Interesting conclusion and prediction from Jim Pinto in a Control Magazine article.

For large distributed control systems, it should be recognized that there are two automation groups evolving:

Group 1: Investing heavily in a control room, knowledge-base approach. More connection from enterprise to field for data-to-knowledge-to-local/enterprise decision-making. Focused on making timely, safe and profitable decisions at the control room and above the open server architecture. Honeywell and Invensys are in this group.

Group 2: This group put the “smarts” in their field products, and uses their product volume approach to move into the control room and enterprise level. Examples include Emerson and Yokogawa.

Will these vendors focus on placing security in the control room and field respectively?