it, but there are also some challenges. One of the challenging things is learning the various terms and acronyms associated with Ignition and with industrial automation in general. To help with that, we've put together this glossary of some of the most common terms that you'll hear. Along with a short definition, each term includes a link to further information. We hope this helps jumpstart your Ignition journey.

5 min read

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article White Paper

Integrating SQL Databases and SCADA to Maximize Efficiency and Reliability

SQL databases have been working in the background of many different systems for decades, but even today there are some who are hesitant to mix SQL with industrial automation software like supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA). However, as more SCADA software users feel the pressure of keeping up in today’s connected, data-driven world, SQL has received more well-deserved attention.

15 min read

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article Industry Article  |  Food and Beverage

How the Integrators at Automation Group Leverage Ignition to Support Culinary Oil Producers

Automation Group used Ignition to help two culinary oil companies solve critical problems and achieve positive results in their Digital Transformations.

6 min read

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article Industry Article  |  Water/Wastewater

Building a Sustainable and Secure SCADA System

This article offers guidelines for designing a SCADA system for water utilities, with five steps for sustainable SCADA and three security recommendations.

9 min read

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article Guide

Ignition Security Hardening Guide

Included in this document are guidelines specifically for the Ignition software, as well as general suggestions regarding the hardware and network where Ignition is installed. The steps provided are recommendations rather than requirements and should be reviewed for relevance in each implementation.

25 min read

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article Industry Article  |  Food and Beverage

How 3 Food & Beverage Companies are Tackling Problems with Ignition

When looking for an answer to their security and automation needs, three American companies — Chobani, MadTree Brewing, and SugarCreek — adopted Inductive Automation’s Ignition platform.

8 min read

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article Industry Article  |  Water/Wastewater

4 Water Districts Revitalized With Ignition

Four water districts in the U.S. switched their water district SCADA system to Ignition and reap the benefits of state-of-the-art technology.

7 min read

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article Guide

Checklist: Avoid Visualization, Alarming & Security Mistakes

No matter how much experience we have, we all make mistakes sometimes. Fortunately, Ignition gives you the tools to not only fix those mistakes, but turn them into strengths when you’re developing projects in the future. Below, we’ve compiled a checklist of common mistakes and corresponding solutions to review before you start building so you can get your projects developed quickly and running as efficiently and securely as possible.

2 min read

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article Industry Article

7 SCADA Security ‘Do’s’ & 4 SCADA Training ‘Don’ts’

At Inductive Automation, we’ve always tried to assist integrators and end users by sharing valuable information. As with all things in life and automation, that means spreading awareness about what you should do as well as what you shouldn’t. In that spirit, we’ve collated two recent articles from Water & Wastes Digest that examine best practices to help keep your system safe along with training misconceptions to avoid so that nothing holds your organization back.

7 min read

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article Industry Article  |  Food and Beverage

How Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Uses Ignition to Manage All Aspects of its Business

In evolving from a small regional brewery to become the nation’s third largest craft brewing company, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company has worked with Inductive Automation and used Ignition to help itself scale, operate more efficiently, increase visibility, and make more informed, data-driven decisions.

5 min read

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article Guide

Checklist: Avoid Common Project Mistakes in Data Collection, HMI Design & Scripting

It’s easy to make mistakes. We’ve all done it! Sometimes we complete a task in an inefficient or overly complex way. Other times we only discover a mistake after the fateful copy/paste that breaks an entire screen. Luckily, with Ignition it’s just as easy to fix mistakes and in the process create reusable assets that save development time. Below, we’ve compiled a checklist to help you avoid common mistakes and make your project as efficient as possible.

3 min read

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article Industry Article  |  Food and Beverage

How Four Roses Bourbon Used Ignition-Based Solutions to Modernize its Production Processes

Four Roses Bourbon, distilled in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, is one of the leading bourbon brands in the world, known for award-winning handcrafted bourbon. But in its production processes, the company was relying on Excel spreadsheets, handwritten notes, and manual processes.

10 min read

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article Guide

Ignition Historian

Ignition historian functionality is a robust set of features built into Ignition modules, providing data acquisition, storage, retrieval, and visualization. As with everything else in Ignition, its SCADA historian functionality is modular, and this document covers the modules for those features.

18 min read

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article Industry Article  |  Food and Beverage

How Meister Cheese Uses Ignition to Streamline its Manufacturing Operations

Meister is an award-winning cheesemaker in Muscoda, Wisconsin. The company has been in business since 1916 and is currently in its fourth generation of family ownership and leadership. Over the past 100 years, Meister has grown into one of the top makers of premium cheese and whey products in the world.

6 min read

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article Guide

Technical Pathways Program Map

The Inductive Automation Technical Pathways Program supports career development for individuals who join the company as Software Technical Analyst and puts them on a path to more advanced positions in the company. Above is the map of who Inductive Automation employees can move through the program.

1 min read

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article Industry Article  |  Water/Wastewater

3 Ways Ignition is Modernizing Water Utilities

At Inductive Automation, we have always championed water and wastewater utilities, so when a recent hacking attempt in Florida caught our attention, it underlined just how vitally important yet underfunded water utilities are. We strive to provide free resources and affordable solutions for organizations with limited budgets, helping them to create cutting-edge systems without exclusionary pricing. Really, there’s nothing more inspiring to us than stories of how utilities are discovering innovative ways to upgrade their processes while saving money with Ignition.

11 min read

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