SCADA vs. Blockbax: Why the difference matters

Best practices in asset management and operations

In critical industrial sectors like energy, water, and infrastructure, effective asset management is key to ensuring uptime, reliability, and performance. Best-in-class asset management is increasingly data-driven, relying on:

• Real-time monitoring to detect anomalies before they escalate.
• Centralized visibility across dispersed systems and locations.
• Smart alerting and thresholds tailored to context.
• Workflow integration with IT and maintenance tools.
• Scalable data use for reporting, KPIs, and SLA monitoring.

SCADA systems are the backbone of many sectors with critical assets - built to monitor and control. But today’s complex asset environment demands more. Organizations need deeper insights and greater flexibility than traditional SCADA systems can deliver on their own.

What is a SCADA system?

SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. It refers to a combination of software and hardware used by industrial organizations to:

• Operate and manage industrial processes, either on-site or remotely
• Interact directly with equipment like sensors, pumps, motors, and valves through HMI (Human-Machine Interface)
• Monitor, gather, and process live data
• Log operational events for traceability

SCADA systems play a vital role in industrial environments. They help improve operational efficiency, enable better-informed decision-making through data insights, and identify issues early to reduce downtime. SCADA is commonly used to oversee parameters such as temperature, pressure, flow, and fluid levels. Additionally, it supports automation, which enhances safety, reduces manual labor, and drives overall productivity.

What is the difference between SCADA and Blockbax?

A SCADA system is asset-centric, built to control, monitor, and automate physical equipment with a strong focus on safe and stable machine operation in real time.

Blockbax is both asset- and operations-centric. It streams data at high speed to enable real-time insight generation, smart alerts, workflows, and decision support - all designed to empower the people managing those assets.

This difference reflects their core roles:

• SCADA ensures the machines run safely and reliably.
• Blockbax ensures people can understand what’s happening, respond quickly, and optimize operations using the data from those machines.

Blockbax acts as a real-time intelligence layer bridging the gap between raw telemetry and meaningful operational action.

Blockbax on top of SCADA

Blockbax doesn’t replace SCADA. It enhances it. SCADA handles real-time process control, alarms, and local data acquisition. Blockbax acts as a real-time intelligence layer that:

• Ingests data from SCADA systems (via gateways and APIs).
• Applies advanced, no-code logic for alerting and monitoring.
• Connects to external systems like Maintenance Management Systems (MMS such as Ultimo, or Maximo), IT Service Management (e.g. ServiceNow, Jira Service Management), and BI tools.
• Provides dashboards and workflows across teams.
• Supports historical trend analysis, SLA tracking, and predictive patterns.

Scenario 1: Single SCADA system

A city like Rotterdam , uses one SCADA system to monitor its pumping stations.

• SCADA provides local pump control and alarms.
• Blockbax ingests pump data, applies smart thresholds, and alerts only on actionable patterns.
• Sends tickets to service systems, e.g. Ultimo, Service Now, or notifications to service desks.
• Adds trend analysis and comparative dashboards.

Value: Reduced alert noise, better coordination, preventive insights.

Scenario 2: Multiple SCADA systems

A regional electricity producer has multiple SCADA systems (e.g. energy supplier Eneco has +30 SCADAs) across locations.

• Data is siloed (vendor-locked), hard to compare or analyze.
• Blockbax brings data from different systems together into one single platform.
• Enables centralized dashboards, cross-site KPIs, SLA reports.
• Supports asset-centric rules across all locations.

Value: Unified insight layer, cross-system analytics, streamlined operations and maintenance.

SCADA + Blockbax: a complementary foundation for operational excellence

While SCADA systems remain essential for real-time asset control and monitoring, the value significantly amplified when paired with a platform like Blockbax.

From energy grids to water networks and smart infrastructure, SCADA is inherently asset-centric, designed to keep assets running safely and efficiently. Blockbax is operations- and workflow-centric, built to turn raw data into actionable insights that drive smarter decisions, faster responses, and more effective operations.

By layering Blockbax on top of one or more SCADA systems, organizations can bridge the gap between data collection and operational intelligence, without disrupting core infrastructure. The result is a more agile, informed, and empowered operations team, ready to respond, adapt, and improve continuously.

SCADA handles control over assets, Blockbax powers people to make smarter decisions, saving time, effort, and resources. Together, they unlock operational excellence.