SCADA Systems
Morris Smith
Within the world of ever growing technology and systems it is more important than ever to
make sure that failure of these systems happen as less often as possible. There are systems that
are always being managed and being used for everyday life such a water distribution, gas
pipeline, airports, and many more. As these are all important to withhold societal norms, a
failure for any of these systems to operate would have major consequences. This is why SCADA
is implemented.
Overview of SCADA
SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition and is a computer-based system
that uses real time data to monitor and control equipment when needed. It is used for critical
and time sensitive material. It controls the infrastructure processes that were talked about
earlier such as water distribution and gas pipelines. The subsystems of SCADA mostly consist of
an apparatus operated by a human, remote terminal units, programmable logic controllers, and
communication infrastructures.
Why SCADA Is So Important
There are many kinds of critical infrastructures from energy to communications and more. All of
these are used in everyday life for companies and their security is of the upmost importance.
These systems are prone to many risks such as operational risk which refers to the inability of a
system to perform a task, safety risks, financial risks, and many more. This is why SCADA is so
important to implement. SCADA mitigates these risks in a number of ways including notifying
SCADA Systems
Morris Smith
an operator if there is a high amount of errors, only allowing authorized users, packet access to
network and much more.
Conclusion
SCADA is an important and brilliant system to implement whenever possible because it
mitigates many risks that come along with almost every infrastructure. It’s uses range from
being used in a company database to running a factory and is there to make life easier.