Modernize and Maximize Reliability at the Edge
Twelve monitor and control success stories to learn from Case Study Compendium
Modernizing Control Architectures for Maximum Reliability and Easy Management with Zero-Touch Edge Computing
Organizations need reliable, resilient, and modern computing solutions for mission-critical monitor and control applications. Zero-touch edge computing provides end users with an optimal platform to modernize legacy control architectures; deploy industry-leading HMI/SCADA software on-machine, on the plant floor, in the control room, or at the operations center; and integrate best-in-class software to improve operational performance.
Stratus fault tolerant computing platforms from Penguin Solutions® are designed from 40 years of industry experience. By delivering zero-touch edge computing platforms that are simple to deploy and maintain, protect against interruptions and threats, and operate autonomously, Penguin Solutions ensures continuous availability for mission-critical applications.
The following 12 customer success stories showcase how organizations in industries ranging from Oil & Gas to Specialty Chemicals to Pharma are leveraging edge computing to modernize infrastructure, run mission-critical applications with no downtime, and build future-proof control architectures for long-term success.
• Up to 5,000 input/outputs (I/Os)
• Up to four virtual machines (VMs)
• High availability or fault tolerant
• UL Class I Div 2 certified
• 100,000+ input/outputs (I/Os)
• 30+ virtual machines (VMs)
• Automated uptime layer
• Fault tolerant
Midstream Oil & Gas Company
One of the largest independent liquid petroleum product pipeline operators in the U.S. owns and operates a diversified network of integrated assets that together provide trusted midstream logistics solutions. With a global terminal network of more than 100 liquid petroleum terminals, over 7,000 miles of domestic pipelines, and millions of barrels of tank capacity, the company needed a reliable solution to help it manage the complex distribution of petroleum-based products.
The company deployed and standardized Stratus ztC Edge, running terminal automation software across more than 100 sites and deployed Stratus ftServer in the control room. They also replaced legacy PCs and technologies, which improved operational efficiency, added remote monitor and control capabilities, and reduced costly unplanned downtime.
Challenges
Unify multiple, disparate systems
Solution
Stratus ztC Edge deployed in 100+ terminals
Increased asset lifecycles from three years to six years
As we looked at Penguin Solutions, their technologies, and digital transformation, we came to the agreement that we would continue to use their solution and would standardize that across our operational applications within the terminal space.
Senior Manager of Terminal Operations
Midstream Oil & Gas Company
Modernize legacy technology applications and PCs
Reduce frequent equipment failures
Eliminate significant unplanned downtime
Stratus ftServer deployed in the control room
Rockwell Automation PlantPAX
Toptech Systems
Eliminated unplanned downtime
Reduced information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) staff workloads
Standardized scalable and reliable hardware and software across operational applications
24/7 Stratus support and services
Petra hasn’t had an unplanned outage in 10 years. They’ve never experienced any business disruption with Penguin Solutions as their foundation. When our customers need that extreme level of reliability, we will continue to rely on Penguin Solutions for continuous computing.
Gianluigi Campisano Automation Engineer, Loginet
Loginet & Petra Srl
Petra Srl owns and operates one of Italy’s largest oil depots, loading hundreds of trucks and handling millions of liters of oil and gasoline each day. To improve the efficiency of depot operations, Petra runs Nuovo Petrol, a next-generation terminal automation solution from experienced SI, Loginet. This solution controls and monitors all terminal procedures and processes—from access control and weigh stations to deliveries in the bays and paperwork issuances.
With the Loginet solution and Stratus ztC Edge platforms, Petra automated manual processes and integrated disparate terminal systems to reduce risk, enable real-time data, and centralize visibility of operations. The company reduced depot load times by 33% and has experienced zero downtime since adopting Stratus edge computing a decade ago.
Challenges
Automate terminal operations to improve accuracy, ensure security, maximize safety, gain efficiency, and reduce costs
Manage 35 tanks for oil-product storage, with approximately 5,000 tons of product shipped daily
Operational visibility for analysis, alerting, and improvement
Solution
Stratus ztC Edge in paired fault-tolerant configuration deployed in the control room
Loginet Nuovo Petrol Terminal Automation System
Loginet IBIS LT2 Badge Reader
Loginet GraL Terminal
Reduced filling time by 33%
Connected real-time operations to enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customs reporting
Enabled depot-wide visibility into operations by unifying systems and ensuring data capture with edge computing
Experienced zero unplanned downtime for terminal automation system for 10 years using Stratus edge computing platforms
We selected the Stratus ztC Edge because it provides redundant processing, high uptime, significant computing power, and virtual machines (VMs). This gave us the ability to replicate units across the field, by providing a VM of ignition and VM of the database separately on the same unit.
Dr. Peter Photos CTO, Streamline Innovations
Streamline Innovations
Streamline Innovations develops and operates a proprietary process for removing toxic hydrogen sulfide (H2 S) from Oil & Gas, water, wastewater, landfills, and biogas. To succeed in the competitive oilfield services market, the company developed a visionary solution called the ValkyrieTM Intelligent Platform to bring AI-powered predictive maintenance, remote monitoring and control of precise chemical processes and operations, and 99.5% uptime to remote oilfield equipment.
The ValkyrieTM Intelligent Platform integrates an Ignition HMI/SCADA with Azure Cloud, MS
Dynamics ERP, FOG instrumentation, programmable logic controller (PLC) programming, AI/ML software, and more using a single Stratus ztC Edge computing platform with built-in redundancy and virtualization. This platform offers high-precision process control with “tiered” intelligence to monitor and analyze performance of remote assets.
Challenges
Identify a compute platform to combine IT and OT capabilities for monitor and control of complex chemical processes in rugged environments
Operate with limited data connectivity and limited staffing in remote Oil & Gas locations
Achieve 95% uptime and meet customer automation budgets
Solution
Stratus ztC Edge deployed on the skid
Inductive Automation Ignition
PostgreSQL database and Python
Seeq
Enabled real-time analysis, HMI, and tracking of 50 KPIs from 350 miles away
Reduced onsite staffing requirements by 66%
Enabled AI-powered predictive maintenance
Achieved 99.5% uptime, surpassing 95% customer SLA
Breton
Italy-based Breton is a leading manufacturer of equipment, machines, and facilities that produce and process engineered stone, natural stone (marble, granite, and ornamental), and metals. The company modernized its infrastructure to create Industry 4.0 manufacturing environments where unplanned downtime is not an option and OT staff useability is critical to unburden IT staff.
With the goal of innovating their production processes and enhancing their business performance, Breton focused on two key objectives: business continuity and easy deployment and management. Partnering with Wonderware Italia, they incorporated Stratus ztC Edge leveraging its easy-to-support high availability/fault tolerance and built-in virtualization to run AVEVA System Platform, HMI/SCADA, and Historian applications.
Challenges
Solution
Penguin Solutions’ unique box of available technology— virtualization, redundancy, protection, security, customizable availability, and industrial interoperability—is a leap forward over traditional IPCs and server configuration.
Michele Vario Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) and Business Development Director Wonderware Italia
Eliminate unplanned machine downtime to ensure business continuity for customers Reduce engineering and setup time to speed delivery to customers
Empower OT staff with a simple compute infrastructure on the factory floor
Stratus ztC Edge deployed on the plant floor
AVEVA TM System Platform
System integration by Wonderware Italia
Consolidated four AVEVA applications onto a single Stratus ztC Edge compute platform via virtualization Improved customer experience by reducing installation and preparation times by eight hours
Loaded to add VM images and system upgrades in 20 minutes
Stratus ztC Edge is designed to provide remote application management, more rapid and efficient multi-site deployment, improved security, and high availability of critical business operations and applications.
Craig Resnick Vice President, ARC Advisory Group
Bradbury
The Bradbury Group of manufacturing companies is dedicated to producing high-quality, productivity-enhancing metal processing equipment for customers around the world. They needed a solution that readied their customers as well as their own operations for digitalization and efficiency.
By adopting the Stratus ztC Edge platform running Rockwell Thin Manager® and FactoryTalk® for their metal rolling machines, Bradbury Group was able to move from multiple standalone stations to a centralized distributed visualization platform. This switch reduced costs, resolved downtime issues, and revealed a new profit driver for their business providing customer support services.
Challenges
Increase machine efficiency and flexibility by adding compute capability Reduce development, deployment, and revision update times
Increase customer uptime with quick replacement hardware, redundancy, and automated system backup
Solution
Stratus ztC Edge deployed on the plant floor
Rockwell Automation ThinManager TM
Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk® View Site Edition
Eliminated unplanned downtime
Used virtualization to consolidate workloads on a single Stratus ztC Edge computing platform
Enabled support services as a new customer offering
Reduced engineering and maintenance costs
Enginuity Global & QuarterNorth Energy
QuarterNorth Energy, a leading Oil & Gas producer that operates deepwater, shallow, and shelf assets in the Gulf of Mexico, needed to modernize infrastructure and process control technology on its Bullwinkle oil platform. This project was critical for improving safety and responsiveness, eliminating costly downtime, and driving operational excellence.
QuarterNorth Energy turned to Enginuity Global, an SI with expertise in process automation, control, and field services. In only 45 days, Enginuity upgraded all of the PLC panels and centralized monitor and control applications by running their Rockwell distributed control system (DCS)—including HMI/SCADA and Rockwell Automation Factory Talk Historian—with SQL Server, supporting 6,000 I/Os on a single, fault-tolerant Stratus ftServer platform. The end result: Higher yields, improved safety, and less unplanned downtime.
Challenges
Solution
The Stratus ftServer is a tank. It offers a simplistic approach to a complex system. Part of our motto at Enginuity is, ’We simplify a complex world.’ Stratus servers definitely help reduce some of that complexity and we were able to save a substantial amount of money using them.
Eric Belgard Lead for Automation and Controls, Enginuity
Modernize legacy control systems and infrastructure on existing oil platform
Centralize control systems
Update servers, workstations, and controllers
Improve system response time to boost reaction time, decision making, and operational visibility
Expand control system/safety system capacity
Stratus ftServer deployed in the control room
Rockwell Automation PlantPAx
DCS including HMI/SCADA and Factory Talk® historian with SQL Server supporting 6,000 I/Os
Anti-virus and cluster management software
System integration by Enginuity Global
Consolidated 12 applications running on six servers to a single, fault-tolerant Stratus ftServer compute platform
Centralized monitor and control resulted in higher yield, improved safety, and no downtime for critical applications
Improved system response time by 1000% (from more than 20 seconds to just milliseconds)
Rubberlite
Rubberlite, a materials manufacturer specializing in custom-engineered polyurethane foams and flexible composite systems, launched a supervisory control systems project with the goal of improving overall data quality, starting with standardizing their HMI/SCADA systems.
Running the AVEVA System Platform on a fault-tolerant Stratus ftServer allowed Rubberlite to digitalize information, standardize data collection at the source, and share that data plantwide. With this critical information and insights in hand, Rubberlite was able to realize an 80% reduction in non-sellable material—a key metric for customer satisfaction and profit—and eliminated application downtime and data loss.
We have not had a single downtime event since [Stratus ftServer] has been running in March 2016.
Process Automation Engineer
Challenges
Improve product quality for customer satisfaction
Enable innovation for growth Eliminate downtime for SCADA applications
Centralize recipe management for manufacturing repeatability Modernize compute infrastructure
Reduce IT maintenance and labor costs
Solution
Stratus ftServer deployed in the control room
Launch Supervisory Control Systems Project
AVEVA System Platform on Stratus ftServer for fully integrated DCS and data historian
Experienced no downtime since implementation in 2016
Reduced non-sellable material production by 80%
Increased sales by 25%
Redundancy at the compute level matched with PlantPAx DCS redundancy at the control level is a formidable combination for downtime prevention for mission-critical applications. By partnering with Rockwell Automation to characterize this joint solution, we’re delivering a massive leap forward for operations.
Synthomer
London-based multinational specialty chemicals company Synthomer produces additives and raw materials for coatings, paper, textiles, and health and protection products.
Previously, the company’s production facility in Piedmont, Italy was controlled by a collection of PLCs from different manufacturers. These islands of automation operated independently in siloes and were difficult and expensive to maintain and operate.
In 2018, Synthomer modernized the plant’s disparate monitor and control system with a Stratus ftServer running Rockwell Automation PlantPAx DCS, including HMI/SCADA, with the help of SI Progecta. The project drove a considerable increase in production and revenue at the plant by putting in place a simple, standardized, and resilient system.
Challenges
Centralize control of siloed PLC systems from different manufacturers
Solve the expense and complexity of operating disparate PLCs
Migrate to a distributed control system without shutting the plant down
Solution
Stratus ftServer deployed in the control room
Rockwell Automation PlantPAx DCS
System integration by Progecta
99.999% uptime with the fault-tolerant Stratus ftServer
Vast data availability empowers operators and fuels analytics
Production increase of 30% at the company’s Piedmont facility
Director, Rockwell Automation, Strategic Alliance at Penguin Solutions
RoviSys & Leading Life Sciences Company
A leading life sciences company that manufactures cell biology, DNA, RNA, and protein analysis products needed to eliminate downtime and data loss in order to avoid costly disruptions and ensure regulatory compliance.
In one week, RoviSys, a global SI specializing in automation, deployed Stratus ztC Edge and Stratus ftServer running Rockwell Automation PlantPAx, including HMI, at three manufacturing sites. The new production monitor and control architectures provided fault tolerance, simplified validation, converged OT and IT, and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) by 15-20% compared to a cluster solution. The life sciences company has since experienced no downtime and is able to service its Stratus platforms without dedicated IT support.
Challenges
Solution
With Stratus ftServers’ longevity and durability and streamlined FAT/SAT verification, our customer has a top-performing, high-availability solution for the long haul.
Eliminate downtime and data loss in batch manufacturing across three sites
Ensure data reliability for FDA regulation, good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements, and Verified Conformity Assessment Program (VCAP) parameters
Enable manufacturing operations team to maintain and support compute infrastructure without high-level IT support
Stratus ztC Edge deployed on the production line
Stratus ftServer deployed in the control center
Rockwell PlantPAx software for campus-wide
Eliminated downtime and consolidated software workloads
Reduced factory acceptance test (FAT)/site acceptance test (SAT) times from weeks to hours; completed full validation in one week
Reduced TCO by 15-20% and increased compute infrastructure lifespan to 15 years
DC Water
DC Water treats water and wastewater for 1.6 million people in the District of Columbia and neighboring counties in Maryland and Virginia. The company has the largest facility of its kind in the world, treating an average of nearly 290 million gallons per day with a peak capacity of nearly 1 billion gallons per day. Given that DC Water operates one of the largest water utilities, it’s no surprise that a strong HMI/SCADA system was a non-negotiable requirement.
In our line of work, we need responsive support, and Penguin Solutions’ engineers are right alongside us on every issue. Even if it’s a non-urgent issue, they will call me to follow up until the issue is resolved. They’re very responsive and diligent—and that’s just what we want.
Karen Green SCADA Manager, DC Water
DC Water uses the AVEVA System Platform running on a Stratus ftServer for secure, real-time automation, operations, and control of its water pumping stations, storage facilities, sewage pumping stations, stormwater pumping stations, and fabridams along the Potomac River. To provide continuous service on a massive scale, DC Water deployed a novel fault-tolerant edge computing architecture built on four Stratus ftServer platforms spread across multiple locations to run their sophisticated SCADA systems.
Challenges
Deploy SCADA applications on a resilient, fault-tolerant platform
Provide reliable automated instrumentation for dozens of sites and facilities throughout the DC Water system Create real-time data for analysis and executive/ regulatory reporting
Solution
Stratus ftServer deployed in the control center
AVEVA System Platform, InTouch, and Historian
Rockwell PLC
Schneider Electric PLC
Reduced system failover time to two minutes for the entire network (a 90% reduction)
Enabled fast access to timely data for KPI analysis and regulatory reporting
No system downtime in six years, enabling uninterrupted water supply for 1.6 million consumers
For
High availability is a big thing. When you're talking about moving an entire airport with multiple legacy siloed solutions over into one centralized system then you can't afford to have downtime.
