Automation Webinar Q&A

Earlier this week, Craig Resnick, research analyst from ARC Advisory Group, joined us to discuss Best Practices for Preventing Downtime in Automation Systems. Craig's presentation was very well-recieved, with several attendees commenting on the high quality of the information Craig provided. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, the on-demand recording is here and the recap of the Q&A from the webinar is below.

Q: Has the hierarchy at manufacturers changed where the groups that mange these different domains have converged, or are they still separate?
Craig Resnick, ARC Advisory Group: Over the last five years, we’ve seen the convergence of IT with the automation and operations groups. Five years ago we used to joke about the “civil wars” between these groups. IT used to poke fun at the factory floor about the age of the equipment, which can be 10, 20 or even 30 years old in some cases. The Factor Floor used to poke fun at IT because, as they put it, IT didn’t understand what “real-time” means. We’re finding now that there are many initiatives between these groups to converge different processes at different levels. This is an ongoing process that will take a while, but from what we’ve seen, once the convergence is made, it usually has very positive results for the business.

Q: Is everRun tested and approved by Siemens, Rockwell, etc.?
Yes. everRun works with a number of different automation systems and applications from Rockwell, Siemens, Johnson Controls, Dematic, Wonderware and many others. We’ve done qualification and certification testing with many vendors in the automation space. Because of the way that everRun is designed, it is almost transparent to the application, so we really can work with most vendors and have a very quick validation/certification process.

Q: Will a TCP connection from a SQL client to a SQL server be maintained through a failover?
At Marathon, we take a different approach to application availability. It’s not about failover and recovery, it’s about keeping systems up and running, even during a failure, with no impact to the users or the data. Failover isn’t something that we really do. We can actually maintain those connections, even with a failure, at all times if that’s what you need. We can maintain all connectivity, transparent to the user and the IP connections, and keep the system states intact.

Q: Does everRun work in both physical and virtual environments?
Yes, everRun works in both physical and virtual environments. We can protect both single and multiple workloads.

Q: What is the typical integration period to get everRun up and running at a site?
A typical engagement is about 2-3 days. The software itself installs very quickly and then after that there is the deployment and migration of applications, testing and training. WE provide these services through our everRun ONE program.

Q: What is the typical overhead of everRun?
That will vary based on the application. Anywhere from 5-15% depending on the characteristics of the applications – storage intensive, I/O intensive, etc. But 5-15% is a typical estimate.

Q: Are the partnerships validated in both physical and virtual environments? We use the Dematic voice picking application.
We do support Dematic applications in both physical and virtual environments. Some of our vendors have only tested physical, some virtual and some both. Our technology is very similar for both physical and virtual, and in most cases will work with most applications in both. If you have a specific application that you would like to check on, just give us a call.