Global economic conditions are driving businesses towards leaner manufacturing processes, improved safety, and cost reduction measures such as energy efficiency, asset utilization and infrastructure maintenance. Technology is playing a major role. A vast amount of monitoring data is now available in real-time. However, technology is also enabling a move beyond monitoring and alerting towards greater process control and automation.

Important technologies include:

• New wireless technology, including RFID and mobile wireless transmission, enabling higher real-time data rates and remote monitoring, regardless of physical location.

• Improved sensor technology, enabling all equipment and infrastructure to be monitored.

• Intelligent sensors and smartphones leading to a new world of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications.

• Adaptive systems for sophisticated control and automation, capable of utilizing the wireless infrastructure and M2M solutions.

However, most of today's Industrial Automation systems suffer from the same problems - deterministic, hierarchical systems based around traditional HMI/SCADA architectures that are prone to failure as complexity and data rates increase. And although systems today tend to be open in terms of standards for I/O, they provide little opportunity for businesses to configure and customize their own business rules and processes.

SQLstream’s stream computing platform enables Industrial Automation solutions to maximize the business value from the latest technologies and to scale for the vast volume of real-time data. SQLstream enables you to combine data from sensors, meters, intelligent applications and geospatial data in real-time. Trends, exceptions, alerts and patterns can analysed and identified in real-time. SQLstream also filters the vast volume of uninteresting data, and aggregates data in real-time using continuous ETL - your Data Historian can continue to function, but can now be scaled to handle the vast volume of real-time sensor data.

SQLstream can be configured and extended easily for new sensor technology, business processes and monitoring requirements. SQLstream is also scalable - performance is key, and in a world where data volumes and complexity are increasing dramatically, the software systems should not be the bottleneck.