SCADA market boosted in Australia and NZ

Intensifying demand from industries such as water and mining is fuelling the automation market and the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems segment in particular within Australia and New Zealand. In the face of inadequate water supply and scarce resources, these systems will enable enhanced control over large-scale projects and effective resource management, which are essential requirements to keep pace with the rising needs of industries.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that the market earned revenues of US$150.0 million in 2012 and estimates this to reach US$215.0 million in 2018. The research covers the SCADA hardware, software and services market for major end-user industries such as mining, water/wastewater, power, and oil and gas.

Most end users have a wide range of installed SCADA equipment, which makes it imperative to standardise SCADA. As Australia and New Zealand are advanced nations with access to essential infrastructure, SCADA is proving to be indispensable and cross-functional.

However, the transition from ageing infrastructure to standardised SCADA systems will not be an easy task, as most systems have been customised based on the end-user requirements by several vendors with varying approaches. Therefore, it is likely that end users will change over to newer systems completely rather than adopt a piecemeal approach. This is the reason automation vendors wish to be seen as a single stop for automation services.

While the market demonstrates tremendous growth potential, industry players need to be wary of vulnerabilities associated with SCADA systems. Given that data security is not a key focus area, these systems are prone to malware and viruses. Moreover, most of the older systems transmit data and control commands in unencrypted clear text, which increases vulnerability. These security soft spots are expected to be mitigated by software and tools that tackle hacking and related issues.