Voltrus SCADA Blog
Articles, guides, and tutorials for Voltrus SCADA.
SCADA for Water and Wastewater: A System Integrator Guide
Remote pump stations, radio/cellular telemetry, DNP3 and Modbus, alarm management for unattended sites — and why lightweight self-hosted SCADA fits thin utility budgets.
Read articleSCADA Historian: Data Logging and Trend Analysis That Actually Helps
A historian stores full-resolution, time-stamped process data — the foundation for troubleshooting, predictive maintenance, and compliance. Build vs buy, and retention strategy.
Read articleIgnition vs Node-RED vs Voltrus: 2026 SCADA Comparison
Ignition (powerful, $6K+ modules) for enterprise. Node-RED (free, but not real SCADA) for prototyping. Voltrus (single binary, lifetime license) for the mid-market. Honest side-by-side.
Read articleMobile-Friendly SCADA Dashboards: Monitoring the Plant From Your Phone
Why responsive dashboards matter for on-call engineers, design principles for industrial mobile UIs, and the security rule: never expose SCADA to the public internet.
Read articleSCADA Alarm Management: Best Practices for ISA-18.2 Compliance (2026)
SCADA alarm management guide. Reduce alarm floods, implement ISA-18.2 best practices, configure deadbands, and improve operator response. Metrics, rationalization, and shelving.
Read articleSCADA Kiosk Mode: Lock Down Operator Consoles Without Tauri
Deploy SCADA in locked-down kiosk mode on dedicated operator consoles. Full-screen, no Alt-Tab, auto-start on reboot, no right-click — using just systemd and X11.
Read articleIndustrial Protocol Comparison: Modbus vs OPC UA vs MQTT vs S7
Side-by-side comparison of the four most common industrial protocols. Data models, security, speed, vendor lock-in, and when to use each one.
Read articleSCADA vs HMI: What's the Difference and Do You Need Both?
The practical difference between SCADA and HMI for system integrators. When you need one, the other, or both — and why the distinction matters for your next project.
Read articleSCADA vs IoT: Why Industrial Monitoring Isn't Just "Smart Devices"
SCADA vs IoT for industrial monitoring. Overlap, differences, and why protocol support matters more than buzzwords for system integrators.
Read articleSCADA Architecture Explained: RTU, PLC, HMI, and How They Connect
SCADA architecture from field devices to the control room. RTUs, PLCs, HMIs, and how data flows from a sensor reading to a dashboard alert.
Read articleSCADA Redundancy: How to Build a High-Availability Industrial Monitoring System
SCADA redundancy patterns for 99.9% uptime. Cold standby, warm standby, hot standby, and when each makes sense for industrial monitoring.
Read articleIndustrial Dashboard Design: 12 Principles That Separate Useful Screens from Wallpaper
12 principles for designing industrial dashboards that operators actually use. Based on real SCADA deployments, not design theory.
Read articleThe Problem Isn't Expensive SCADA. It's Getting In.
AVEVA charges $50K/year. Ignition starts at $6K. The real barrier isn't the price — it's the entry point. Why $249 changes everything for mid-market manufacturers.
Read articleOT Security Checklist: 15 Steps to Harden Your SCADA System
Actionable security checklist based on real OT breach analysis and IEC 62443 best practices. Default credentials, network segmentation, monitoring, and more.
Read articleYour Predictive Maintenance Journey Starts with Getting the Data
Most predictive maintenance projects die at Phase 1: extracting data from legacy PLCs. Voltrus is the data plumbing that makes analytics possible.
Read articleSCADA SSO: Why Active Directory Integration Matters for Industrial Systems
"Does it integrate with our Active Directory?" is the question that kills SCADA deals. How SSO support for AD, Azure AD, Okta, and SAML changes the conversation with enterprise IT.
Read articleFDA 21 CFR Part 11 Compliance for SCADA: What Integrators Need to Know
Pharma, food, and beverage integrators need audit trails, electronic signatures, and access controls. What CFR Part 11 actually requires from SCADA — and how to deliver it without $10K+ consulting.
Read articleConnecting Siemens S7 and Allen-Bradley PLCs to Your SCADA Without Kepware
The "protocol tax" costs $1K-$5K per PLC brand for OPC server licenses. Voltrus Enterprise ($999) includes Modbus, OPC-UA, Siemens S7, and Allen-Bradley EtherNet/IP — no separate server needed.
Read articleOEE and Downtime Tracking in SCADA: What Every Plant Manager Actually Wants
Every plant manager asks for OEE. Most get quoted $50K+ MES systems. What 90% of small sites actually need is machine state tracking, downtime reason codes, and shift reports — built into Voltrus Starter at $249.
Read articleIs There Any SCADA Under $1,000? (Yes, and It's Not Open Source)
Ignition Edge costs $1,850. Full Ignition starts at $6K+. Someone on Reddit asked "Is there any SCADA under $250?" — here's the answer, with pricing tiers that fit every project size.
Read articleBest SCADA Software Alternatives for System Integrators in 2025
Honest comparison of SCADA software options: Ignition, Node-RED, Voltrus, OpenSCADA, and more. Pricing, features, and when to choose each.
Read articleFree SCADA Software: What's Actually Free and What's Not
Not all free SCADA software is truly free. Open source options, freemium traps, and hidden costs — broken down so integrators can make informed decisions.
Read articleRunning SCADA on a Raspberry Pi: Why Edge Computing Wins for Industrial Monitoring
Edge computing is changing industrial monitoring. Why running SCADA on a Raspberry Pi or ARM gateway beats cloud-dependent architectures.
Read articleIndustrial Dashboard: Build vs Buy for System Integrators
Build with the Grafana stack or buy off-the-shelf SCADA? Real cost breakdown — development hours, maintenance burden, and total cost of ownership compared.
Read articleSingle Binary vs Microservices: Why SCADA Should Not Be Distributed
Distributed systems fail in industrial environments. One binary, one process, one log. Why less is more when your client needs monitoring that just works.
Read articleHow System Integrators Should Price Industrial Monitoring Projects
The SaaS reseller trap: you do the work, they keep the recurring revenue. Here is how to price monitoring projects so you keep the margin.
Read articleOn-Premise vs Cloud SCADA: Why Air-Gapped Deployments Still Matter
Factories cannot rely on cloud connectivity. Internet goes down, data stays local. Why on-premise wins for industrial monitoring.
Read articleSCADA Software Pricing: Why Lifetime Licenses Beat SaaS Subscriptions for Integrators
SaaS SCADA pricing erodes integrator margins and strains client budgets. See the lifetime license vs subscription math, and why owning the license changes everything.
Read articleDeploying SCADA on a $4 VPS: A System Integrator's Guide
Your client needs industrial monitoring. Their budget is tight. Their infrastructure is a single cheap VPS with 2 GB RAM. Here is how to deploy production-grade Modbus monitoring in 5 minutes.
Read articleLightweight SCADA Software: What It Actually Means
Every SCADA vendor claims to be lightweight. But what does that actually mean? We break down the numbers — RAM, dependencies, cold start time — so you can compare honestly.
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