Eric Byres

That blog was inspired by a tweet from one of the leading exponents of security, the Stuxnet Terminator, Eric Byres.

His latest outpouring, if that’s not to strong a word is headed “Time for a revolution” He was heading home from Digital Bond’s S4 SCADA Security Symposium in Florida (USA) and mulling over what he had heard and learned at the event.

“After listening to two days of excellent, but scary talks, the first thing that comes to mind is “SCADA/ICS security is in worse shape than I thought”. Much worse shape…”

The real scary thing is the impregnations of industrial control systems which attracted so much publicity in the last two years – specifically I suppose with the Stuxnet malware – is barely a measurable bleep on the graph of such since the turn of the century. He quotes Seán McBride, a co-founder of Critical Intelligence. This company provides cyber situational awareness and threat intelligence services for industrial control system users and vendors. He said alarmingly, “The public disclosures barely scratch the surface of the vulnerabilities that actually exist”.

Of course that would be serous enough but the situation is far more serious than even that! As Byres reports “Now maybe the news wouldn’t be so bad if the ICS vendors were like the IT vendors and fixed these bugs, but it appears that many are not. Less than half of the 364 public vulnerabilities have patches available. Some ICS companies simply don’t appear to care.”

Public trust in many previously thought impregnable institutions and technologies has deteriorated, church, state, financial institutions all have been revealed to have feet of clay mainly because care was not taken. It looks like the professions of IC and IT are similarly infected!

• ‎Security Seer Byres foretells the future! Will it be secure or will we know? Will automation & IT professionals be vigilant? Will further infestations be found? Read his SCADA Security 2012 Crystal Ball.

• ICS Perspectives (Industrial Defender) has just published a blog with more information on the conference: - Living in a Post-Basecamp world: 3 Takeaways from Project Basecamp (Jacob Kitchel 27/1/2012)

Practically infinite reliability was the defining requirement when researchers wanted to run a TorqSense torque transducer under the sea as part of extensive trials of a green energy turbine.

Practically infinite reliability was the defining requirement when researchers wanted to run a TorqSense torque transducer, from Sensor Technology, under the sea as part of extensive trials of a green energy turbine. Dependable, affordable energy from tidal streams and ocean currents could soon be a reality, with scale models of the innovative Evopod demonstrating the viability of the oceans as an energy source.

Developed by Tyne & Wear (GB) based Ocean Flow Energy, Evopod is a semi-submerged, floating, tethered tidal energy capture device. It uses a simple but effective mooring system that allows the free floating device to maintain optimum heading into the tidal stream. Installed as an individual device or as a tidal farm, the technology offers clean, green energy.

It overcomes the key concerns that have been expressed for tidal stream turbine installations. As a floating tethered device it imposes minimal disturbance on sensitive seabed ecosystems and its single turbine rotates at such low speeds (10 – 20rpm) that they are likely to be a low threat to marine wildlife. Further, Evopod’s novel mooring solution employs a tight envelope to reduce the size of the exclusion zone for shipping. A seabed region of one square kilometre can support enough Evopods to supply all the energy needs of up to 40,000 homes. This would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 140,000 tonnes per annum if replacing power from a coal-fired power station.

An important milestone in the development of Oceanflow’s Evopod technology was reached on the 6th of March 2011 with the demonstration of grid connectivity by the company’s 1:10th scale trials unit in Strangford Narrows in County Down (N. Irl). The output from the Evopod can now be fed into the domestic mains circuit of the Queen’s University Marine Laboratory.

The Evopod employs a fixed pitch turbine driving a permanent magnet generator through a gearbox. Power control and data capture are essential for reliable energy generation. For an effective sensing solution to measure the torque and rotational speed of the turbine, Ocean Flow Energy turned to Sensor Technology and its TorqSense torque sensor.

Torque is a critical measurement as it indicates the power that can be derived from the system as well as giving an indication of the stresses on the turbine. But the marine environment and the nature of the turbine’s operation places unique performance requirements on the sensing equipment.

Ocean Flow Energy design engineer Roger Cox comments: “We had used TorqSense transducers before and had good experiences with them. We knew they were reliable in challenging applications, and would give us the quality data we needed as part of our proof of concept of the Evopod.”

TorqSense is a surface acoustic wave (SAW) based device. In a TorqSense transducer, surface waves are produced by passing an alternating voltage across the terminals of two interleaved comb-shaped arrays, laid onto one end of a piezoelectric substrate. A receiving array at the other end of the transducer converts the wave into an electric signal.

The frequency is dependent upon the spacing of the teeth in the array and as the direction of wave propagation is at right angles to the teeth, any change in its length alters the spacing of the teeth and hence the operating frequency. Tension in the transducer reduces the operating frequency while compression increases it. To measure the torque in a rotating shaft, two saw sensors are bonded to a shaft at 45deg to the axis of rotation. When the shaft is subjected to torque, a signal is produced which is transmitted to a stationary pick up via a capacitive couple comprising two discs, one of which rotates with the shaft, the other being static.

“Data is logged on board, but also transmitted back to shore so we can remotely monitor the operations,” says Cox. “We used TorqSense devices on the very first Evopod design to go into the sea, and they’ve been working reliably on our 1/10 scale test unit for five years. They are now being incorporated on our larger scale units, including a 35kW version. We are also developing a twin-turbine version: 1/40th scale model has been tested in Newcastle University’s flume tank with the support of a NEEIC grant. At full scale the unit would be fitted with twin 1.2MW rated generators, each coupled to a 16m diameter three-bladed turbine. The unit would generate its combined rated output of 2.4MW in flow speeds of 3.2m/s or above.”

See also: Tidal turbine development in Ireland and Canada (9/7/2011) for a similar development using this equipment.

In 2011, wireless sensors accounted for just over 15% of the 21 million building automation sensors shipped in the EMEA and the Americas markets combined. The number of wireless sensors is forecast to increase to over 25% of total building automation sensors in EMEA and the Americas by 2015.

William Rhodes, Market Analyst at IMS Research comments, “The increasing traction for wireless building automation solutions is likely to be apparent at the upcoming AHR Expo show. Some of the pre-show announcements, including from Ecologix, E+E Elektronik and Can2Go, have already hinted at the many new wireless sensors and wireless products being released in early 2012.” 

Wireless solutions offer some of the greatest advantages in retrofit installations. Rather than drilling holes and running cables; electricians, integrators and contractors can install wireless sensors, saving on installation costs and time. In new build installations wireless building automation sensors are also popular in buildings with high ceilings because wireless sensors can be installed quicker than running cables for wired systems.

Rhodes continues, “There are obvious installation cost savings from wireless solutions. However, despite the cost savings in installation, the price of wireless devices is generally more expensive than wired equivalents. In terms of the continued growth of wireless building automation systems, the additional price of the devices could inhibit adoption when users do not take into consideration the installation costs. Consequently, IMS Research predicts that wired sensors will maintain the largest share of the market over the next five years.”

The IMS Research report on the EMEA and Americas markets for building automation controllers, software and sensors presents base year and forecast data for wireless sensors and controllers used in building automation systems. The report segments the building automation sensor market by five major sensor capabilities and 17 sensor types.

• The ISA has recently set up a Building Automation Division (Nov 2011)

Together, they constitute an advanced management solution essential to achieve a sustainable enterprise framework for the 21st century. While PAM provides a platform for ensuring the safety and process reliability of an enterprise, PLM helps in accelerating new product design and development.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, European Advanced Management Solutions Market, finds that the market earned revenues of €300.9 million and €2640.7 million for PAM and PLM, respectively, in 2010. It is estimated that the market value of PAM and PLM will reach €506.6 and €4331.4 million, respectively, in 2017.

“Regulatory compliance, increased safety, enhanced design innovation and production processes are cornerstones for the growth of advanced management solutions in Europe,” remarks Frost & Sullivan Senior Research Analyst Karthik Sundaram. “Intensifying concerns about safety and decreasing maintenance expenditure will catalyse the PAM market, while growing competition and the need for innovation will galvanise the PLM market.”

The end-user quest for improved asset utilisation, uninterrupted production schedules and decreased operational expenditure will fuel the growth of the European PAM market. The heightened need for product innovation and increasing awareness of collaborative Product Definitions management (cPDm) solutions will boost the potential of PLM.

While their benefits are obvious, the growth of advanced management solutions in Europe will depend on the standards and definitions of future enterprise software. The need for a joint framework of enterprise application and production automation will present a challenge to this market in the coming years.

“The success of advanced management solutions will be driven by flexibility, scalability and security,” explains Karthik. “The need for a scalable solution that can integrate seamlessly with other enterprise applications will be an obligatory product requirement for all market participants, even as cyber attacks pose a major threat to market prospects.”

The end-user quest for improved productivity necessitates interaction across different operating units. This is feasible only through a systematic combination of enterprise software and production automation systems.

“The development of a scalable solution that is secure, safe and reliable can be achieved by integrating enterprise resource planning (ERP), management execution systems (MES) and PLM,” concludes Karthik.

How can .NET Framework technology create new opportunities and conditions for the operator systems of the future? And how can HMI developers and users win by choosing a standardized development environment for keeping up with rapid technological development?

Software development in HMI is a costly affair. Historically, many HMI suppliers have made major investments both in man-years and money to build up their software programs. The result is locked technological frameworks based on decisions made long ago.

Future HMI development is moving towards a new approach. By choosing an open development environment such as .NET Framework from the start, you can quickly implement a well-established and modern platform with proven stability. At the same time you can utilize a wide range of tools and functions that enable you to customize HMI solutions and make them more efficient.

Established technologies in interaction
The resources behind .NET Framework are substantial because the framework is a part of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is highly probable that an application based on Microsoft’s framework can guarantee innovative and stable HMI solutions with a long future horizon. Another clear advantage is that you can benefit from technologies that accompany .NET Framework. The framework is extensive. Some examples of technologies that create prerequisites in the world of HMI in particular are WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), Ribbon (the toolbar field in standard Windows programs) and the opportunities for scripting in C#.

Generation shift within automation
Another new approach within HMI goes hand and hand with an automation market that is facing a generation shift. A new well-educated generation of developers is entering the industry and they are demanding more advanced and open tools. End-users and the operators on industrial shop floors have grown up with computers, smartphones and modern graphical user interfaces. Expectations for intuitive graphical operator interfaces without manuals are growing at the same rate. For a number of years, Apple and Google’s Android for example, have set a new standard for user-friendliness and graphics, and this will eventually require a response from the industry.

Augmented graphics and media components
One way to successfully meet this development is to utilize WPF, Microsoft’s graphics engine that is included in .NET Framework. Among the advantages are the user gaining access to vector-based graphics with zooming that does not degrade image quality, and that design can be separated from coding through XAML. This provides – besides capabilities for fantastic graphics – a tool for creating HMI objects that can be effectively harmonized with the end-user’s brand name.

Importing objects designed in MS Expression Design for example, opens the door for being able to immediately implement 3D graphics and effects such as transparency, shading, animation, storyboards and multimedia. The programmer creates the logic, the designer handles the appearance and XAML handles the interaction between them. Through WPF, the user gains access to a modern graphics engine on which to build future HMI functionality.

Another important technology in .NET Framework is access to Windows media objects, which opens the way to media components such as Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and PDF readers.

Creating a custom HMI
With present developments in the market, it is becoming increasingly important for machine manufactures and suppliers of HMI solutions to be able to add their own touch and consequently make the HMI solutions their own to differentiate them from those of the competitors. This can apply to functionality, but even to design. In a time when hardware is becoming increasingly similar, the matter of how the user can customize and work with HMI software is becoming more and more relevant.
Access to finished .NET components provides a unique opportunity to customize applications. The most common are the graphics components, where the functions are encapsulated in graphics objects (such as buttons or diagrams). Components are created with a development tool in a high-level language. They can later be locked and consequently safeguarded against copying. You can choose yourself whether to develop a .NET component or utilize third-party components that are already available at online component stores, ready to download and install.

There are a number of companies that develop components for .NET Framework. The opportunities of this development in HMI are very interesting. As an example, through .NET components you could contribute with special knowledge within various industries – such as oil and gas, building automation, water and wastewater – and consequently make it easier for customers to optimize their HMI solutions.

The scripting language is also important for an HMI solution. Historically, different manufacturers have had different dialects of standard languages. In .NET Framework, C# is one of the standard languages. In practice this means more freedom for the developer, who can make use of all functionality in the language instead of selected parts.
Through scripting, you can create your own functions in an application and in this way create the functionality that is not already included in the HMI development tool. You can also call various components.

Summary
Integrated systems in automation are what it is all about today – supplier-locked systems belongs to the past. A trend in the market is that standard platforms are preferred so that different system suppliers can communicate. Open systems and technologies are thus necessary in the future. Another trend is that HMI developers are increasingly demanding tools to customize solutions so as to strengthen competitiveness. The high demands on graphics and user-friendliness are driving a rapidly developing consumer market.

Standing from left:Mark Casey, Pietro Zucca, Romania Dirimanova, Jennifer Gaughran, Pat Boner, Seated, ISA Ireland President John Downey, Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork, Tony Fitzgerald and Brian Curtis, Acting Chair of H&A Committee. (Pics: Creative Photography, Cork)

The Ireland Section of the International Automation Society honours annually the high achievers in the study, training and research areas in the country. This annual event has been held in recent years in the Senior Staff Common room of the historic University College in Cork (UCC).

Tower at UCC

This university founded over 150 years ago has many important achievements and in the world of mathamatics physics and science. Indeed  the first professor of mathematics of the colege was George Boole. The library, underground lecture theatre complex and the Boole Centre for Research in Informatics in the university are named in his honour. (Users of the internert will be familiar with the term “Boolian search” also named after this extraordinary polymath and devised from his theories and ideas!).

Tyndall National Institute, part of the college named for John Tyndall, the Carlow born scientist, is one of Europe’s leading research centres, specialising in ICT hardware research, commercialisation of technology and the education of next generation researchers. Tyndall has a critical mass of over 420 researchers, engineers, students and support staff focused on quality research and the use of this technology through industry collaboration. The institute’s research expertise spans a range of technologies from atoms to systems in the areas of photonics, microsystems and micro-nanoelectronics and addresses key challenges in the areas of Communications, Energy, Health and the Environment.

It is in this extraordinary centre of learning that the presentations of these awards were made by the deputy Lord Mayor of Cork Mr Tony Fitzgerald.

The awards are as follows:

Degree
The Degree Award is awarded to the best final year Degree student specializing in any area of instrumentation and Control. This was awarded to Mark Casey who had just completed the B.Sc in Applied Physics & Instrumentation at the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) with distinction.

André Michel with Award

Honours Degree
The Honours Degree Award is awarded, on the nomination to the best fourth-year Honours Degree student studying Instrumentation-Applied Physics in Ireland. The award comprises a medallion and a bursary of €750 which is to be used to assist postgraduate studies. Here Jennifer Gaughran of the School of Physical Sciences in Dublin City University achieved a B.Sc in Physics with Astronomy.

Post-Graduate
The next awardee for the Post Graduate Award also had an astronomical link. This is Criteria:
To be awarded, to the best Post Graduate student awarded Phd/Bsc in Instrumentation-Applied Physics in Ireland and was to Pietro Zucca, from Trinity College, University of Dublin,  for his work in understanding the effect of the Sun on telecommunications systems in Ireland and further afield.

Technology Achievement
The Technology Achievement Award recognises a new invention or application, significant achievement in contributing to instrumentation, automation, measurement and control technology within Ireland. This year it was awarded to Romania Dirimanova for the development of an automation system to interface with 25 year old technology giving the benefits of current day technology to the existing Code Signaling System across Ireland’s railway system.

Instrument Pioneer
One of the more interesting awards given each year is the Instrument Pioneer Award given in recognition of a “lifetime devoted to instrumentation and control in Ireland.” This year the award was presented to  Pat Boner of PJ Boner and Company. He is one of the founding members of the Ireland section.

Society Award
An unusual addition to this years ceremony was the awarding of a Society award, the Emerging Leader Award, which because of the reassignment of the Awardee to duties in Ireland he was unable to accept at the society event in October.  Canadian, André Michel, was the recipient and this recognised his  accomplishments and responsibilities which have contributed significantly to the Society and its organizational units despite been less than ten years a member.

The Awardees' medals.

Further details of all ISA Ireland Awards and Awardees for 2011

2011 was a difficult years for many. Budgets were trimmed (to put it politely!) and many enterprises, especially in Europe and the United States felt the cold wind of reality sweep through places never thought accessible to such things. The phrase “safe as a bank” continued to have a hollow ring. Politics oscillates from stalemate to inactivity to vicissitude to indecision in those countries, while in others, tumult on the streets lead to sudden changes in government.

One of the great changes in what is happening over the last half-decade is the part played by social-media, facebook and twitter especially. The conventional news media organisations have been struggling to keep up. Exclusivity by any one publication has been usurped by the ability of witnesses to publish their own unexpurgated accounts instantaneously. An example is the assassination of Osama Bin Laden unknowingly reported by a local tweeter in Abbottabad (PK) who reported a rare sighting of a helicopter over head and then “A huge window shaking bang!”

Here in Ireland the national television service RTÉ had a programme called “Now that’s what you called News!” which was an “overview of what news we as a nation searched for online throughout 2011 in the privacy of our own homes, on our own laptops, on our own smartphones.” Some of these items are predictable but others are a surprise! (Hopefully people outside of Ireland will be able to view this – please advise us if not!) Few organisations have really understood this great shift, still less how it impacts on their own enterprises or lives or politics.

If we feel a bit hopeless or plunged in the gloom maybe we could do worse than read Seth Godin’s last contribution in 2011 and view 2012 as the Chance of a lifetime!.

Automation
The automation sector would appear to have been spared the worst excesses of this trauma by maintaing a steady as she goes approach. In past recessions this sector seemed to track by some months what happens in other sectors. This time thus far this has not appear to have happened. But what will happen in 2012. Will the developing parts of the world, China, India, South America take up the slack in other areas?

And us?
Here at Read-out the years has been a bit like the famous curates egg – good in parts! The print edition continued to be published and distributed to around 2000 automation professionals in Ireland. From a circulation of about 500 when it started life in the 1970s as a house magazine for Industrial Instruments Ltd it progressed to being an independent publication in 1989 with a circulation around 800 and quickly grew to over 2000 which we reckon is as close to the size of the market as can be achieved. (We reckoned at the time that if an equivalent magazine had the same penitration in their respective markets it would achieve 240,000 in Britain or 800,000 in the US).

Average blog visits since Aug 2009

On-line
We started on the web in 1995 with a very simple one page information digest but this soon developed into the large site now which is visited by over 17,500 people per month. More recently in mid 2009 we started blogging and there we have been able to track a growth through the months from a small base of 60 visits to today’s figure of over 3000 per month. The bulk of visitors come from North America (of which US comprised over 80%) then by Europe (29% UK and 12% Germany) followed closely by Asia (India 42%) and then South America (Brazil 40%), Africa (Egypt 42%) and then Oceania (Australia 100%). I’m not sure how reliable these figures might be. For instance Australia has 100% of the visits from Ocenaia whereas I know that we did have some visitors from New Zealand.

Stories
And what were the blog stories that people found most interesting?

Here we find things that we don’t understand fully. Why are some pages which we find interesting down the list? Why do some old pages continue to hold sway on these lists? We list the leaders here and perhaps you can make it out. Most readers read 1.5 stories per session!

1. Developing a 3D Optical surface profilometer (Jan 2011) – a account of a project using NI’s LabView in Dublin City University.

2. Number two has been a paper which is consistantly in the top of our stats since it was first published. This is Emerson’s Sarah Parker’s paper Radar level measurement best practice (Sept 2010).

3. A paper from Mike O’Brien of Newson Gale is a close third in the views in 2011. This is on Static earthing protection for road tankers (Nov 2010).

4. The next three in the list are close together too. Wireless strain gauge sensors (July 2010) is about a new wireless telemetry system for strain gauge sensors from Applied Measurements.

5. The great story of the past two years has been the long overdue penetration of automation security by Stuxnet and “Son of Stuxnet.” This blog was inspired by a tweet from Byres Security which decried the security commitment of one of the giants of automation as “abominable!” Abominable security commitment! (Aug 2011) also includes links to the many blogs and articles we have been able to find on this important topic.

6. Stuxnet – not from a bored schoolboy prankster! (Sep 2010) is Nick Denbow’s take on this malware first published in his Industrial Automation Insider.

7.Growth in World SCADA market is the subject of another story on a report from Frost and Sullivan (Dec 2010).

8. Our story on developments in Invensys in July 2009, Taking Invensys seriously! continues to draw readers – though things have moved on since then!

9. Level detection of foaming media is the problem addressed in this August 2010 contribution from Baumer.

10. Tree Safety (Feb 2011) discussed a method of testing the roots of trees alongside highways using a sensor adapted from helicopter technology by Sensor Technology.

Searches
The fact that Security and Stuxnet feature in this list is also reflected in the most popular searches include “USB Stick” and “Security” as the most popular by far of all searches on the site. Most of the referrals to the site come from search engines but also a large number of our facebook page and (perhaps surprisingly) Control Global.

Clicks
Sometimes people are so interested in a product or news story that they click forward to the page of the company or service. Again these may surprise with Frost & Sullivan heading the list with Applied Measurements close behind with Long Watch’s fascinating video of an oil leak and Wikapedia on Stuxnet! All in all however most automation professionals seem to be happy enough to read these items and go on to other stuff.

Interaction
One of the things that is perhaps a little disappointing is the number of comments or interactions from all these visitors. We welcome these but not those which seek to advertise products or seek followers (“I found your blog fascinating and will visit it regularly from now on!”). If a visitor wishes to have their product or service or appointments or other company or technology news mentioned the best way to see it on-line here is by sending an email to readout@iol.ie.

Like most statistics these are interesting and some of them are meaningful and we will use them to try to improve the service we provide for our visitors. As we finished writing this we came across a critque of a book by Katie Paine called “Measure what matters!” Paul Gillum’s critque is called, “Sensible Talk About Social Media Measurement.” Hopefully I can learn from it and maybe you dear reader might too! His final word is “Paine’s practical and time-tested advice is a welcome relief to a Klout-obsessed world that seems more taken with fans and followers than with business results.”

We thank those who have visited us during 2011. We particularly thank those who provided us with material or who generously supported us with advertising and sponsored our journeys to those events we attended.

ISA-100.11a-2011

Most notably, ISA’s ANSI-accredited standards procedures require direct participation and voting by experts from end-user companies, ensuring that their views and requirements are considered in the development process. ANSI/ISA-100.11a-2011 received 92% approval from voting members on the ISA100 Committee who represent end-user companies where wireless systems will be deployed. The ISA100 Co-Chairs, Wayne Manges of Oak Ridge National Laboratory/US Department of Energy, and Herman Storey, a consultant with 42 years as an end user in the refining and petrochemical industry, have both stated that this overwhelming approval by end-users sends a strong and clear message to industry. With more than 600 members from across the globe, ISA100 brings together wireless experts, who represent diverse industrial and technical interests, in an open forum

Approval as an American National Standard follows the unanimous approval of the standard in September as a Publically Available Specification (PAS) by IEC SC65C, Industrial Networks. The PAS approval marked the first step in the progression of ANSI/ISA-100.11a-2011 through the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission, www.iec.ch) process. A two-day meeting earlier this month of IEC SC65B Working Group 16, Wireless Industrial Networks, resulted in an initial working schedule. (See also our article, Walt, wireless and the curates egg! 3rd October 2011).

This collaboration with the IEC is the latest in a long line of ISA standards that have served as the originating sources of widely used IEC standards, including:

IEC 61511 series: Process Safety (ISA84)
IEC 61512 series: Batch Control (ISA88)
IEC 62264 series: Enterprise Control-System Integration (ISA95)
IEC 62443 series: Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security (ISA99)

ANSI/ISA-100.11a-2011 was developed to provide reliable and secure wireless operation for noncritical monitoring, alerting, supervisory control, open loop control and closed loop control applications. The standard defines the protocol suite, system management, and gateway and security specifications for low-data-rate wireless connectivity with fixed, portable and moving devices that support very limited power consumption requirements. The application focus is to address the performance needs of applications, such as monitoring and process control, where latencies on the order of 100 ms can be tolerated, with optional behavior for shorter latency.

CIS is a regional organisation whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics. It was formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Russia and the CIS countries are emerging markets offering long-term potential for general purpose test equipment vendors. Government and private investments in infrastructure development and services are poised to generate new opportunities for test equipment vendors.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, General Purpose Test Equipment Markets in Russia and CIS Countries, finds that the markets earned revenue of $194.8 million in 2010 and estimates this to reach €150.00 ($247.3) million in 2015. The research service covers the following products: oscilloscopes, signal generators, spectrum analysers, multimeters, network analysers, logic analysers, power meters, arbitrary waveform generators and electronic counters.

“Investments in infrastructure are rising with constant upgrades and efforts at modernisation,” notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Manager Sujan Sami. “The increase in public-private partnerships (PPP) is set to boost infrastructure development, leading to greater demand for suitable test equipment.”

The education as well as the aerospace and defence (A&D) sectors are major revenue-generating streams in Russia and the CIS countries. The A&D end-user sector was not as badly affected by the economic downturn as other sectors. This, in addition to the growth in the educational sector, is driving demand for oscilloscopes and other general purpose test equipment.

A large territory and customer base also bodes well for market prospects. “Russia is the largest country in the world and is also the 9th largest country in terms of population,” he explains. “This implies a huge consumer base for electronic products that will attract electronic OEMs and create potential for general purpose test equipment vendors.”

At the same time, growth in several industrial sectors is poised to augment demand for general purpose test equipment in the near future. In addition, with the economy recovering from the recession, the pent-up demand for general purpose test equipment is set to hit the market, resulting in heightened demand levels.

However, the lack of private capital expenditure threatens to restrain market growth. Poorer economies such as Tajikistan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova are mostly dependent on state expenditure for growth. This restricts the adoption of newer technologies, hindering market expansion.

With government policies playing a critical role in the development of countries in the CIS region and in Russia, companies also need to keep a close track of evolving government regulations.

“Focusing on total solutions, rather than just selling test instruments, is the key to achieving market success,” concludes Sami. “Moreover, to compete more effectively against regional vendors, companies will need to forge alliances with local channel partners.”

A study by Frost & Sullivan’s Gautham Gnanajothi

Datacenter technology has arrived to a point of no return in the recent times. The servers used in them have evolved and have reduced in physical size but have increased in performance levels. The trouble with this fact is that it has considerably increased their power consumption and heat densities. Thus, the heat generated by the servers in datacenters is currently ten times greater than the heat generated by them around 10 years back; as a result, the traditional computer room air conditioning (CRAC) systems have become overloaded. Hence, new strategies and innovative cooling solutions must be implemented to match the high-density equipment. The rack level power density increase has resulted in the rise of thermal management challenges over the past few years. Reliable datacenter operations are disrupted by hot spots created by such high-density equipment.

Emerson's global data center (St Louis MO US) uses the latest energy-efficiency technologies, precision cooling products, and efficiency strategies.

Some of the main datacenter challenges faced in the current scenario are adaptability, scalability, availability, life cycle costs, and maintenance. Flexibility and scalability are the two most important aspects any cooling solution must possess; this, combined with redundant cooling features, will deliver optimum performance. The two main datacenter cooling challenges are airflow challenge and space challenge. These challenges can be overcome with the use of innovative cooling solutions. Some of the cooling techniques used in datacenters are discussed below.

Aisle Containment
Aisle containment strategies have gained immense popularity among data center operators in the past and this trend is expected to continue in the future as well.  With the use of hot aisle and cold aisle containment, energy-efficient best practice in server rooms can be achieved. Usage of hot aisle or cold aisle depends uniquely on the type of application used. Most data centers have a standard hot aisle/cold aisle layout: the aisle containments are the refinements of these layouts. In these layouts each successive aisle is labeled either hot aisle or cold aisle. In the hot aisle, the banks of the server rack exhausts hot air. In a cold aisle, the server racks are aligned in such a way that the equipment inlets face each other in the opposite sides. There is usually a raised floor system known as the “plenum” under which the cool air from the CRAC or the computer room air handler (CRAH) flows to the perforated floor tiles. These floor tiles are located in the cold aisles and facilitate the cool air into the server inlets in front of the racks and exhaust via the hot aisle. By the hot aisle/cold aisle containment, the cool air can be directed closer to the server inlets; thereby increasing the latter’s energy efficiency.

Rows of server racks at the computer center at CERN in Switzerland. (Pic CERN)

However, there are a couple of challenges faced by the aisle containment solution  the first one being “Bypass Air”; this situation arises when the cool air refuses to enter the server. The other one is “recirculation” where the heated exhaust air flows back into the cold aisle through empty space or over the top of the racks. These two conditions are known for creating hot spots in the server rooms. Data center operators use sheets made of plastic, cardboard, and so on to make barriers for the cold aisles so that the hot air does not re-enter the cold aisle.

High-density Supplemental Cooling
Data center densities have increased from 2 to 3 kW per rack to an excess of 30 kW per rack. A different cooling approach needs to be implemented to meet the high-density requirements. This is when supplemental cooling comes into place. It uses two different approaches: “rear door heat exchangers” and “over head heat exchangers”. Rear door heat exchangers come to the rescue of the struggling CRAC by conditioning the hot air and returning it to the room at colder temperature. They require a chilled water source and a connection to a remote chiller unit. The over head heat exchangers, as the name suggests, are suspended above the server rows. They compliment the hot aisle/cold aisle containment by sucking the hot air from the hot aisle exhaust, condition it, and send cool air to the cold aisles. The supplemental cooling reduces the pressure off the CRAC unit.

Liquid Cooling

The Aurora supercomputer from Eurotech, which uses liquid cooling.

With the rise in the number of applications and services that require high-density configurations, liquid cooling is generating a lot of interest among data center operators. As the name suggests, it brings the liquid (either chilled water or refrigirant) closer to the heat source for a more effective cooling. On contrary to a CRAC unit where it is isolated to a corner of the room, liquid cooling solutions are embedded in row of server racks or suspended from the ceiling or installed in a closed relationship with one or more server racks. There are two types of the liquid cooling – “in row liquid cooling” and “in rack liquid cooling”; both of them require chilled water (or refrigirant) and return piping. It is run either overhead or beneath the floor to each individual cooler.

Closed Couple Cooling
Another remedy for the high-density computing would be closed couple cooling where the distant air conditioner is moved closer to the computing load. The latest generation cooling products can be described by the term closed coupled cooling. Although their solutions vary in terms of configuration and capacity, their approach is the same. It brings the heat transfer closest to the source, which is the server rack. By doing so, the inlet air is delivered more precicely and the exhaust air is captured efficiently. There are two configurations in which it operates – “closed loop” and “open loop”. In the open loop configuration, the air stream will tend to interact with the room environment to an extent. However, closed loop configuration is completely independent of the room in which it is installed. It creates a micro climate within the enclosure because the rack and the heat exchanger work exclusively with one another.

The present high-density computing data center has thousands of racks each with multiple computing units. The parts of the computing units include multiple microprocessors – each one dissipates about 250 W of power. The heat dissipation from the racks containing such computing units excedes 10 KW. Assuming that the present data centers have 1,000 racks and more than 30,000 square feet, these would require 10 MW of power for the computing infrasructure. The future datacenters, which would be even bigger with more servers, would have greater power requirements and, hence, more energy-efficient and innovative cooling solutions.

Conclusion
There are a number of cooling solutions available in the market place, however there is not one particular cooling solution which would be suitable for all kinds of data center applications. They are often dependant on many factors like room layout, installation densities and geographic location. On the whole when we compare the different cooling solutions, it can be said that the liquid cooling technique is proving itself as an efficient and effective cooling solution for high density data centers because it brings the cooling liquid closer to the heat source for a more effective cooling. This type of cooling solutions are gaining popularity among the data center operators as the units are embedded in rows of server racks and do not take up floor space, they are also retrofit friendly which means that the data center can stay operational as the units are brought online. Data centers would benefit by using liquid cooling solutions for their high density servers and this would be the best way forward.

Heat generated by the servers in datacenters is currently ten times greater than the heat generated by them around 10 years back