SOLUTION PAPER

Using data for Water
Management
Optimizing industrial water processes: A solutions paperon data integration, plant network integration, downtime
reduction and Cybersecurity.

Using data for water management

General Overview
If you already read the whitepaper “What Data
can do for Water” then you might be aware of
how IoT technologies can generate benefits inwater management, including improvement ofperformance and efficiency in the operations,ensuring water quality for compliance withincreasing standards, reduction of water losses
with early leak detection, energy savings, andreaching sustainability goals among others.

In this Solution Paper you will discover how HMS- as a leading supplier of products and solutions
from Water Management - will help addressing
those challenges and opportunities in a practicaland effective way.

In this Solution paper, we focus on:•

How to integrate Data into cloud and Management Systems•

How to create a seamless plant network integration•

How to reduce production undesired downtime•

How to reduce risk from external cyberattacks

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Using data for water management

Integration of Data into cloud andManagement Systems
OT/IT Integration is an essential part of water
management digitalization. While there are different
strategies and architectures applicable for fielddata collection and integration, our Ewon universal,secure, and flexible IoT gateways become an ideal
choice for many applications while providing an
extra security layer with the VPN connection. Someof the benefits offered by Ewon include:•••

Saving time and money with the Talk2M Servicefor remote access to any field control system toprogram, diagnose, update, calibrate, or monitor
them.
Availability of real-time data of field assets using
native industrial protocols (including serial,ethernet, and Profibus) and without the need tomodify its configuration. Data can be collected
directly from sensors since the Ewon optionally
includes digital and analog I/Os. No data loss andtimestamp at origin even if there is a network
outage thanks to the local buffer in the Ewon.
Immediate notification by SMS or email of any
alarm or event that requires attention to theright person(s)But what would data be if not converted to valuable
information? With the Ewon i4 solutions machinesand infrastructure can be easily connected to thedigital world, wherever they are, processing thecollected data to obtain valuable information in realtime. With i4scada it is possible to create modern
process visualizations with individual designs for
operating and monitoring machines, and production
plants based on HTML5 technology so pages can bedisplayed in any browser and device.
Ewon also supports data integration to proprietaryor popular cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS,
MindSphere, EcoStruxure, AVEVA Insight, PTC
Thingworx, Cloud of Things, and SoftwareAG among
many others, via dedicated connectors or MQTT,REST API or OPCUA protocols. You can also check ourHMS Solution Partners for innovative IoT software
solutions that are integrated with Ewon hardware
with a minimum effort and all of this supporting thehighest security requirements including ISO27001
certification and a complete defense-in-depth
strategy as we will find later in this paper.

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Using data for water management

Seamless plant network
integration
Typically, water and wastewater plants consist ofdifferent types of machines from different vendorsthat need to exchange information between
them but also with the SCADA, BMS, and othermanagement systems in the plant or cloud. Hundredsof instrumentation devices, actuators, and sensors
need to be integrated with the plant network as well.
While the use of ethernet as an industrial network
is now extended, protocols running on top of it are
not always interoperable, so gateways are needed
to exchange information between devices. Add to itthat still many devices – and not only legacy- still use
fieldbus and serial protocols.
Our Anybus Gateways allow seamless integrationof all these machines, systems, and devices withlittle configuration effort and all the necessary
diagnostics tools. Anybus Gateways translate almost
any industrial protocol including Profinet, Profibus,
Ethernet/IP, EtherCAT, Modbus, CAN, PowerLink,CCLink, BACNet, Mbus, MQTT, OPCUA. So basically,no matter what you need to integrate, evenproprietary or old legacy protocols, you will find asolution within the Anybus products.

So, what if you have Profibus DP instrumentationon the field and a new PLC is installed supporting
only Profinet? In this case, you will need an Anybus
Profinet Slave to Profibus Master Gateway to avoid
changing and reconfiguring all your instrumentation.
And one of the benefits of using gateways is that you
can still use the best-in-class equipment according to
your needs instead of being tied to a specific brandor protocol.
And network communication technologies inside aplant are not only wired. Wireless communication
is gaining adoption with as much as a 8% increase
per year. The reasons are various, but when systems
are spread in a big geographical area where someassets are isolated – case of a pump station – thenit is very convenient to transmit the data over theair. Ethernet, serial, and CAN protocols can betransported wirelessly, so most of the intelligent
devices in the field – even legacy - can send andreceive data wireless with the adequate interface to
do it.

Wireless communication is gaining
popularity, with an increase of up to
8% per year.

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Using data for water management
Some cases where you would consider implementing
wireless are:
••
•
•
•
•

To reduce installation and maintenance costs
To replace cabling in long distances
To communicate with rotating equipment
To integrate isolated equipment in the networks,
such as meteorological stations or energy meters
To integrate mobile equipment, such as phones/
tablets or even AGVs
As a secondary channel to be used in case offailure of the main channel (redundancy incommunications)

The HMS Anybus Wireless product line offers stateof-the-art, robust, and certified radio devices, easy
to install and configure, covering private networks(WiFi, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth Low Energy), andpublic networks as well (5G, LTE and NB-IOT). The
technology to be applied will depend on the use
case, but our experts will always be ready to help
and support you to design the best option andarchitecture.

Reduce undesired downtime
According to different studies, the hourly cost of
having a wastewater treatment plant down can go
beyond 10,000€, in addition to the environmental
impact that this can entail.

Having online monitoring tools to predict possible
network failures and, in any case, being able to react
very quickly is essential for the smooth operation of
the plant.

With digitalization, the industrial communication
infrastructure becomes a critical part of the plant
because a failure in the network can affect its wholeoperation. Though normally during the start-up andcommissioning phase, the networks will be tuned
for their ideal performance, as installations areupgraded or grow over time, industrial networks
are affected by many architectural and installationrelated constraints that can lead to failures.

For this purpose, the Anybus Diagnostics productline ensures a reliable network infrastructure forindustrial networks such as PROFIBUS, PROFINET,EtherNet/IP, and other industrial Ethernet standards.
The portfolio includes products that help fieldtechnicians monitor, analyze and troubleshootefficiently, both onsite and remotely, thus avoiding
undesired downtime.

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Using data for water management

Reducing risk from externalcyberattacks
Digitalization in the OT environment entails someperceived risks that might hinder its implementa1tion. On top of them, Cybersecurity concerns .
While the importance of IT security has been recognized by experts for years, the security of industrial
control systems seems to have been overlooked.
Attacks on operational technology (OT) environments are becoming more frequent, so companies
are looking for ways to strengthen their industrial
cybersecurity strategy and bridge the gap between
OT and IT.
The water and wastewater sectors have been defined as essential in the EU’s Directive 2022/2555(NIS2) on measures to ensure a high common levelof cybersecurity across the EU, which will become
mandatory in 2024. But in fact, cyber-attacks onwater treatment systems have occurred and willcontinue to occur. 2

Therefore, we must be ready and protect control systems not anymore as an option but as afunctional requirement choosing the most securearchitectures and technical solutions according tointernationally accepted standards to reduce risks
as much as possible.
HMS, as a leading company in information technology and industrial communications, has cyber security as a top priority in the design of its products.
Our Ewon devices and cloud service are ISO27001
certified, which guarantees continuous improvement in Information Security, and with a complete
defense-in-depth strategy, including LAN/WAN
segmentation, data encryption, firewall-friendly forcompliance with configuration policies (outgoingconnection only), strict authentication and authentication with the definition of access policies andaccount management, traceability of connections,high availability and redundancy of the service withmore than 40 Datacenters worldwide, and much
more.

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Using data for water management

And what about ROI?
Another risk perceived for digitalization in OT environments is the unclear ROI, and that is because
there is still a small number of cases that justify
investment in both CAPEX and OPEX 1.
According to McKinsey, about 30% of companies
that start a proof of concept end up failing toexecute, mainly due to unclear business value andhigh costs of developing, maintaining, and scaling
the solution. Of the 70% of companies that move
forward in the pilot, 4 out of 5 companies get stuckin “pilot purgatory.”
Purgatory means that they either don’t make progress on the project or have trouble making progresswith their target customers. And finally, some initiatives never get off the ground and get stuck due todata security concerns.

That is why HMS has made sure that our products
and solutions are not only reliable and secure, butalso easy to configure, deploy, use, and maintain. In
this way it is very feasible - and it is our recommendation - to develop proofs-of-concept at affordable
costs both economically and in terms of time.
A Proof of concept is the first step in a phased approach to digitalization projects. Addressing projects with a defined strategy is key for success, andexecuting it in phases will allow us to ensure the ROI
for each phase (as each phase that we overcome
implies a greater investment) reducing economic
and productivity risks, and with the advantage ofbeing able to evaluate different methodologies andadapt to change and needs as they arise to achieveboth internal (company) and external (customers)
acceptance before moving to the next phase.

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Using data for water management
A Proof of concept is the first step in a phased approach to digitalization projects. Addressing projects with a defined strategy is key for success, andexecuting it in phases will allow us to ensure the ROI
for each phase (as each phase that we overcome implies a greater investment) reducing economic andproductivity risks, and with the advantage of being
able to evaluate different methodologies and adapt
to change and needs as they arise to achieve bothinternal (company) and external (customers) acceptance before moving to the next phase.

To deploy your teams efficiently and using bestpractices, we offer free quality training through oure-learning platform, which will also allow education
to be carried out without having to travel or be tied
to a schedule. For more advanced training we have
our training facilities and on-site courses available.
In case you need support before the deployment ofthe system, our Application Engineering team will beable to help you with the definition of the project

About HMS Networks
HMS develops and markets products and solutions within Industrial Information and Communication Technology (Industrial ICT). Our products and solutions enable industrial equipment to communicate and share
information with software and systems and are used to connect millions of devices and machines around theworld and provide sustainable, reliable, secure, and intelligent communication solutions, often incorporating
wireless technology, and cloud and IIoT connectivity.
You can check for the Challenges and Opportunities for Machine Builders and System Integrators in the Water
Sector in our Whitepaper “What data can do for Water”
1 GWI, “Accelerating the Digital Water Utility”
2 https://gca.isa.org/blog/the-florida-water-supply-incident-and-ics-cybersecurit

About the author
Xavier Cardeña is a specialist in Industrial Communications, IoT and Cybersecurity with more than 15 years of experience in the water sector understanding customer and market requirements and supporting themin adapting our value proposition to their current and future challenges.

Contact an HMS IIoT expert today.
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