Arkansas Water Utility Upgrades to Cyber Secure Bedrock Universal Control System

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 23, 2016 -- Bedrock Automation announced today that the Russellville, Arkansas Water and Sewer System has replaced a legacy PLC with a secure Bedrock^TM industrial control system.  Bedrock Certified Solution Provider Brown Engineers, of Little Rock, Arkansas, completed the upgrade in November of 2015 and the system has been performing to specifications ever since.

This Bedrock(TM) industrial control system went on line at a Russellville, Arkansas pollution treatment center in November of 2015. Shown from left to right are a secure power module, secure communications module connected to the plant Ethernet network and secure I/O modules that control field devices such as digestion blowers, clarifiers, sludge pumps and chlorination chemical feed pumps.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4a90b45a-aeb4-4d3c-ada0-8e040ddb9879

“The PLCs running automatic control of our digestion blowers, clarifiers, sludge pumps and chlorination chemical feed pumps have become obsolete. So when one of them failed, we wanted to replace it with something that would provide a path to the future.  With its high performance and increasingly important built-in cyber security protection, the Bedrock system offers that, and it has been running without issue since installed.  We are very pleased with the decision to go with Bedrock,” said Steve Mallett, Jr., P.E., General Manager of the City Corporation, which is responsible for the Arkansas pollution control facility.

Although it is performing essentially the same function as the legacy PLC, the new Bedrock system is dramatically different from the legacy PLC. It uses an electromagnetic backplane instead of a traditional pin-based backplane. The electromagnetic backplane eliminates pin corrosion and breakage, which improves long term reliability and also enables embedded security by preventing the possibility of using counterfeit I/O modules. It also creates a galvanic isolation barrier between field wiring and the controller and provides a high performance, deterministic I/O update rate to support current functionality and additional planned expansions. The new system is also different from the legacy PLCs in the following ways:

• The Bedrock^TM system runs a military-grade safe and secure real-time operating system, further embedding security into the software and firmware used to control the facility.
• It can operate from 90-260VAC or DC power without fans or DIP switches for simplicity and robustness and embeds standard, open system technologies including OPC UA, a fully compliant IEC61131-3 programming environment and standard Ethernet support at the control and I/O networks.
• The Bedrock^TM control system consists of only a dozen part numbers, reducing installation and maintenance costs.
• The system is scalable for more advanced control functions, such as serving as a SCADA Remote Transfer Unit (RTU) or distributed control system (DCS).
  
  

"We are seeing increased interest in cyber security among municipal utility clients such as City Corporation.  Many want to control security functions from their tablets and control centers, because their networks are getting hammered every day by probes and attempted intrusions.  The Bedrock controller gives them another layer of protection beyond firewalls and VPNs. It is unique in that as it powers up, it checks to be sure that all hardware and software components are validated. Regular PLCs just can’t do that," said Dee Brown, PE of Brown Engineers.

The Bedrock controller is part of an integrated plantwide SCADA system. Users connect to that system via Ignition software from Inductive Automation. Ignition is an industrial applications platform that coordinates control and data acquisition for all plant PLCs and remote transfer units (RTUs).

“We are pleased to be working with Brown Engineers, Inductive Automation and the City of Russellville in bringing about what we believe will be a new generation of municipal infrastructure automation, the benefits of which will accrue to city residents in quality and cost-efficiency of service,” said Bedrock Automation President Bob Honor. 

About Bedrock Automation
Bedrock Automation, based in San Jose, California, is the maker of Bedrock™, the world’s most powerful cyber secure automation platform.  From Silicon Valley, Bedrock Automation has assembled the latest technologies and talents in both the automation and semiconductor industries to build an unprecedented automation solution for industrial control based on three prime directives:  Simplicity, Scalability and Security™.  The result is a system with a revolutionary electromagnetic backplane architecture and deeply embedded cyber security, which delivers the highest levels of system performance, industrial cyber security and reliability at the lowest cost of ownership.

For more information about the Bedrock revolution, download the first two whitepapers in our series: Revolution – Chapter One: The Backplane, and Revolution – Chapter Two: Empowering Power.  For more information about Bedrock Automation, visit www.bedrockautomation.com.

For more information about becoming a Bedrock systems integrator or high technology distributor contact Paul Tornabee, Sales Channel Manager at 408-712-8124 or [email protected].

Media Contacts: 
John Nero - Tiziani Whitmyre, [email protected]; 781-793-9380.  
Rob Bergman - Bedrock Automation, [email protected]; 626-824-0404.