Invensys expands virtualisation technology for high availability and disaster recovery

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IBG - SA Instrumentation & Control Buyers' Guide

March 2012 News

Invensys Operations Management has expanded its certification for virtualisation technology to include high availability, disaster recovery and fault tolerance in supervisory control applications, leveraging both the VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualisation platforms. The company’s ArchestrA System Platform 2012 and Wonderware InTouch 2012 software are now certified for the latest VMware solutions, including VMware vSphere version 5.0 and ESXi version 5.0 for mission-critical applications.

“Historically, high availability and disaster recovery solutions in supervisory control systems were expensive to implement, not only because of hardware and software costs, but also because of additional administrative burdens,” says Maryanne Steidinger, director of product marketing, Invensys Operations Management. “Now, after a rigorous validation period, our ArchestrA System Platform 2012 and Wonderware InTouch 2012 software are also certified for disaster recovery and high availability using VMware virtualisation. All this is possible on commercial operating systems using COTS hardware, further reducing cost and easing implementation of mission-critical applications.”

Virtualisation software, like that offered by Microsoft and VMware, transforms a computer’s hardware, ie, CPU, hard drive and network controller, to create a virtual computer that can run its own operating system and applications. By sharing hardware resources with each other, multiple operating systems can run simultaneously on a single physical computer. By eliminating dependencies between the physical hardware and the software, customers have more choices to manage their applications, servers and equipment. One of the benefits is the ability to move virtual machines between host computers, which enable a variety of different fail-safe scenarios to be implemented, each providing options for different levels of redundancy that make systems more resilient, less prone to equipment failure, less prone to site failure and simpler to upgrade.

“At OpsManage’11 last year, we set up and demonstrated a scenario where an entire primary system in Florida failed over to a backup disaster recovery system in California,” says Steidinger. “Customers were impressed with the ease and speed with which the backup system took control, using only commercial hardware. That is the flexibility they are looking for to modernise and optimise their business. As the first industrial automation provider to be certified for high availability, disaster recovery and fault tolerance on the two major virtualisation platforms, we look forward to continuing to offer the products our customers need to achieve the highest levels of compliance, collaboration and operational excellence.”

For more information contact Jaco Markwat, Invensys Operations Management, +27 (0)11 607 8100, [email protected], www.iom.invensys.co.za

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Invensys expands virtualisation technology for high availability and disaster recovery

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