SCADA - 360
Wondering how well your SCADA assets are faring?
Operational technology assets like PLCs, HMIs, networking, and SCADA software are critical business tools that keep critical water and wastewater infrastructure performing at expected capacity.
Proactively managing and understanding how this critical infrastructure meets or falls short of industry best practices is key to avoiding unexpected failure.
Condensed from thousands of hours of SCADA consultation and master planning, we offer our SCADA-360 self-assessment and subsequent guided assessments to quickly identify what portions of your system are performing and which require attention. By completing the self-assessment, you’ll be on the path towards ensuring your critical OT assets are performing at their best for years to come.
Ready to find out your score?
How the self-assessment works
Step 1: Complete the self-evaluation form below.
Step 2: A customized report will be generated with the following pieces of information (typically within 24 hours):
- Spider Chart Dashboard
- This dashboard quickly shows you (1) target scores, (2) self-assessment scores, and (3) industry average scores. You can quickly visually identify what may be in good condition and what may need more urgent attention.
- Customized report
- We provide background and assessment results to give your team more insight into the evaluation scoring process. We will provide high-level suggestions for the lowest-scoring areas so you can start planning to improve in any critical areas that are lacking.
Step 3: Reach out to our team for a free consultation to dive deeper into the results of your self-assessment. While this diagnostic provides your organization with a high-level understanding of your SCADA health posture, you’ll need a bit more to plot a course for success. Our experts can guide you through developing key projects and setting timelines to become an industry-leading organization.
Step 4: Start the project together. Based on the insights gained from the assessment and our evaluation, we will work closely with your team to implement targeted improvements.
SCADA-360 offers guided self-assessment in 6 key areas:
Hardware:
Your automation system’s reliability hinges on the condition and support of its physical components. Aging or unsupported hardware can lead to unexpected failures, costly downtime, and security risks. Determine how well physical components like PLCs, networking equipment, servers, panels, and other critical infrastructure components support your utility.
System Performance:
Your control system’s effectiveness depends on clear alarms, robust network infrastructure, accurate data collection, and reliable SCADA operation. Poorly configured alarms or overloaded networks can lead to missed events or sluggish control responses, impacting overall decision-making and safety. This module helps measure how well your alarms are managed, how your network performs, and how effectively your historical data and SCADA controls support smooth, automated operations.
Software:
Outdated firmware, unpatched operating systems, and unsupported SCADA or PLC software can introduce vulnerabilities and inefficiencies in your software environment. We’ll guide you through examining the current status of SCADA software components, including ancillary elements such as your data historian and patch management, to improve the stability and security of your system.
Disaster Recovery:
Assess your ability to respond to the unexpected. As much as we hope it never happens, how prepared is your organization to recover from a major system failure when that rainy day does come? Whether it faces a physical disaster like fire, a car running into a panel (yes, we’ve seen it happen), or a targeted cyberattack like ransomware, we’ll help you determine if you’re well-positioned to recover efficiently.
Security:
An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure. This module will indicate how well you’re meeting industry and government best practices on cyber and physical security regarding your SCADA and OT assets. Ensuring your system is secure on both fronts is key to maintaining its long-term health and availability and preventing costly attacks.
Documentation & Change Management:
Technical debt is often a result of poor documentation and change management practices. It also significantly contributes to excessive maintenance and emergency support costs. Through this module, we’ll help you examine the effectiveness of your documentation for critical assets and the adequacy of your internal practices for maintaining key supporting files and information.
System Details:
In evaluating the overall scores within the previous 6 key areas, having a sense of the system’s size and makeup is critical for accurate assessment and suggested recovery actions. No proprietary or secure information will need to be provided, but high-level information about the quantity of IO, tags, screens, and similar info will be necessary for the assessment.
