In The News

Manufacturers and engineers answer the following 20 questions on Web-Accessible Controls Systems (WACS)

1. What capabilities do WACS offer that conventional automation systems do not?
2. In what types of applications are WACS useful and cost-effective?
3. How do WACS impact construction scope, schedule, and budget?
4. What components of WACS are different from those of conventional BAS?
5. How are WACS integrated into a system design and ultimately specified?
6. How are WACS installed, activated, and tested?
7. How are WACS operated and maintained?
8. What are the computer hardware and software requirements of WACS?
9. Are WACS a retrofit solution, or are they feasible only for new systems? Can they be bootstrapped onto an existing BAS?
10. What actually is “on the web”? Do you need to register one or more domain names?
11. Can web accessibility be provided by a third-party supplier? Can a WACS “integrate” multiple BAS or controls products?
12. Can WACS be hacked by outsiders or unauthorized insiders?
13. Can information entering or leaving a WACS server be “tapped”?
14. What features do most WACS share?
15. What distinguishes WACS products from each other, and how can they be compared?
16. Does a WACS track who is using it and when, and how are access limitations achieved?
17. If a system needed to be modified substantially, who would perform the work, how much would it cost, and how long would it take?
18. Does a WACS replace conventional workstation software, and can one back out of a WACS if he does not like it?
19. Other than office and portable computers using internet connections and browsers, what mobile devices can access WACS?
20. Where is the technology going, and what is on the near term horizon of development?

Originally printed: HPAC Engineering, April 2001
h5. Written by: Michael G. Ivanovich, Editor and Scott Arnold, Senior Editor