Continuing Adroit Technologies' legacy of partnering with innovative and cutting-edge companies, the local supervisory control and data acquisition (scada) development company, in conjunction with CST Digital Communication, have agreed to supply a complementary licensed copy of SMSEventlog with its scada package to clients. Developed by CST, SMSEventlog is proprietary early warning software for system events that provides users with access to critical information via the GSM network to a mobile phone using SMS.
CST Digital Communication is a South African company, which solves low level, technical communication problems. CST development of SMSEventlog arose from the company's need to monitor its clients' on-site equipment. By monitoring the early-warning signs that users do not normally take cognisance of, CST can prevent shutdowns and outages of computer equipment. CST director, Cobus Beukes says, "When warning signs are ignored, systems often crash in a state where they are very costly to rebuild. Shutdowns are typically disruptive and rather costly to both large, medium and small business."
"When compared to international equivalents, SMSEventlog provides a less complex way of monitoring systems, is less costly and is less intensive on system resources. Also, the fact is, when you measure something you change it, CST have gone out of their way to make the lowest possible impact on the systems being measured," adds Beukes.
SMSEventlog typically takes up less than 0,1% of CPU recourses, even on old hardware. Other than a GSM modem, no additional hardware is required.
Adroit's technologically advanced, 32-bit, open scada system has been installed in some of South Africa's largest and most complex process plants in the water and wastewater industry, mining, manufacturing, food processing, oil and gas, automotive sectors and in the medical environment. Often operating 24-hours a day, seven days a week, these sites recognise that downtime is expensive and often dangerous, and rely on the scada system to monitor, visualise and control these multifaceted capital-intensive plants. SMSEventlog provides Adroit customers with an additional level of alarming and protection against restrictions, stoppages or hindrances, and provides a platform for preventative maintenance.
Beukes comments, "Adroit and CST have always had a mutual respect for each other's abilities, and our product complements the scada offering of Adroit. Manufacturing, process and operations companies and other organisations that consider downtime expensive will recoup the value of our low-cost product within the first few weeks after installation."
SMSEventlog is configurable in accordance with the client's requirements. The system monitors multiple nodes on a computer network for a number of variables such as network connectivity, service status, as well as intrusion and security related effects. The events can be categorised into warnings, simple information and errors, which the SMSEventlog software can differentiate between. Interest groups can then receive diverse messages dependent on their interest and responsibilities.
The major advantage of SMSEventlog to the client is that information is pushed to the appropriate parties. The system is therefore not reliant on consistent monitoring and polling by the user. The software is applicable to IT professionals and computer users who are required to monitor application status, system security, system hardware, system software, network connectivity, network hardware, peripheral equipment (like UPS and printers), for both workstations and servers.
CST made the SMSEventlog scalable, running from a single node system to a system of several thousand nodes. On a small network, ie, tens of nodes, the product can be installed on a single node and has the capacity to monitor all other nodes.
In larger environments with thousands of nodes, thin client agents are used to escalate the appropriate events to existing departmental servers that can in turn escalate critical events even further to headquarters lever for instance. In a typical process control environment fitted with an Adroit scada, SMSEventlog could be installed on the agent server.
SMSEventlog can be installed in conjunction with a CST sister product, SMSDataCentre at a central head office level. SMSDataCentre collate messages from multiple departments or regional SMSEventlog systems via the corporate WAN or the GSM network. SMSDataCentre, therefore, consolidates information into a single SQL server where operators can identify trends on an enterprise level.
The SMS provides the recipient with details of the source, nature and location of the event and the ability to differentiate between the different systems and sub-systems. Beukes says: "Because it is an SMS, the person responsible can keep their phone on silent in a meeting, for example, and still receive event details without disrupting the meeting." Based on the user's knowledge of the systems, he or she can then evaluate the degree of urgency of the event.
IT service providers can receive copies of critical events via SMS so that where they have maintenance agreements in place; they can rectify the problem at an early stage before a major failure takes place.
Dave Wibberley, MD of Adroit comments, "As a Proudly South African company, we are pleased to be able to assist fellow SMME local developers grow their companies through this unique value added reseller agreement."
For more information contact Dave Wibberley, managing director, Adroit Technologies, 011 781 3513, [email protected], www.adroit.co.za
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