Maintenance Technology June 2017 - 20

AUTOMATION SOFTWARE
released, meaning a 9-yr.-old system
today is likely running Windows XP
(retired) or Windows Vista (soon
to be retired). Hardware failure on
a Windows XP or Windows Vista
machine will be tremendously difficult
to remedy. Because these operating
systems are either no longer supported,
or soon to be retired, manufacturers
have ceased producing computers or
parts for these systems. At best, users
will be able to find used replacement
parts that are unreliable themselves,
due to their age. At worst, they could
be facing an outage until they can
complete an emergency upgrade.
Moreover, the cyber-security risk of
running an outdated operating system
is significant. Since the April 2014
termination of support for Windows
XP, several security flaws have been
discovered in the retired software.
These include CVE-2014-6332, which
remains unpatched in Windows XP
since its November 2014 discovery,
allowing remote attackers to execute
code on the machine, even to the
point of remote control of the system.
With such vulnerabilities not only in
existence, but also widely published,
running an outdated operating system
leaves organizations open to a potential
disaster scenario.
There is also a strong business case
to be made for keeping automation
systems updated and upgraded.
Organizations that strive to improve
reliability, automation, plant and
operator performance, and cyber
security will find themselves facing
an uphill battle if they try to make
these changes with an old, outdated
automation system. Advancements
made in the past five to eight years
have enabled plants to realize vast
improvements in intrusion prevention,
alarm management, optimized work
practices, process throughput, and
paperless record keeping. All of these
advancements can be implemented to
give organizations better visibility to
the health of their assets and the status
of their processes.
Yet, even knowing the risks of
falling behind in system health, many
organizations let updates languish for

20 |

MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY

AutomationSystem Support
Guardian Support is a
comprehensive, prognostic
service designed to optimize
reliability and performance of
an organization's automation
system. The program helps
organizations minimize and
simplify automation-system
issues with comprehensive
incident management. Users
have access to 24x7x365
global factory support, and
can speed issue resolution by
collaborating with Emerson
(emerson.com) experts to
determine the fastest and most
appropriate corrective actions.
To help ensure automationsystem performance over its
40+-year lifespan, Guardian
Support offers organizations
lifecycle management. Users
can simplify record keeping
with system-specific inventory
management. In addition,
organizations can ensure the
best cyber security and patch
management with proactive
lifecycle status notifications on
their automation systems.

a variety of speculative reasons. There
are several understandable and resolvable concerns that can keep operations
from performing the system monitoring and preventive maintenance
that they need.

What if something breaks?
Users are sometimes concerned
that, by updating their software or
hardware, some features, or even the
entire system, will stop working. In
addition, companies often worry about
the risk of updates having a negative
workflow impact if employees need
to be retrained because the interface
changed.
The reality is that properly planned
and executed system updates are
successful. Updates, patches, and
hotfixes released by the operatingor automation-system manufacturer

undergo regular, rigorous testing for
compatibility and are thoroughly
documented on the manufacturer's
support site.
In addition, though interface
changes are a reality, such changes
are designed with efficiency in mind.
Changes to operator interfaces are
generally implemented with the
intention of increasing efficiency. Thus,
any potential workflow upset will be
offset, over time, by increased operator
efficiency when users learn and
leverage the new system updates.

We don't have time.
A plant's priority is to stay productive. As such, many organizations
feel that they do not have the time to
properly maintain their system health,
even if they recognize that patches,
updates, and upgrades are essential for
improved performance and security.
However, the goal of a plant's
control system is to help the plant
stay productive. As such, keeping
automation-system technology up to
date can be a key to finding more time.
Unexpected failures in automationsystem servers and workstations can
mean plant downtime until issues are
resolved. If resolving the issue requires
sourcing legacy parts, the outages can
be lengthy.
A facility that doesn't have the time
or staff to dedicate to system monitoring and preventive maintenance
and upgrades can and should find a
solution to keep its automation system
up to date. Investing in a key partner
in automation-system reliability and
maintenance can pay significant
dividends.

Expensive systems
should work.
Automation systems can be a huge
capital expenditure. A high-quality,
well-designed automation system will
work well for a long time. However, as
with any intricate, high-quality system
or device, a large capital investment
does not preclude maintenance and
upgrades.
Maintenance and upgrades become
more capital intensive based on how
JUNE 2017
http://www.emerson.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology June 2017
