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PI for the Enterprise

PI for the Enterprise. How JEA’s Single PI Server Serves the Entire Company’s Real-time Data Needs. Presented by: Robert Raesemann Sea Coast Diversities, Inc. Evolution of the PI System at JEA - Part 1. PI started out at one power plant replacing an in-house developed data archiving system.

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PI for the Enterprise

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  1. PI for the Enterprise How JEA’s Single PI Server Serves the Entire Company’s Real-time Data Needs Presented by: Robert Raesemann Sea Coast Diversities, Inc.

  2. Evolution of the PI System at JEA - Part 1 • PI started out at one power plant replacing an in-house developed data archiving system. • We had to justify the purchase of PI. • PI was an enterprise solution that could support the entire company. • This would eliminate the fragmented data archiving infrastructure and reduce costs. Many groups in the company were reinventing the same wheel and data was being saved in many different formats.

  3. Evolution of the PI System at JEA – Part 2 • The plant controls group was not equipped to support PI for the entire company. • The IT department was a more appropriate choice. • The IT department owns and maintains PI. • Controls groups in the company support the interfaces to the control systems.

  4. IT Department Designed the System • Goals • Ease of administration • Connect every major production control system in the organization • Provide data access to everyone in the company • Use company standard hardware and take full advantage of existing infrastructure

  5. Design Decisions – Part 1 • One central PI server located in corporate data center. • Control system interfaces handled with PI-API nodes at remote sites (data buffering enabled). • High speed networking provides reliable communications between archive and API nodes. Also allows user access to the data.

  6. Design Decisions – Part 2 • This was a very unorthodox design. • It is becoming more common as companies provide better networking between their facilities.

  7. JEA Network Infrastructure Enabled This Design • JEA has taken full advantage of its right of way and laid fiber throughout its territory. • All facilities connected with 155Mb/sec ATM networking, moving to Gigabit Ethernet. • ATM implemented on top of OC-3 SONET network. Highly reliable communications. • There is no performance penalty for remote users. The server might as well be sitting next to their desk (100Mb/sec switched to the desktop. • This type of infrastructure is not very common now but will be in the future.

  8. Choice of Server Hardware • Very important – All of your eggs are in one basket. • JEA’s IT department standardized on Hewlett Packard NetServers. • High availability design, RAID drive arrays, redundant power supplies, etc. • Software agents monitor health of systems and report to central console and page administrator if there are any problems. Most of the major server vendors offer similar software. • This is the key to maintaining such a distributed system with minimal manpower.

  9. TopTools Screenshot 1

  10. TopTools Screenshot 2

  11. TopTools Screenshot 3

  12. Client Access to Data • Everyone has access to Processbook and Datalink through concurrent client licenses. Installation shows up in Windows Control Panel under Add/Remove software. • Processbook and Datalink are excellent applications and technical users need the functionality provided but they are not ideal for full scale corporate deployment. • Overkill for people who need to look at canned reports. • Costly to deploy to everyone. Must be licensed, installed, and configured on each PC. • Everyone would need to be trained on their use.

  13. Thin Client Access Is JEA’s Preferred Method • Think Amazon.com, Yahoo, or ETrade • You can provide a rich user interface that is easy to use and very easily deployed. • PI supports this type of structure very well with the ODBC interface or the API. • Maintenance costs of a thin client are much less than fat client applications. • For the most part, users do not require training.

  14. Thin Client Continued • Solution should be browser independent. (IE, Netscape, or many other options in the future) • Data is easily accessible through dial up lines or over the internet. • Takes full advantage of Internet technology. The pace of development and improvement is astounding. Wireless communications and Internet appliances will be a big business.

  15. Web Application Screenshot 1

  16. Web Application Screenshot 2

  17. Providing Thin Client Access

  18. Benefits of the N’ Tier Approach • Easy to deploy and maintain. • Business logic is encapsulated in COM objects. Easily developed in VB or VC++ using ATL(ok, C++ isn’t that easy). • Standardize on methods, documentation, etc. (more in next slide) • Take full advantage of the economy of scale the internet technology provides. • Everything on the client side is based on Internet standards. • Works through firewalls may be password protected and channels encrypted.

  19. Developing Business Logic • Users know what they need but are seldom programmers (or at least good programmers). • Let them develop prototypes using Processbook and Datalink. • Take this logic and implement in COM objects. • Centralize and standardize development. This is vital if you must rely on this data.

  20. Even on the PalmPilot… • This is still a prototype application but shows promise. • All managers at JEA are issued PalmPilots. • Using AvantGo, they can sync up and have up to the minute data available. • Uses the same Active Server Page technology. • The technology now exists to provide wireless access to real-time data.

  21. More on the PalmPilot • Data is updated from a desktop computer in a process known as “syncing”. • Users would subscribe to reports. After that they would automatically receive the data each time they sync. • JEA is deploying Ethernet based docking cradles in conference rooms and lobbies. • Modems enable dial up access. • The technology also works with Windows CE devices. • One Caveat – the web pages must be reformatted to fit the small screens.

  22. Room for Improvement… • ASP’s are recalculated each time the user accesses the page. • Some reports are very time consuming to produce and the data doesn’t change but once a day. • It would be nice to produce static pages once a day using the ASP script. This could be done in a batch process and would speed user access time.

  23. Room for Improvement… • API node buffering provides continuity of historical data during network outages or main server maintenance. • Performance equations are not resummerized. This leaves a hole in the data which must be dealt with. • This is labor intensive.

  24. Questions?

  25. For More Informationcontact: Robert Raesemann Sea Coast Diversities, Inc. http://www.scdiv.com/ raesemann@scdiv.com office: (904)825-0383 cel: (904)613-5988

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