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TypeBoth
nameSCADA: Your Most Critical Asset
Speaker 1Dean Ford
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speaker1_phone(443) 876-5217
speaker1_repWe are local
speaker1_bio

Dean’s 25+ yr career has involved automation systems engineering and consulting. He serves as the Managing Principal Engineer at Luminary Automation, Cybersecurity, and Engineering, LLC. He develops and leads a dedicated and passionate staff of automation professionals. He is a licensed Control Systems Engineer in 24 states and a Certified Automation Professional. As a Senior Member of ISA, he participates in many standards committees. He is a member of AWWA, WEF, SWAN. He is passionate about educating the public and policymakers about the critical role automation plays in the future.

Abstract Text

This discussion will demonstrate the hidden values of your SCADA system and ways to unlock them.  We will discuss how we can move your organizations to think of SCADA as the Critical Asset that it is.

How many of us get a new laptop every three years but our SCADA Servers are still running Windows XP?  How many IT departments have invested in high availability infrastructure for e-mail but have the plant SCADA servers sitting in a janitor’s closet in the basement?  Why is that?  What organizational dysfunction has occurred to allow this to happen?

We need to break down barriers with our IT departments and engage them and their money to support our critical systems.  We need to engage operations departments to demonstrate how much risk they really have with their systems because of the lack of investment.

We need to raise the SCADA system, its maintenance, its documentation, its resiliency, and its safety to new levels.  And by doing so, we also need to unlock the power of that system to generate significant costs savings that our utilities can use to redeploy in other critical areas of the business.