[February 12, 2016]

Technavio Identifies Top Three Emerging Trends for the Global SCADA Market in Process Industry Through 2020

Technavio's latest global supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) market in process industry report highlights the top three emerging trends predicted to impact market growth through 2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as something that has potential for significant impact on the market and contributes to its growth or decline.

"The global SCADA market in process industries was valued at close to USD 13.18 billion in 2015. The market is growing steadily owing to a high demand from power and oil and gas sectors. The water and wastewater treatment industry is also growing due to high infrastructure investments in the Middle East and other emerging countries worldwide. This trend will likely boost the demand for SCADA systems during the forecast period," said Vineeth Purushotham, one of Technavio's lead industry analysts for automation research.

"European countries are investing in new projects in the oil and gas sector to reduce their dependency on Russia, due to the Ukraine crisis. They are planning to build pipelines through Central Asian countries such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, and this development is expected to drive the global SCADA market significantly over the next four years," added Vineeth.

Technavio's market research study identifies the following three emerging trends that are expected to propel the global SCADA market in process industries:

• Growing popularity of SCADA as a service
• High demand for integrated DLP solutions
• Increased adoption by SMEs
• Increase in M&A

Growing popularity of SCADA as a service

SCADA as a service or SCADA in the cloud is likely to be a next logical step in the evolution of automation technology in process industries. SCADA end-users can significantly reduce costs, achieve greater flexibility, and enhance functionality by shifting to a cloud-based environment. SMEs face budget constraints and cuts that make it difficult to afford the initial investment in a SCADA system. Small facilities also cannot afford a dedicated technical staff to manage SCADA systems.

A cloud-based service shifts the task of maintaining and displaying data from the end-user to the service provider. It eliminates the expenses and problems related to the hardware layer of IT infrastructure. At the same time it enables users to view data on devices such as tablets and smartphones, and also throughemail and text messages.

We anticipate cloud-based SCADA solutions to reduce end-users' costs up to 80% compared to traditional SCADA systems in the process industry during the forecast period. Technavio predicts that 30% of oil and gas companies operating in In Southeast Asia and India will deploy their operations in the cloud by 2020, owing to the growing energy demand.

Use of mobile SCADA

SCADA systems are migrating from PCs to mobile devices. Authorized operators can remotely access data using a variety of devices such as iPads, tablets, and smartphones. These devices can be used as portable human machine interfaces (HMIs) to monitor remote equipment and enable field operators to assess the current condition of a process or piece of equipment quickly without the need for a workstation. Technologies embedded in smartphones, such as BLE beacons, NFC, and GPS, have further enabled the integration of SCADA with smartphones.

SCADA infrastructure is incorporating smart mobile devices to increase the capability of the entire system. It consists of a smartphone app deployed with each mobile worker, geo tags deployed in the control zones, and a central server equipped with real-time connections to equipment and other assets. Field operators have the access to real time data for configurations and repairs due to mobile SCADA. Thus, it does not require an operator in the control room to manage potential problems or abnormalities. Field technicians can also update the control system instantaneously from the field over mobile phones without visiting the control room to deliver the results to the operator.

Growth of open-source SCADA

An open-source SCADA is an independent platform that provides a set of tools, which can be combined in different ways. It offers development libraries, interface applications, mass configuration tools, and front and back-end applications. Open platform SCADA also provides an alternative to expensive in-house design. It supports process industries that are pressurized to reduce large upfront development costs, and enables quick introduction of new features in connected embedded designs.

Existing software modules of open SCADA also help developers avoid time-consuming and low-level processes. These modules allow vendors to remain focused on customization to distinguish their application and introduce their product in the market as early as possible. Therefore, open-source SCADA lowers project lifecycle costs and increases operational efficiency compared to traditional SCADA packages. Many vendors are offering open-source SCADA systems, including Siemens (WinCC Open Architecture) and Emerson (News - Alert) Electric (Open Enterprise V3). Our researchers expect many new entrants to enter the market and intensify companion during the forecast period.

Browse related reports:

• Global SCADA Market in Power Industry 2015-2019
• SCADA Market in the APAC Region 2015-2019
• Global SCADA Market in the Oil and Gas Industry 2015-2019
• Global SCADA-based Industrial Control Systems Market 2011-2015

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About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

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View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160212005013/en/

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