Operational Historians/Data Platforms Selection

This Selection Guide includes extensive selection criteria and strategies to help in choosing the Operational Historian/Industrial Data Platform technology and supplier that best meets your specific current and future needs.

Newer Enterprise Historians and Industrial Data Platforms: Game Changing for Enabling Collaboration and Optimization

​Eliminating data silos and integrating data sources and databases seamlessly across the enterprise are key to collaboration, performance improvements, and optimizing value. Today, this is particularly important as some databases are being deployed to different environments. Being able to integrate and connect to data sources easily to quickly access information can lower deployment costs—another reason that data connectors, integration standards, and data management tools are important for success.

Process complexity and the digital transformation are making data storage and management more complex. We live in a world where more devices and things are connected, and this requires interoperability and accessibility. The digital transformation and Industry 4.0 are all about data; how quickly one can get the data, how quickly one can understand the data in context and get the data to the right user, and how quickly and securely one can take actionable insights. Speed, performance, flexibility, cybersecurity, accessibility, and context are important because users need to react quickly.

New industrial Enterprise Historians and data platforms are a game changer for digital transformation by enabling an organization’s digital transformation and set a foundation for workers to be able to use data more effectively. The technology is helping to drive digital transformation and a cultural shift to a more end-to-end data-based culture.

It is also important for companies to make this data more accessible using intuitive dashboards or reports that enhance the user experience and enable remote workers to make sense of the data and make operational data-driven decisions faster. Companies should strive to create a data mindset as well as the ability to collaborate throughout the organization so that workers can make well-reasoned, fact-based decisions that embraces information that is already available in the data they are collecting.

Operational Historian/Industrial Data Platform Selection Strategic Issues

Invest in Real-Time Data Platforms On-premise, Edge, Cloud, Data Hubs, and Data Lakes

Begin the digital transformation with the selection of a robust industrial platform designed for real-time data. Newer platforms should be more secure, enable regulatory compliance, and enable different types of data sources to be combined with traditional real-time historical data. Options for deployment should be flexible and include on-premise, edge, cloud, and data lakes. Start to investigate and deploy Industrial IoT applications along with more traditional data for process decision-making. Start migrating applications to the edge or cloud where it makes sense using a hybrid approach. 

Although some critical data will continue to remain on-site, buyers must take the time to understand data needs and what data is moved to the cloud. The ultimate use of the data must be considered. In some cases, it may be necessary to add new sensors or equipment to the process to obtain the data needed for better business intelligence and outcomes.

Those successfully using digital technologies to support innovation and competitive excellence have to typically buy into the concept of leveraging technology to help “future proof” the business. This is especially true for cloud-based software that enables universal access to data, introduces a collaborative environment for remote workers across the globe, and addresses the security and availability demands of the business. When the power of the cloud is combined with data and advanced applications for engineering and operations, a new level of industrial intelligence becomes available that helps teams proactively respond to circumstances, simplify processes with automation, and continuously innovate. In fact, information and solutions in the cloud can be more secure than on-premises systems.

New platforms and Industrial IoT solutions can make deployment, implementation, and user experience easier and more secure. When implementing Industrial IoT solutions, start with a pilot and based on success, create a roll-out plan.

Consider Hyperscalers for Storage Infrastructure

Hyperscalers use large, distributed infrastructure that can quickly accommodate an increased demand for computing resources without requiring additional physical space, cooling, or electrical power. Hyperscale computing is characterized by standardization, automation, redundancy, high-performance computing (HPC) and high availability (HA). The term is often associated with cloud computing and the very large data centers owned by Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and IBM. To accommodate such demand, cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) have developed new infrastructures that maximize hardware density, while minimizing the cost of cooling and administrative overhead.

Operational Historians/Data Platforms Selection Table of Contents

Strategic Analysis

  • Executive Overview
  • Market Trends
  • Buyer Strategies
  • Growth Contributors and Inhibitors

Scope

Technology Evaluation & Selection Criteria

  • Cybersecurity
  • Organization
  • Product and Technology
  • Services and Support
  • Standards
  • Supplier Business Scope
  • Vision and Strategy

Leading Supplier Analysis

  • Market Shares of the Leading Suppliers
  • Market Shares by Region
  • Market Shares by Revenue Type
  • Market Shares by Industry
  • Market Shares by Data Attributes
    • 3D Virtual Reality
    • Financial
    • HTML (Weather, Energy, etc.)
    • Structured Process
    • Unstructured Data (Video, Imagery, etc.)
  • Market Shares by Deployment Model
    • Cloud
    • Hosted
    • On Premise
  • Market Shares by Standalone vs. Embedded Delivery
  • Market Shares by Customer Size
  • Market Shares by Customer Type
  • Market Shares by Sales Channel

Leading Supplier Profiles

For More Information

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Representative End User Clients
Representative End User Clients