82 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om Skye Controls & Design in Spencerport, New York, is using Skkynet software to implement secure, real-time, bidirectional industrial internet of things (IIoT) systems for many industrial and commercial applications in companies across north-eastern US. Universities, manufacturing plants, supermarkets and even a zoo that require remote monitoring and supervisory control of mission-critical systems in real time, have replaced poorly functioning virtual private network (VPN) based systems with Skkynet software running on embedded devices, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and the Microsoft Azure cloud. It all started when Rick Lisowski, president of Skye Controls, was contacted by a zoo in a nearby city. Management needed to monitor and control the water systems in a newly opened amphibian and reptile centre. “They had a VPN-based internet of things (IoT) system in place,” said Lisowski. “But there were three problems: it wasn’t secure, the data flow was one-way, and it didn’t work. They were using a Modbus converter connected to a VPN router that was supposed to send data to their own cloud service, where they hoped to access the data. But neither of the components worked properly and married together, they were worse. The zoo management staff never actually got any data.” After considering a costly and unsuitable IoT platform, Lisowski found out about DataHub technology on a web search. After some tests, Lisowski decided that a Skkynet solution would be the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective approach. He first replaced the zoo’s PLC with his DataHub-equipped PLC. He then made an outbound connection from the PLC DataHub instance to a second DataHub instance running on Microsoft Azure. By making an outbound DataHub tunnelling connection, he was able to keep all firewall ports closed on the zoo’s PLC and router. On Azure, he connected the DataHub instance to the Skye Controls Cloud IoT Service, a Windows-based IoT service used by the zoo. The result is a real-time, end-to-end, bidirectional data path from the water filtration systems Skye Controls & Design uses Skkynet software to provide secure, easy-to-deploy industrial internet of things systems for organisations across different industries Secure and simple industrial IoT P ROF I L ED : S K Y E CONT ROL S Skkynet DataHub enables Azure users to securely acquire, monitor, control, consolidate and share their live data in real time
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