SOFTWARE-DEFINED AUTOMATION
POWERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF PROCESS INDUSTRIES Axel Lorenz*
The process industries are experiencing a fundamental transformation in how they control and optimise their operations, marking one of the most significant shifts in industrial technology in decades.
PROCESS TECHNOLOGY JUN/JUL 2025
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oday the process industries operate in an increasingly complex environment where an aging infrastructure is being confronted with modern digitalisation demands. Many plants maintain systems that have been in service for over three decades, often resulting in data silos and operational inefficiencies. Organisations frequently manage varying levels of automation across different locations, even within the same company, while facing pressure to integrate modern digital capabilities. The system landscape in process plants ranges from simple applications to complex, highly integrated safety solutions and precisely validated plants. Data silos are increasingly common in industries that rely on plants that have existed for years. Despite these challenges, many technological innovations have been developed to help upgrade older process control technologies. However, this requires an understanding of the installed system base of process industry manufacturers.
DECOUPLING OF HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENABLES A FLEXIBLE MODIFICATION OF OPERATIONS Software-defined automation (SDA) addresses the aforementioned issues by providing the ability to integrate data flows and dynamically control systems with no need for extensive hardware modifications. Decoupling hardware and software components to enable more flexible and efficient industrial operations represents a significant evolution in process control systems. This approach addresses current challenges in the process industries while preparing organisations for future technological advances. However, the true potential of SDA lies not just in its technical capabilities but also in how it aligns with and supports broader business strategies. Software-defined automation fundamentally changes how process control systems operate. According to this new concept, the traditional automation pyramid is being altered to a more dynamic network architecture that enables a real-time data
flow between field devices and higher-level systems through Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies, digital twins and edge computing. Perhaps most significantly, this new architecture enables the breakdown of traditional data silos by combining information from various sources to create comprehensive digital systems that support real-time, data-driven decision-making.
SMART IIOT SENSORS SUPPORT DATADRIVEN PRODUCTION OPTIMISATION Software-defined automation is supported by a confluence of advanced technologies that collectively drive its transformative capabilities. At the heart of this approach is edge computing, which brings computation and data storage closer to the data source. This proximity minimises latency and bandwidth use, while facilitating the real-time processing and immediate responsiveness that is essential for industrial operations. Coupled with IIoT, SDA leverages smart sensors to collect vast amounts of data from diverse sources across the production environment. These sensors PROCESSONLINE.COM.AU