Open, Linux-based platforms for automation have been available for years. But the public is still not very aware of the advantages in use. Users have not yet been asked about this. The news portal Industrie-Digitalisierung wants to change that. With your help!
The Smart Automation market overview has been around for a year and is currently in its second version. 13 providers have answered numerous questions very openly, which is reflected in several tables. There are names and figures from the first customers and users of some platforms, but still very little information from practical applications. I now want to fill in this blank space with an online survey.
Image: Generated with the help of Microsoft Copilot
The end of monolithic control systems
If you look around the industry today, you will only find these platforms in a few companies. Probably 95 percent are still using conventional control systems. With software that is anything but open, because it was developed and sold by the hardware manufacturers together with the devices, machines and systems. There were hardly any apps. Especially not ones that were written by the customer themselves or third parties for this software.
Word is getting around that this type of proprietary, monolithic automation software is gradually reaching its expiration date. There are at least 13 providers of open, Linux-based platforms in Germany and Austria. They are currently:
Bosch Rexroth with ctrlX AUTOMATION, FLECS Technologies with FLECS, German Edge Cloud with ONCITE DPS, Hilscher Gesellschaft für Systemautomation with netFIELD, KEB Automation KG with NOA, KEBA AG with Kemro X, Lenze with Lenze NUPANO, Phoenix Contact with PLCnext Technology, SALZ Automation with SALZ Controller, TTTech Digital Solutions with Ubique, TTTech Industrial Automation AG with Nerve, WAGO with WAGO OS and WAGO ctrlX OS, and Weidmüller with u-OS and easyConnect.
Apps are not only possible on these platforms, they are even desirable. The providers don’t want to program everything themselves. In any case, users know best what their customers expect from them. And partners can develop functionalities on the platforms for their customers.
The world of container apps is not for free
Not all platform manufacturers even offer special development environments for such apps. For some, it is part of their openness that they are happy with any type of development as long as the apps ultimately run as containers under Docker or a Docker alternative on Linux.
That sounds very positive, and it is. So why haven’t 95 percent already switched to it? It’s very simple:
Firstly, because the old world is in use in thousands and thousands of machines and systems in thousands of companies and can’t just be switched over.
Secondly, because this changeover requires investment and expertise in any case. After all, it is a leap into the world of cloud and internet technology, and nothing was more suspect to the industry until very recently.
Thirdly, open platforms have only been around for a few years. Pilot phases take time in the manufacturing and process industry and are absolutely essential. After all, entire companies depend on the proper functioning of these core processes. So the number of companies with productive use of the platforms is still much smaller than those with ongoing pilot projects.
But especially in this first phase of the open platform market, it is extremely important for the industry and its software engineers to learn from the experiences of others. Not so much for the decision-making process regarding the provider. But for the decision to fundamentally shift automation towards app software instead of monolithic systems.
Only users know that
What can be done better, faster, more efficiently with the new software than with the old one? Can it still be an advantage to purchase it from the hardware manufacturer? Which new business models are proving to be profitable? How will your own customers react? Only the users themselves can answer such questions. That is why I am now launching a survey among my readers.
These new platforms are among the most innovative that the industry has to offer in German-speaking countries. Only knowledge of the state of development and application from a neutral perspective will help them spread. And only rapid dissemination can prevent this new technology from being taken over by competitors from the USA or China, for example.
Bild mit Microsoft Copilot erzeugt
I place the survey on the homepage of www.industrie-digitalisierung.com. Like myself, the portal is independent and not tied to any provider by any contract. Participation in the market overview itself is also free of charge.
The survey is based neither on AI nor on any survey tool from one of the hyperscalers. The answers are analyzed exclusively by me. Only the summarized results will be published.