In today's digital landscape, the concept of unified namespace (UNS) has gained significant traction. However, the literature surrounding UNS can be misleading. Our clients frequently inquire about its implementation, often under the misconception that UNS is a straightforward, simple solution to all their data woes. This article aims to clarify what UNS is and more importantly, what it isn't. Plus you'll get a good idea of how UNS fits into the broader context of your company's overall digital transformation.
What are Unified Namespaces (UNS)?
At its core, a unified namespace is a structured framework for real-time data within your organization. It serves as a single source of truth, allowing various systems and departments to access and share information seamlessly. Think of it as a common language for your data, enabling different parts of your business to communicate effectively and efficiently.
- UNS is a standard structure for real-time data.
- UNS is a single source of truth for real-time information.
- UNS is based on ISA-95 Part 2 (ish).
What UNS Is Not
- UNS is NOT an MQTT broker.
While MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is often used to facilitate a UNS, the namespace itself is not an MQTT broker. - UNS is NOT a historical data source.
UNS is primarily focused on real-time data. Clients often ask how to query the UNS, but the reality is that it’s not designed for querying in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a source of real-time data. - UNS is NOT a one-size-fits-all solution.
UNS is not off-the-shelf software you buy, but rather a system developed on a case-by-case basis for each enterprise's unique challenges and requirements.
Data Problems UNS Solves
Data Fragmentation
In many businesses, data is stored in silos across different departments, systems, or platforms, making it difficult to access and analyze information cohesively. Silos may take the form of different databases and tables, such as Microsoft SQL (structured query language), PostgreSQL, or MySQL, or even Excel spreadsheets on an employee’s desktop, for instance. Managing data across multiple systems with different naming conventions and structures is very inefficient. A UNS pulls all that data together, so you get one single access point for everything.
Inefficient Data Management
Different systems, different naming conventions—it’s a mess. A UNS standardizes data management practices, reducing complexity and improving efficiency.
Difficulty In Data Discovery
Finding specific data in a fragmented environment can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. For example, one area of your business might define an item on the plant floor one way, but the actual workers on the plant floor refer to the same item using a different name. This leads to disconnects and data mismanagement, making data discovery difficult. A UNS simplifies data discovery, making it quicker and easier for people to find the right data by unifying these terms and systems.
Inconsistent Data Access
Many of the issues surrounding inconsistent data access stem from data being all over the place. People have different metrics and qualifications for what they consider qualified data, where they go for their source of truth versus where someone else goes for their source of truth. This inconsistency can slow down processes and lead to user frustration. A UNS provides consistent access methods, improving user experience and productivity.
Data Governance Challenges
When data lives in different places under different rules, enforcing governance becomes tricky. A UNS brings consistency to data governance practices across your entire organization, improving security, quality, and compliance.
Impaired Data Analysis and Reporting
Aggregating and harmonizing data from various sources to generate reports and analysis can be tedious, time-consuming, and rife with errors. A UNS integrates and standardizes data without the need to wrangle data from different sources, enabling you to run reports and analysis faster and more accurately.
Collaboration Barriers
Collaboration barriers are arguably the most underrated aspect of implementing a UNS. Often, business units or cells don’t even realize they’re generating data that others in their company could use. A UNS breaks down these barriers, allowing others to take that business unit’s data, create information on their own, and republish it back to the UNS. A UNS fosters collaboration by making it easier to share data and insights across the organization.
Increased IT Complexity and Costs
All of the silos, discrete connections, air gapping, and need to open up various ports becomes an IT nightmare. Maintaining all these systems and integration points adds complexity and costs to IT operations. A UNS simplifies the IT landscape, helping to reduce both operational complexity and costs.
Delayed Decision Making
Gathering, cleaning, and preparing data from disparate locations and formats can take forever, delaying decision-making processes. By implementing a UNS, data scientists have a single source from which to retrieve their data, regardless of what business unit they are looking at. In other words, a UNS serves as a pre-cleansing process to provide a faster time to value when you inevitably seek to integrate machine learning and artificial intelligence tools.
Scalability Issues
As your business grows, managing an increasingly large and fragmented data environment can become unsustainable. If you want an enterprise-wide solution but you have myriad discrete connections and silos, every new component that is brought on can cause your whole business to crash. A UNS is inherently scalable, allowing you to efficiently manage data growth and complexity.
Three Steps to Defining UNS
A UNS consists of two main components: the UNS itself and the architecture that facilitates it. In order to define a UNS for your organization, first you must define its structure, then determine its type, and finally, establish your UNS technology stack and the overall architecture.
Step 1: the UNS Structure
UNS is based on a structure standardized by ISA 95 Part 2. ISA 95 Part 2 is a standard for data models and naming conventions by the International Society of Automation. ISA 95 Part 2 defines the following UNS terms and hierarchy:
-> Enterprise
-> Site
-> Area
-> Line
-> Cell
-> Zone
For many plants, this naming convention works well for building out your UNS. But don’t worry if your business doesn’t fit neatly into these categories—there’s flexibility. Your naming conventions should make sense for your specific operations. So for example, your naming convention may look something more like this:
-> Enterprise = Company Name
-> Site = Location
-> Area = Department
-> Line = Functional Group
-> Cell = Individual Process
-> Zone = Equipment
There are typically four buckets for namespaces: Informative/UI, Raw/Edge, Functional, and Descriptive.
Informative/UI Namespace
Informative or UI namespaces are the data sets that have been shaped for use in user interfaces. They provide the UI with a single source of truth and offload complex rendering from the UI. They may also contain descriptive information.
Raw/Edge Namespace
Raw or edge namespaces are data coming directly from machines on the plant floor, ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, or OPC (open platform communications) servers. It is raw data before it is turned into digestible information, such as process values and machine setpoints.
Functional Namespace
Functional namespaces combine data from multiple sources and combine it with expressions and queries. They are used for calculations and other functions to transform raw data into actionable information.
Descriptive Namespace
Descriptive namespaces generally store unchanging information, such as equipment specifications like a machine's IP address, its model, or the last time it was serviced.
Step 3: the Architecture
The final step is to ensure that the architecture used to facilitate the UNS is robust and scalable. This involves selecting appropriate technologies and ensuring that the architecture can handle the data flow efficiently. Key features of a successful architecture include:- Report by Exception: Reports are only sent when changes or updates are made.
- Edge Driven: Things push payloads instead of being polled.
- Open Architecture: It's accessible by all consumers and not locked into one solution or protocol.
- Lightweight Design: The architecture should minimize network traffic and allow for efficient data retrieval.
- Secure: Single points of connection as well as largely outbound traffic help simplify security.
UNS as Part of Your Digital Transformation Strategy
Implementing a unified namespace is not a quick fix but a strategic approach to digital transformation. By understanding its principles and addressing the unique challenges of each organization, businesses can leverage UNS to create a more efficient, collaborative, and data-driven environment. As you embark on this journey, remember that the groundwork you lay today will pay dividends in the future, enabling faster development and more effective decision-making.
At Vertech, we’re committed to helping you navigate this journey. If you’re ready to take the next step in your digital transformation, let’s talk about how UNS can benefit your organization. Together, we can unlock the full potential of your data.
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