A History of Industrial Innovation:
The AUTOSOL Story
AUTOSOL’s founders set the standard for solution excellence in our industry long ago as early innovators in what’s known today as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Learn more about the progression of our company to see how we’ve been connecting devices and data sources, legacy and new equipment, and OT and the enterprise for decades.
1987
AUTOSOL’s Founding
Automation Solutions, LP (AUTOSOL) is co-founded by Douglas C. Osburn, III and Julie Cannoy to provide system integration services to industrial companies.
AUTOSOL focused on ways to integrate office and industrial automation hardware and software to monitor and control the operation of various industrial facilities and equipment, principally in the oil and gas production, transmission and distribution business.
Enabling IIoT long before the IIoT was even a concept.
Initially, AUTOSOL worked to remedy communication incompatibilities between devices from different manufacturers having different automation missions. The company also sought to develop solutions to overcome the intermittent coverage and reliability challenges inherent in the various long-distance communication media.
1994
It Begins with AUCS
Delivering the first software for multi-protocol support over a single channel.
AUTOSOL’s first generation communication software, AUTOSOL Universal Communication Server (AUCS), marked a major milestone in solving the integration challenges associated with SCADA and AMR communications. It combined several protocol drivers, across a multitude of connection methods, into a single easy-to-use host server.
Apache becomes the first customer to benefit from AUCS.
Oil and gas giant Apache was the first to leverage AUCS’ multi-protocol capabilities to communicate with hundreds of field devices dispersed throughout its oilfields. Shortly thereafter, other energy leaders adopted AUCS into their networks. Even today, some of these earliest clients still rely on the stability of AUTOSOL’s first-generation polling engine.
2001
The Story Grows with AES
Increasing the robustness of AUCS to support thousands of field devices.
As the functionality of AUCS grew, it became necessary to update the software to expand its communication framework, resulting in the next-generation AUTOSOL Enterprise Server (AES). AES enabled communications with not just hundreds, but thousands of supported field devices.
Providing support for all missions over the same network, simultaneously.
A key improvement in AES was its ability to provide IP support for any protocol, and any device with IP support. This also enabled communications for SCADA, metering and other automation missions simultaneously over the same network.
2003
The First of Many Patents
Delivering novel innovations for industrial data communications.
AUTOSOL was granted its first patent on September 30, 2003 for developing a remote terminal unit (RTU) linked to a SCADA system via its AES a configuration tool. Since then AUTOSOL has developed many more innovative technological capabilities which today are protected by more than 20 US patents, with more patents pending.
2011
Growing Internationally
Expanding AUTOSOL’s footprint across all of North America.
AUTOSOL opens a new office in Calgary, Alberta to extend its footprint internationally and better serve the needs of its large customers whose critical infrastructures spread across North America. AUTOSOL Canada still operates out of this same office today, located in the heart of downtown Calgary.
2013
The First Generation of ACM
Leading the way in industrial automation innovation.
After six major update releases to AES, AUTOSOL’s continuous development culminated in the launch of its advanced, next-generation AUTOSOL Communication Manager® (ACM). Built with industry-leading features combined with an expanded protocol list, ACM represented the next big breakthrough in powering SCADA system and industrial automation business efficiencies.
2018
Adding IIoT Efficiencies
Supporting MQTT publish-subscribe data transport.
With discussions on IIoT transformation now in full swing across industrial enterprises, AUTOSOL enhanced its ACM software yet again to include support for MQTT, the leading IIoT messaging protocol. MQTT utilizes a publish-subscribe approach to data acquisition, publishing data only if the value changes rather than at every pre-set polling interval to significantly reduce overhead and bandwidth consumption.
2019
Just the Start of AUTOSOL’s Innovation
Powering data communications for the top industrial leaders today.
AUTOSOL’s core capabilities have become an integral part of the world’s critical infrastructure, providing the communication layer for more than 1,200 systems that communicate with over 500,000 devices performing various automation missions today. But there’s still much more to our story to come.
Focused on solving the next data delivery challenges.
By keeping customers’ needs front and center, AUTOSOL is continuing to help industrial leaders solve evolving communication challenges and capitalize on new data access opportunities. Our past drives us today, and enables us to continually deliver future-ready solutions grounded in a rich history of experience.
Ready to Get Data-Driven?
AUTOSOL’s platform for industrial data communications sets the standard for ultra-reliable access to previously isolated field devices and the insights they hold. Unlock your ability to collect and share mission-critical operational information, and the value of your data for effective decision making.