As part of a large-scale mature
HMI system upgrade, Persistent Technologies (PT) proposed to the targeted customer a consideration of migrating from a thick client to a thin client architecture for serving operator HMI screens. The proposal was intended to reduce upgrade costs and efforts – as well as satisfying the customer’s desire to reduce total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) following the upgrade. In the customer’s view, managing HMI thick clients was expensive, time consuming, and unwieldly. PT proposed a thin client design that offered the stated benefits while also addressing additonal issues associated with the new overall system architecture. PT then designed and executed with the customer both an in-lab and on-prem (production) POCs to help:
- Validate the design before making any official investment
- Ensure all requirements were fully understood
- Gain greater understanding of implementation/development efforts
- Identify issues that might prevent success
In-order to off-load the customer from upfront capex costs, PT provided the required hardware and software resources to successfully execute both POCs. The tests provided the customer with the assurance and comfort they needed to proceed with the new approach – and ultimately led to a highly successful upgrade project.