Three Examples of Cloud Native IIoT to Prevent Downtime

Summary

When someone mentions something like “cloud native IIoT” do your teeth start to clench in stress and you immediately begin to search for your antacids to ward off the quickly approaching heartburn that comes with the topic? I hear you, understand your anxiety and totally feel your pain because I’ve been there many times.

That’s until I started thinking of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) differently—what it really “means” to us, the humans of the world. It can actually help make our lives better in several ways, like increasing the safety of many very dangerous situations, how it can even prevent terrible problems before they happen, and how it can make companies be more profitable, so more people keep their jobs and prices don’t over-inflate for the end users.

The cloud native part of this equation means that when Emerson developed its IIoT platform it was born in the cloud; from day one we developed the applications and every enhancement along the way in the cloud so it will always work right anytime, anywhere without any “clunky” hiccups or that sloppy feeling experience. Emerson also developed an app—DeltaV SaaS SCADA Mobile (Figure 1)—that end users can download to use from their phone or tablets.

Keep the water on

Some neighborhoods have a water well, which is generally great until suddenly the compressor [or pump] that keeps the water flowing shuts down unexpectedly—NOT great at all. But, if the right sensors are put in place on the compressor to measure things like oil pressure, temperatures, on and off status, suction pressure, engine speed and more, the water might never stop flowing, or at least not nearly as often.

But many water companies don’t use technology to its fullest abilities; they still have to get the call from the angry person trying to take a shower that has no water before they even know there is a problem. And the problem is usually not where the person answering your call is located. It’s usually at least 20 minutes away and then that person has to call someone else on staff to go to the location and see what the problem is.

Find a pipe leak

Oil production includes many machines and equipment at remotely located sites and they have lots of pipe too; mainly they’re shorter runs that lead to things like tanks for temporary storage. But if one of these pipes leaks, it can not only cause harm to the environment, but also to the profitability of the company since they’re very expensive and time consuming to clean up properly.

With IIoT in action, the pipe is actually speaking to the software and the software keeps track of what’s okay, and what is not within the boundaries of what’s acceptable. The onsite hardware is measuring things like flow rate and pressure, and when any of the measurements are not within a “normal” status, the alarm is sent to either a group of people or select authorized people within the company to check it.

Detecting pipeline anomalies can help in most cases before they become a huge problem, and to keep oil or water in the pipe and not leaking everywhere. It works great on other types of pipes from causing total havoc as well for things like feeder mains, saltwater disposal, mains without redundancy, and mains with a history of rupture or leaks, and even some supply lines.
 

Safer natural gas

Natural gas distribution isn’t just a matter of getting gas from the main station to your home so you can cook dinner; it’s about making sure it gets there safely as a top priority. Most gas distribution stations are remotely located, not in the center of your town. Many towns that don’t use IIoT end up sending staff to drive to the station to monitor it and keep the volume corrector active and up to date. This is not only expensive, but it also increases a safety risk.

IIoT saves utility users from having to drive to a remote site just to monitor and check volumes. It can be done with the right asset hardware in place that communicates the appropriate data to the IIoT platform where it analyzes the data and works from predetermined thresholds set for things like consumption rates or spikes in volume and then sends alarms to the correct people so they know exactly what the problem is, and how to fix it.

Looking ahead

There is more to cloud native IIoT than just these examples, but these provide a starting point for thinking differently about what it really means and how it can help in so many ways. Hopefully, you didn’t reach for that bottle of antacids—and your jaw is relaxed knowing this is way easier to understand when you think about the examples of how IIoT can help us all.

_{All images courtesy of Emerson}