Industry needs clever data management

Although the automation and digitalization of modern production facilities bring immense economic benefits, they also increase complexity and the risk of production downtime. The latter are very expensive and slow down companies across all departments. This is why hardly any industrial production plant - regardless of industry, company size or task - can do without a complex IT setup and a constantly growing amount of production history data. However, while regular backups and redundant data storage are standard in traditional business IT, this is anything but a matter of course in many areas of industrial production and operational technology (OT).

Using and securing data streams

© Auvesy

Research also requires comprehensive security and transparent management of data streams: CERN in Geneva relies on the 'versiondog' data management system from AUVESY-MDT to secure and monitor the industrial control systems in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator. Founded in 1954, CERN is a major research facility for basic research in physics. With a budget of over 1 billion euros, around 11,000 scientists worldwide are currently working on various projects. Research focuses on the structure of matter, i.e. the elementary particles that make up the universe. Research is carried out at the speed of light with the help of large particle accelerators. The largest of these is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider).

Safety and quality through data availability

"We have made significant gains in security and quality in terms of the data availability of our applications with many of CERN's programmable logic controllers. Thanks to versiondog, we have risen to a new, qualitatively higher level," affirms Jerónimo Ortolá Vidal, Automation Engineer in the Industrial Controls and Safety Systems Group at CERN. The large-scale research facility CERN commissioned the LHC in 2008 in order to advance cutting-edge research in the field of particle physics. versiondog from AUVESY is the manufacturer-independent software for backing up, version management and documentation of project data from industrial control systems. The system provides a standardized solution for uniform, centralized data storage, automatic backups, clear documentation of the entire development process, comparisons with detailed differences in the respective editor language and documentation support. By using versiondog, CERN has, for example, a central project archive to keep the installed control systems from Siemens and Schneider Electric under control.

Expert know-how live and free of charge on the Internet

How automated and digital processes are generally becoming simpler and safer will be demonstrated and discussed on May 24 and 25, 2022: AUVESY-MDT, one of the global market and technology leaders for data management in industrial companies, is opening "Connect 2022", an online conference all about IT and OT optimization. Among other things, 'octoplant', a further development of the versiondog solution, which is successfully in use at more than 2500 companies and organizations, e.g. Thyssen Krupp and Nestlé, will be presented there. The system is a new type of data management platform that provides a manufacturer-independent and solution-neutral holistic view of all production assurance processes at the interface between OT and IT. Users are optimally protected against production downtime and data loss and also enjoy significantly increased cyber security. Other presentations, including one by Jerónimo Ortolá Vidal from CERN, will include current application examples from international organizations and companies.