As with IT and computing in general, the most obvious impact of the Internet on scada HMI systems is the promise of near-universal access to information, plus an element of standardisation in the user interface. Taken to its most simplistic conclusion this implies a sort of 'anyone able to access anything from anywhere, using an interface that is totally familiar' nirvana.
This promise is a revolutionary step forward for most scada HMI users, in a market dominated by standalone HMI products from the DOS/Windows 3.1 era, where each PC in the factory has a separately licensed and installed version of the software, limiting the sharing of meaningful information.
Some of the more modern, forward-looking scadas already have in place a server-based licensing and installation model, providing concurrent user interface connection capability from a variety of different platforms to a distributed network of co-operating servers and via a range of different network topologies.
For these high-end systems, increasing adoption of the Internet as a communications and user interface standard is seen as an evolutionary rather than revolutionary step, with Internet/intranet-connected, web-browser-based user interfaces taking their logical place among the range of other offerings. Examples of some of the other types of user interface are Windows CE, WAP-enabled mobile phone, Win32 client, Terminal Server client, etc.
With all panaceas or 'silver bullets' there are some provisos to be aware of. In the case of the Internet and scada one that springs to mind is security. The last thing most owners of manufacturing and process plant would want is for anyone and everyone via the global Internet to be able to view, and heaven forbid, modify critical plant parameters. So care needs to be taken when 'opening up' the system that security issues are properly considered and catered for. Another is performance. Most web browser users are comfortable waiting several seconds (sometimes longer) for a page to load. Current scada HMI users, particularly those with the kind of high-end offerings referred to earlier, are accustomed to sub-second access to very detailed information pages.
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