Vista Article in Automation World - - Do They Understand Control Systems?
Catching up on some magazines on airplane rides I ran across a feature in the September issue of Automation World, Vista and Office 2007 Target Manufacturing. Sounds interesting. To my great surprise it read like a PR piece and most of the benefits listed had nothing to do with control systems.
Let me give you my quick Vista analysis.
Vista Pro’s:
- Microsoft’s impressive security development life cycle and continuous progress on security means this is likely the most secure (Update: Windows) OS per line of code.
Vista Con’s (in approximate priority order):
- This accelerates the end of life for Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It will force upgrades to SCADA and DCS HMI and servers with little functional benefits.
- Similarly, it will force hardware upgrades.
- Increasing features also increase the attack surface
The article is amusing because it highlights Sharepoint and benefits with Microsoft Office that are minimally used in control systems, besides basic spreadsheet functionality. Control system applications, historians, decision support applications, not Office are used for serious information sharing and analysis.
Some of the quotes are clearly ridiculous, and the magazine knows better.
The next ten years will be the Vista decade, says Argusa. You will be able to navigate from outer space and down into the operations of the plant.
One of the interesting sections, and a parallel discussion in MSMUG, is the potential for the visualization tools being helpful to displays. Clearly the visualization technology is impressive and Microsoft is considering adding a set of manufacturing graphics for the community. At MSMUG there was a discussion of the value of highly accurate, 3D drawings that are now possible. In the end, the display needs to effectively show information rather than look accurate or pretty. Clearly old-school operators may be resistant to elegant displays, but they also have a point that highly accurate drawings may not be the most efficient way to display data on a cluttered monitor.
Update: Clearly I need to avoid posting before coffee since I used “clearly” three times in five sentences. Nothing is that clear.
Author: Dale Peterson
Posted: October 22nd, 2007 under Microsoft.
Comments: 3
Comments
Comment from Alex
Time: October 22, 2007, 6:32 am
“Microsoft’s impressive security development life cycle and continuous progress on security means this is likely the most secure OS per line of code.”
OpenBSD says “Hi!”
Comment from Jake Brodsky
Time: October 22, 2007, 7:24 am
Well, no matter what Microsoft says, we aren’t migrating to Vista until Service Pack 2 at the earliest. The DRM stuff either has to be disabled, or made a whole lot more friendly. It’s getting in the way of real work.
Another point: being the most secure OS per line of code is like saying this is the strongest airplane per kilo. So what? Is it fast? Can in manage threads any better? Can it synchronize to a control system with even greater resolution?
Yet Another point: Beyond a certain point, who cares about the fancy graphics? Someone is going to have to create these fancy graphics. I see no value with a three dimensional display filled with all sorts of whirling fans, spinning generators, or flowing water. Show the operaters what they need to see and DON’T CLUTTER THE SCREEN!
One last point: Time series analysis is not something Microsoft does well. What they really need is a good generic statistics package. Yet, they keep pushing the office suite down to the plant. I’m sorry. Sometimes you really need to use the right tool for the job. Just because you can fit a month’s data in a spreadsheet doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Oh, and if they’re going to push office suite stuff on the plant, they’d better get their math correct. We can’t have this nonsense of multiplying 5.1 by 12850 and coming up with 10000.
Comment from Chris Harmon
Time: November 13, 2007, 4:37 pm
No surprise in that article - MS and Wonderware have partnered in the past for PR stuff.
End-of-life is a big deal for the plants. I’d be more interested to see the tangible benefits in the server-side software like the historians and HMIs when run on Vista.
In my experience, Excel was used quite heavily for PI historian data analysis with their DataLink addin. PI also has pushed quite hard in getting their RtPortal which runs on Sharepoint into a large segment of their customers.
I believe if you searched around online you could find the video/presentation by Wonderware on their Vista integration. I recall it focused on “identity management”, “location awareness” and all kinds of pie-in-the-sky stuff in my opinion. But to the guys out on the floor, I just don’t see there being a huge and immediate need.
But c’mon now, MS *has* to try all they can to drum up Vista support and interest! So many companies/government aren’t jumping on the bandwagon anytime soon.
Write a comment