The SCADA versus IoT debate is one of the more heated discussions consuming industrial IT departments today. SCADA teams are protective of their “babies,” defending vast data acquisition networks of sensors, gateways, and RTUs. They’ve invested tremendous time and capital to help their teams get the data they need in harsh and hazardous environments, and … Read more
SCADA vs. IoT. It’s a years-old debate, but it most often occurs between industry analysts, IoT vendors, and desk jockeys. Our goal in this blog is to provide an engineer’s perspective on the important differences between SCADA and IoT. Ask any engineer what their top 3 goals are for the year, and they’ll probably tell … Read more
Last week, Winter Storm Uri brought freezing temperatures, snow, and ice to much of the southern United States, namely Texas (WellAware’s HQ). Millions lost electricity, heat, and running water (as a result of water pumps failing due to lack of power) – in some cases, people lost their lives. One of the primary reasons Uri was so … Read more
In our last blog post, we discussed how remote tank level monitoring (TLM) helps us solve major industrial challenges (TL;DR: you can avoid MANY issues with accurate, reliable tank data). Here, we explore three ways you can take your tank level monitoring solution to the next level by expanding your remote monitoring and automation capabilities. We’ll touch on: We’ve … Read more
If you keep up with tech innovation in the industrial world, you’ve no doubt heard about the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is changing the game in many ways, and the time to get in is now. But, where should you start? Consider tank level monitoring. Whether you’re monitoring a simple water tank or tracking frac tank levels for a … Read more
The goal of any IoT project is to generate trustworthy data that empowers people and processes to deliver results. Yet, it can be intimidating to plunge right into such a new and exciting world. We get it. For this reason, we see many organizations dip their toes in the IoT water with remote tank level monitoring (TLM). Tank monitoring … Read more
The Internet of Things shows a lot of promise to solve some BIG problems for industrial companies. When organizations pursue industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) projects, they often begin by exploring what types of industrial IoT sensors are available. Operations managers typically have an idea of what processes they want to monitor but aren’t always sure … Read more
The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming our world in many ways. With smart devices and sensors, we can collect data automatically in real time about critical processes, infrastructure, and events. However, IoT deployments don’t always play out as expected. At WellAware, we think this has to do with accountability – could Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) improve … Read more
Managed Services business models have become much more prevalent over the last few decades thanks to advances in cloud computing technology. More recently, Managed Services Providers (MSPs), in particular, have grown increasingly popular as companies try to optimize operations and decision-making around data streams. What are Managed Services for the IoT? So, what are Managed … Read more
Large-scale industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) deployments tend to stall out and fail before they even get started. From data collection problems to bad technology, there are numerous issues that prevent organizations from implementing digital projects successfully. We’ve learned that many of these challenges exist as a result of how leaders approach IIoT deployments. They … Read more
Industrial leaders use the Internet of Things (IoT) to change the way they do business. They want to pursue digitization to make operations and infrastructure safer, more efficient, and more sustainable for their workers. However, many fail to realize that big business process change is hard to get right. Organizations can’t simply add an IoT layer on … Read more
Welcome to the last (but certainly not least) post of our industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) data problem series! Throughout this journey, we’ve covered a wide range of challenges and topics. Our goal has been to help leaders understand the data problems that industrial businesses face when deploying IIoT networks. We’ve saved cybersecurity for last, as it … Read more
Continuing with our data problem blog series, we tackle the topic of incomplete data, another challenge many businesses face when considering digital technologies like SCADA systems to improve their business processes. Incomplete data is distinct from the problem of missing data. Missing data is information that companies don’t collect because it’s either unavailable or too expensive to gather. Incomplete … Read more
In our industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) data problem series, we’ve arrived at the tricky issue of misidentified data in remote monitoring systems. Misidentified data is high-quality, complete, and on time. However, the identity of the asset it represents in the remote monitoring system has been mislabeled. As a result, the misidentified data is highly … Read more
In the industrial space, data silos are everywhere. Many industrial companies today still rely on cumbersome data management systems that render operations data inaccessible to those who need it most. In other words, the data is “siloed”. Siloed data is a major problem for organizations that are trying to take advantage of digital transformation. Before … Read more