Projects and Automation Solutions

Product Information Note

Experion Virtualization Solutions

Experion Virtualization Solutions lead the industry with a turnkey approach to bringing
major benefits of virtualization to customers in the process industries. Experion® PKS
– the Knowledge to Make it Happen.
Nowadays, customers face immense pressures in both Current Issues in Plant Construction
constructing new plants in the shortest time and for the lowest With the ever increasing demand for resources and
cost possible, and operationally to reduce rising lifecycle manufactured goods, plants are becoming more complex than
maintenance costs while maintaining or improving reliability. ever before along with constant pressures to reduce time to
Additionally, the immense skills shortage being experienced production and build costs. Just some of the challenges facing
today is requiring companies to do more with less, now more customers constructing new plants include the following:
than ever.
Geographically distributed engineering-With
Intelligently leveraged, virtualization is a game-changing increasing plant complexity, the need to draw upon
technology in the way it is able to tackle key challenges that our multiple labor sources and the desire to distribute risk is
causing plant construction to become more
industry faces. Honeywell Process Solutions has taken a unique
geographically distributed than ever before. This new
approach to delivering the benefits of virtualization to our
distributed engineering model is the driving force behind
customers by providing a complete experience from installation new project implementation methods and approaches.
to support that is comprehensive, allowing you to run more of
Project complexity-As natural resources become
your system virtualized and reap greater benefits. We also scarce, projects of today are becoming more and more
understand that end-users are always looking to reduce complex. This requires industry to respond with new
complexity, improve performance, reliability and supportability techniques and technologies that can deal with the
and our solutions are designed with that in mind. uncertainties these projects bring.
Accelerated project schedule- New plant construction
represents a significant investment on behalf of
companies and there is a constant pressure to achieve
completion. Additionally, there can be other
compounding factors like patent expirations that make it
an imperative to get plants running quickly.

Current Issues in Existing Operations

In a demanding economy, industrial companies must find ways to

do more with less, which means reducing operating costs while
maintaining or increasing production levels. As such, there is an
urgent need to identify inefficiencies and ensure operations are
as productive and economical as possible. Some of the current
challenges facing the maintenance of control systems in use
today include:
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Proliferation of computer hardware-There is a huge even outside of these formal tests, greater collaboration
amount of computer infrastructure used in today’s plants becomes possible ensuring greater requirements
and each one of those machines needs to be patched, alignment at any point in time.
maintained and refreshed.
Facility and utility costs-For each piece of computer
hardware that is added, there is an associated impact
on space, power, cooling and maintenance. This can be
particularly impactful on off-shore applications where
space, weight and power are at a premium.
Costly and time-consuming OS and application
patching-Patching operating systems (OS) and
applications or reloading computer hardware for the
purposes of a hardware refresh is extremely time
consuming. It also introduces risk into plant operations.
Customers want to maximize the time between having
to touch the OS or applications and reduce the risk to
operations when it is required.
Limited skills to maintain open systems-Strong
Benefits for customers with existing plants
computer hardware and networking skills with
knowledge of the industrial domain are a must for Hardware Refresh Optimization-Experion
maintaining open control systems. While most Virtualization Solutions allow more than one workload to
companies have been increasing these skills within run on a physical box. This reduces the quantity of
process control groups, the right skills are still in short hardware required for Experion and therefore the total
supply. Improving the efficiency of these limited number of refreshes that need to be conducted over a
resources is very important. period of time, and the benefit is cumulative. When a
refresh is required, we can do this online, transparently
to your operations.
Experion Virtualization Benefits
Facility and Utility Savings-With a reduction in the
Experion Virtualization Solutions provide substantial benefits for amount of computer hardware required to run Experion,
new projects and existing installations alike. For new projects, there is a corresponding reduction in the space, power,
new paradigms are enabled for greater project flexibility and for cooling and maintenance required. These reductions
existing systems; there are major lifecycle management are particularly valuable for offshore installations where
space, weight and power are a premium.
advantages.
System Management Benefits-Experion Virtualization
Benefits for customers building new plants Solutions provide a single view into the virtual
infrastructure. Though this single portal, you can see the
Extend Design Freeze Dates-By leveraging virtualized performance of the virtual environment, access the
staging resources, development work can start as soon desktops and turn virtual machines on and off. New
as there is a minimum set of requirements to begin virtual machines can also be deployed from this same
engineering. Given that this work can commence portal. In a traditional system, it can take weeks to
without requiring actual controller or server hardware, it deploy a piece of computer hardware. With a virtualized
provides valuable additional time for design work. Experion System, a new workload can be deployed in
Delay Hardware Purchases-Given that development hours.
can start even without having to purchase computer High Availability Solutions for Computer Hardware-
hardware, the final purchase of this equipment can be One of the most common areas of operating system
delayed ensuring that there is no costly and disruptive instability is with drivers. Experion Virtualization
mid-project refresh required. Additionally, having the provides a very robust and stable driver layer at both the
latest hardware when the plant goes into production is hardware and virtual machine layer, which improves
ensured. stability. In the event of a host failure, a new host can be
Virtual Factory Acceptance Tests-With Experion installed very quickly, and restoring is a matter of
Virtualization Solutions and collaboration tools that exist copying the virtual machines back. Experion
today, Virtual Factory Acceptance Tests are now Virtualization provides a built-in backup package for
possible. This allows for various tests to be performed virtual machines with our solution and high availability
remotely saving travel and staging costs. Additionally, features providing the ability to automatically restart
Experion Virtualization Solutions 3

virtual machines on another physical machine in the Virtualization Solutions are unique in the ability to supply
event of a hardware failure. All of these things combined all of the components of a tested, turnkey virtual
provide better availability than traditional physical infrastructure, install it, and provide best practices and
deployments configuration guidance. On the support side, customers
Improved Hardware, OS and Third Party App only have one telephone number to call to obtain
Compatibility-Before virtualization, operating systems support for the entire solution regardless of where the
and applications running inside of them had to be problem is. Experion Virtualization Solutions are
compatible with certain hardware platforms. With powered by VMware®, the world’s largest supplier of
Experion Virtualization Solutions, Honeywell still offers virtualization products and solutions.
recommended and tested platforms, however now Support for any type of Experion deployment
provides improved choice because of the hardware virtualized along with Honeywell’s Advanced
independence that virtualization provides. OS Applications-Experion Virtualization Solutions can be
compatibility is driven by what the Hypervisor can used to run all different types of Experion deployments
support rather than by the underlying hardware. Third virtualized from full On-Process systems of any size and
Party application compatibility is improved because complexity, SCADA deployments, Off-Process Systems
through virtualization, a number of virtual machines that and smaller configurations with our Experion HS and LS
could be running applications from different vendors can products.
all be running totally isolated on the same piece of In addition to Experion, Honeywell supports a full range
computer hardware. of our Advanced Solutions products virtualized.
Simplified, Lower Risk Upgrades and Patching- “Virtually” the entire Advanced Solutions portfolio is now
Upgrading hardware with Experion Virtualization supported virtualized, including:
Solutions is easy, and depending on the type of virtual Optimization and simulation applications (e.g.,
infrastructure deployed, can even be done totally Advanced Alarm Management, Profit® Suite and
transparently to process operations. Leveraging UniSim)
templates, base virtual machines that are customized to
site policies can be developed, reducing risk when Business applications (e.g., Business FLEX)
deploying new virtual machines. The ability to quickly Historians such as PHD
and easily duplicate an on process environment for The range of HPS applications that support virtualization
offline staging ensures quick and accurate testing of is constantly changing. Please see the HPS
patches. In the event of the unexpected, snapshot Virtualization Specification for the most current
capabilities allow for the rapid rollback of a system to a information.
known good point in time.
Experion Virtualization Solutions that take
Increased Desktop Security, Reliability with Lower advantage of virtualization features to create new
Heat and Noise-Virtualized Experion Workstations capabilities-Experion Virtualization Solutions take
allow for computer hardware to be moved out of the advantage of advanced Experion Virtualization
control room and into the instrumentation room for a capabilities and extended them to solve specific
fraction of the cost of traditional techniques. This allows business problems through dedicated offerings. These
for a quiet, cost effective and secure thin client to be the include our Experion Backup Control Center Solution
only thing that is present out in the floor of the control (BCC) and Experion Off-Process Solution.
room. Virtualized Experion Workstations additionally
allow for rapid recovery in the event of a failure and can
even result in superior performance due to a common
set of high performance hardware that can be shared,
instead of each desktop requiring equivalent power
which can become cost prohibitive.

Experion Virtualization Solution Deliverables

Honeywell is committed to virtualization technology and the

benefits it provides to our customers worldwide. Experion
Virtualization Solutions deliver a comprehensive range of
offerings in the following areas:

Virtual infrastructure providing the software and

hardware needed to run virtual machines-Experion
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The Experion BCC solution provides a complementary How to Get Started

addition to traditional disaster recovery technique
Contact your Honeywell Account Manager to find out more about
providing a rapid recovery in the event of an entire site
failure. Backup sites can also be utilized for other how Experion Virtualization Solutions can transform your
purposes when not in use, and testing can be done at business. Honeywell can start by providing an assessment of the
any time, supporting the integrity of the disaster virtualization opportunities in your facility and quantify the
recovery strategy. business return that moving to a virtual environment can bring to
Experion Off-Process Solution enables rapid setup and your facility.
teardown of off-process tests, as well as easy
configuration of multiple off-process labs on a single set The good news for industrial companies is that virtualization can
of hardware. Users can perform upgrade testing while be applied gradually, starting small and growing over time. While
doing simultaneous engineering checkout. Attractive Honeywell can provide a Virtualized Experion On-Process
licensing optimized for virtualization allows companies system at any time, if you are unfamiliar with virtualization some
to maximize the potential of this technology in a cost
good places to start include:
effective manner.
Off-process development: Off-process development
Virtualization services supporting our customers
systems are by their nature non-critical, making them a
from pre-sales, project execution to after-market-
great place to start applying virtualization.
Honeywell has the resources and service capabilities
needed to help customers access, design, implement Non-critical ancillary nodes: Where supported by the
and manage a virtual infrastructure. We provide back-to- vendor, industrial sites can begin to virtualize non-
back support in the areas of technical assistance, critical ancillary nodes such as web access portals,
training, and execution and after-market services. So, active directory servers, and OPC servers.
whether you are a customer building a new plant and Business domain interface software: Virtualization is
want to leverage our expertise in virtualization to being widely adopted for enterprise applications such as
improve your plant engineering or are operating an SAP and Oracle. As such, industrial control applications
existing facility, we have the expertise to help you. that are used to interface with these applications are
great places to start virtualizing as there is a well-
established precedent for using virtualization with these
types of applications.

Experion® and Profit® Suite are registered trademarks of Honeywell International Inc.

For More Information

Learn more about Honeywell’s Experion
Virtualization Solutions visit our website
www.honeywellprocess.com or contact your
Honeywell account manager.
Honeywell Process Solutions
Honeywell
1250 West Sam Houston Parkway South
Houston, TX 77042
Honeywell House, Arlington Business Park
Bracknell, Berkshire, England RG12 1EB UK
Shanghai City Centre, 100 Junyi Road PN-12-24-ENG
Shanghai, China 20051 June 2012
© 2012 Honeywell International Inc.
www.honeywellprocess.com