Iconics IIOT

Iconics have been Dataworks strategic partner for over 10 years,  providing us with the tools to create sophisticated applications to visualize , analyse and collect data from multiple data source types and delivering these applications securely to our customers on any device. Iconics as a company are at the heart of the IoT revolution. The release of their  IoTWorX™ Remote Cloud Monitoring and Analytics Solution, will see their vision, of securely accessing data from any device in any location and delivering that data to visualisation and analysis applications via the cloud, become a reality.

Iconics products strength has been its ability to connect to a multitude of devices via standard protocols such as OPC, OPC-UA, BACnet and SNMP and allowing the data from these devices to drive feature rich applications. Traditionally these devices were interfaced to a plant or building network with the Iconics client applications deployed on the same network and accessed via the local intranet. Organisations with VPNs could have more sophisticated setups where data from multiple sites could be accessed by any client on the VLAN using the same Iconics client application deployed on their network. The IoT challenge is to have these industrial and building management devices securely connected to the internet so that applications, that feed off their data, can be securely accessed from anywhere on any device without the need for VPN type infrastructure. This is where the IoTWorX™ comes in.

To understand what the IoTWorX™ does we must first look at the concept of the IoT Gateway. An IoT Gateway is a physical bridge between on premise or ‘edge’ devices and the cloud. IoT gateways connected to a plant network for example allow all devices such as PLC’s and building controllers, interfaced to the plant network, to securely expose their data to the cloud. These gateways facilitate the development of secure, sophisticated and scalable software systems to analyse , visualise and control the operation of your enterprise. IoT gateways can be implemented using standard servers or can take the form of embedded systems, running on low cost microprocessors and performing a dedicated function. IoTWorX™  is the software that runs on these gateways.

IoTWorX™  is the key to allowing the entire Iconics  product family to be at the heart of your IoT solution. ‘Southbound’ it provides the communication to the on premise networked devices using standard protocols such as OPC, OPC-UA , BACnet and SNMP via its IoT connector. ‘Northbound’ it communicates to the Microsoft Azure Cloud Services IoT Hub using IoTWorXs IoT Cloud Connector via the bi-directional AMQP transport protocol supported by Microsoft. The use of Microsoft Azure facilitates the optional integration with its services such as Power BI , Machine Learning and Analytics. IoTWorX™  also supports other cloud providers and can provide data to third-party cloud based applications, such as ERP or MES systems, using REST and MQTT. It comes with secure remote management and diagnostics functionality allowing seamless remote operation and maintenance of your IoT Gateway.

Using the Iconics tools, Dataworks have been providing cutting edge real-time visualisation, analysis and data collection applications for over 10 years. The introduction of the IoTWorX™ allows us to take these applications to the next level , providing the tools for your company to join the 4th Industrial Revolution and reap the associated cost savings benefits.

Find out how we can help with your companies IOT vision and contact us today.