CAPTIA / Solutions / SCADA with Ignition

SCADA with Ignition

Your process, visible.
SCADA with Ignition.

Bring together states, variables, alarms and historical data in supervision connected to the plant. We develop and integrate the solution with Ignition around your operation.

Discuss my SCADA project See our approach

Engineering and software connected to your operation.

Illustrative image of an industrial application: SCADA with Ignition — Generated illustrative image. Interface customisable to the project.

To intervene, you first need visibility.

Information spread across equipment

Checking process status means moving between different screens.

Alarms without an overall view

It is difficult to relate an issue to process conditions.

Limited historical context

A current reading is not enough to understand how a variable has evolved.

SCADA software that lets you see the whole plant from a single screen

A SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) is the software layer that reads the data from your PLCs, controllers and instrumentation, displays it in real time and lets you act on the process without walking down to the shop floor.

What you will find on this page is the practical side: how that software is deployed in a factory that is already producing, with the machinery you already own and without stopping the line. We work on standard market platforms — among them Ignition, of which we are an integrator partner — and we connect the SCADA to the rest of your architecture: MES, ERP, Business Intelligence and the historical database.

What SCADA software solves in a factory that is already running

Most of the plants we work with already have the data: it is in the PLCs, in the drives, in the energy meters and in the sensors. The problem is not measuring, it is that the information never leaves the electrical cabinet. SCADA is the piece that gets it out, organises it and puts it in front of whoever has to decide.

That is why our deployment principle is always the same: a SCADA is not bought, it is integrated. The choice of platform matters less than the signal map, the alarm policy and the data model of the historian, which is what decides whether the system is still worth anything three years later.

“Supervision and data acquisition are the foundation on which every later improvement is built: without a reliable historian there is no analytics, no predictive maintenance and no OEE that holds up”

Benefits of deploying a SCADA system in your industry

Visibility

The real status of every line, machine and utility on a single screen, with the same figure for production, maintenance and management.

Alarms that work

A hierarchy of warnings, grouping and notification to the right shift. An alarm that goes off all the time ends up being an alarm nobody looks at.

Your own historian

Data goes to a SQL database that is yours and can be queried from any tool, not to a closed vendor format.

Integration

OPC UA, Modbus, MQTT and native drivers for the most common PLCs. Brand-new machines and twenty-year-old machines live side by side.

Remote access

A responsive web client to check the plant from a phone or tablet, with role-based permissions and an audit trail of who did what.

A basis for OEE

Stoppages, micro-stoppages and their causes are recorded with a timestamp, which is the starting point for calculating a credible OEE.

What we address

Supervision that helps you interpret the process.

States, trends and alerts organised around the operation. The interface is configured for the process and the needs of the team.

Visualisation

Process states and variables.

Alarms

Organised alerts for easier review.

Historical data

Data trends to understand the context.

System connectivity

Connections to industrial equipment and applications.

Examples of what you can do with SCADA software

See the status of every line in real time and spot the micro-stoppage that repeats every shift and that nobody was counting.

Monitor energy, compressed air and water consumption per line, and allocate the energy cost across products using real data.

Record process curves — temperature, pressure, flow — linked to the batch, so the evidence is ready when the audit arrives.

Supervise remote installations — tanks, pumping stations, substations — from a single control room, with automatic issue notification.

How we work

How we deploy a SCADA system

Signal map

An inventory of PLCs, protocols and available variables, and a decision on what is worth reading. Not everything that can be measured needs to be measured.

Architecture

Server, redundancy if the process demands it, OT/IT network segmentation and a platform chosen for the plant, not for the brochure.

Data model

Asset structure, tag naming and historisation policy. This is the stage that decides whether the historian will be any use for analytics.

Screens

Screens designed together with the operators who will use them, with the alarm hierarchy and role-based permissions defined from the start.

Commissioning and support

Start-up running in parallel with the previous system, shift training and ongoing support, with the documentation of the installation in your hands.

CAPTIA Ingeniería, certified Ignition integrator

What Ignition is, and why we choose it for projects that are going to grow

Ignition is the SCADA, HMI and data acquisition platform built by Inductive Automation. It does what any SCADA software does — read the PLCs, draw process screens, manage alarms, historise — but with two design decisions that change the economics of an industrial project.

The first is per-server licensing: no limit on tags, connected clients or screens. On most platforms the price goes up every time you add signals or workstations; with Ignition, extending the installation does not go through the licence till again. The second is that the historian lives in a standard SQL database — SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL — that you can reach with any tool, with no dependency on a proprietary format.

If you would rather start one level up, our industrial SCADA software page explains how a SCADA project is run before any platform is chosen.

Per-server licence

No limit on tags, clients or screens. It is the platform's real selling point, and the one you feel most three years in.

Native web client

Perspective for browser and mobile, Vision for the control room workstations. One project, two kinds of client.

SQL out of the box

The historian writes into your relational database, not into a closed silo. That opens the door to analytics with no tolls.

OPC UA and MQTT

An OPC UA server included and drivers for the most common PLCs, with MQTT available for distributed architectures.

Cross-platform

It runs on Windows and on Linux, bare metal or virtualised, which makes life simpler for the IT department.

Modular

Reporting, alarm notification, a database bridge or MES modules: you add what you need and nothing else.

Certified Ignition integrator in Spain

CAPTIA Ingeniería is a certified Ignition integrator based in Móstoles (Madrid). We currently work in Spain and can also undertake international projects, agreeing the scope and working arrangements with you.

View CAPTIA in the Inductive Automation directory ↗

We offer a priority support and maintenance service when you need it. We agree the service model, scope and terms with you to suit your operation.
Plant engineering, not just licences. We can read an electrical cabinet, talk to the maintenance manager and decide which signals are worth historising. The software is the easy part.
Integration with the rest of your architecture. Ignition rarely arrives on its own: we connect it to your MES, to your ERP, to traceability and to your Business Intelligence.

What working with an Ignition partner gives you

A partner has access to training, to the vendor's support channel and to the experience of having built the platform several times. In practice, the difference between a project delivered by a partner and an improvised one is rarely whether it works on start-up day; it is whether it can be extended two years later without being rebuilt: tag naming, equipment templates, historisation policy and version control of the project.

Ignition licensing: how the price is worked out

Ignition is not licensed by tags or by clients, so the question "how many signals do I have" does not set the price. What sets it is how many servers you need and which modules you enable (web client, reporting, alarm notification, database bridge, MES...), plus annual maintenance if you take it.

That is why sizing the first phase is the conversation that matters: a well-planned architecture can come out considerably cheaper than a badly planned one with the same modules. List prices and bands are published and updated by the vendor; we help you size the system and give you a firm quote. Tell us about your case and we will size it with you.

Ignition SCADA training and courses

Inductive Automation runs Inductive University, its free video training platform for Ignition. It is the best starting point if you want your team to learn the platform on their own.

We include training for shop-floor staff unless it is determined to be unnecessary. If you need additional training, we can arrange it around your team’s needs.

How it fits with the rest.

Explore industrial applications ↗

Before we start

Frequently asked questions.

What is SCADA software?

SCADA software is the application that supervises and controls an industrial process from the data sent to it by PLCs, RTUs and shop-floor instrumentation. It does four things: acquire that data, display it on process screens, manage alarms and store the history.

What is the difference between SCADA and MES?

SCADA works at the supervisory level: it watches the machine and the process, in real time and in seconds. MES works at the manufacturing execution level: it watches the work order, the batch, material consumption and shift performance. They do not compete, they support each other: MES needs somebody to feed it shop-floor data, and that somebody is usually the SCADA.

They serve different functions. SCADA focuses on process supervision and control; MES connects execution with orders, operations, materials and results. They can be integrated.

How much does it cost to deploy SCADA software?

The cost splits between platform licences, deployment engineering and infrastructure. Licences vary a great deal depending on the vendor's model: some charge by number of tags or connected clients, and others per server with no limit on either. That difference in model usually weighs more on the total than the entry price, especially if the installation is going to grow. Tell us the scope and we will give you a banded estimate.

Which SCADA platforms do you work with?

We deploy on standard market platforms and choose according to what is already on the shop floor, the installed PLCs and how the installation is expected to grow. We are an Ignition integrator partner, Inductive Automation's platform, and we also work on existing installations built on other platforms when the project is an extension or a migration.

Can I integrate SCADA with old machines?

Almost always, yes. The usual route is OPC UA or Modbus when the controller supports it, and an industrial gateway when it does not. Where the machine offers no data at all to the outside, we instrument the bare minimum — a counter, a status sensor — so the equipment does not have to be replaced. It is the same thing we do on IIoT projects.

Can SCADA run in the cloud?

Control and supervision stay on site: if the connection drops, production cannot depend on a remote server. What does make sense in the cloud is the query, reporting and analytics layer on top of the historian. The usual architecture is hybrid: control on premises, data replicated upwards.

What is Ignition SCADA?

Ignition is Inductive Automation's SCADA, HMI and data acquisition platform. It installs as a server that clients — desktop or browser — connect to, and from which it talks to the PLCs over OPC UA and native drivers.

Can Ignition be trialled before buying it?

Yes. Unlicensed modules run in trial mode for two hours. You can reset the trial timer from the Gateway to continue evaluating the platform without restarting the server. This allows a proof of concept with actual equipment and data before deciding to purchase.

Can Ignition replace a SCADA I already have?

Yes, and it is a common scenario. The migration is planned in phases with both systems running side by side: first the supervision of one line is replicated, then validated against the old system, and only after that is the switch made. What needs careful planning is not the new SCADA but the old historian: deciding which data is recovered and how.

Which PLCs can be connected to Ignition?

The usual ones on the shop floor: Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Omron, Modbus TCP and any device that exposes an OPC UA server. For anything without communications the route is a gateway, just as in an IIoT project. It is worth checking the specific driver in the vendor's documentation before committing to a deadline.

How does Ignition compare with WinCC or Wonderware?

The big difference is in the licensing model and the client architecture, not in the feature list. Siemens WinCC is licensed by tag count and is tightly coupled to Siemens PLCs; AVEVA, formerly Wonderware, licenses by I/O count and named users. Ignition licenses per server with no limit on either. Which one fits depends far more on how the installation will grow than on the brochure.

How are SCADA and Ignition related?

SCADA describes the supervision and control solution; Ignition is the platform we use to develop these projects. Here we bring together the operational need and its implementation.

Can you review an existing installation?

We start by understanding its architecture, version, modules, documentation and needs. This information defines the scope of work.

What do you need to assess a new project?

A description of the process, equipment, systems and users involved. Details are agreed during diagnosis.

Does the project include training?