Software Defined Automation

Software defined automation separates your control software from the hardware it runs on, so your production systems can grow and change without being locked to any one supplier.

In traditional automation, the program that controls a machine is tied to the exact make and model of controller it was written for. Upgrading or changing hardware often means rewriting the software from scratch, which makes every change slow, expensive and risky. Software defined automation breaks that link. Control applications are built as portable software components which can run on different hardware, move between devices, and be updated with far less disruption to production.

Our solutions are compatible with IEC 61499, the international standard for portable, event driven automation software. As a member of UniversalAutomation.Org, Platinum builds on a shared runtime supported by a growing group of hardware vendors, which means the money you invest in automation software keeps its value even as the hardware around it evolves.

A key strength of IEC 61499 is that it is vendor agnostic. The standard defines how automation software is written, not whose hardware it runs on. A control application built to IEC 61499 is not tied to any single manufacturer, so the same software can run on controllers from different vendors, and hardware can be chosen on merit, price and availability rather than being dictated by the software you already own. For manufacturers this removes one of the oldest constraints in automation: being locked into a single supplier’s ecosystem for decades because the cost of leaving is a complete rewrite. It also protects against obsolescence. When a controller reaches the end of its life, the application can move to its replacement, from any vendor, largely unchanged.

Combined with our systems integration and control panel expertise, this gives manufacturers a practical, step by step route to modern automation without discarding the equipment they already own.