The Ignited Podcast

Inductive Automation

Striking the Industrial Automation Conversation

Episodes

  1. 4d ago

    The Foundation Beneath the Foundation — OPC, OPC UA, and Why It All Starts Here

    Before you can understand what makes Ignition powerful, you have to understand the standards it's built on. In this deep-dive fireside chat, Travis and Tom welcome Kevin Herron — one of the architects behind Ignition's OPC UA implementation — to decode the world of OPC and OPC UA from the ground up.   This isn't a marketing conversation. It's a technical one. Kevin walks through what OPC actually is, why OPC UA represented such a fundamental leap forward, and how OPC UA Part 5 and the Companion Specification Architecture give industrial software a shared language for describing data, behavior, and meaning — not just raw values. The conversation explores how Ignition was built with OPC UA at its core, what that means for interoperability, and why it matters whether you're a system integrator trying to simplify a deployment or an end user trying to achieve real digital transformation.   If you've ever heard "OPC UA" thrown around without a clear explanation of what it actually does — this is the episode that fills that gap.   Download a free trial of Ignition at inductiveautomation.com and connect to an OPC UA device or server on your own network — you'll see the data model in action within minutes. Then head to the OPC Foundation's website to explore Companion Specifications for your industry. And tune in for Episode 4, where we go beyond OPC to explore MQTT, Sparkplug B, and the edge compute revolution with two of the people who helped build those standards.

    34 min

  2. May 27

    The Inductive Advantage — Training, Support, and the Community Behind Ignition

    Great software only creates value when people know how to use it. And in industrial automation, where the stakes include uptime, safety, and production output, the difference between a successful deployment and a frustrating one often comes down to the resources behind the platform — not just the platform itself.   In this episode, Travis and Tom welcome Dave Fogle to explore something that doesn't get talked about enough: the full ecosystem of enablement that Inductive Automation has built around Ignition. From Inductive University — one of the most comprehensive free technical training platforms in the industrial software space — to the Ignition community forum, the Ignition Exchange, and world-class support, this conversation is about what it actually takes to empower integrators and end users to do their best work.   Dave brings a practitioner's perspective on how these resources are used in the real world: what new integrators lean on when they're getting started, what experienced engineers reach for when they hit a wall, and how organizations use Inductive University credentials to build team-wide Ignition competency. The conversation is honest about where the learning curve exists and how to navigate it — and genuinely excited about what becomes possible when an organization is fully invested in the Ignition ecosystem.   Tune in for Episode 3, where we go beyond OPC to explore MQTT, Sparkplug B, and the edge compute revolution with two of the people who helped build those standards.   Subscribe to Ignited for upcoming episodes featuring real-world case studies of digital transformations built on Ignition — the stories that show what's possible when great technology meets great enablement. In the next episode we're diving into OPC and OPC UA with a guest who helped build Ignition's standards foundation from the ground up.

    28 min

  3. May 27

    Lighting the Spark — Why Industrial Automation Needs This Conversation

    Every great podcast starts with a question worth answering. For Travis Cox and Tom Burke, that question is simple: why does industrial automation need this conversation, right now?   In this inaugural episode, your hosts set the stage for everything Ignited is about. Travis and Tom share why they felt compelled to launch the show — the inflection point the industry is at, the gap between what's possible with Ignition and open standards and what most organizations are actually doing, and the role thought leadership plays in closing that gap. They walk through who the show is for, what kinds of guests and topics are coming, and why they're committed to going deeper than the surface-level content the industry already has.   This is a fireside chat — no guests, no slides, just two people who have spent their careers in this space being honest about where it's been, where it's going, and why they believe the next few years will define industrial automation for a generation.   Subscribe to Ignited on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube so you never miss an episode. And if this conversation resonates with you, share it with a colleague who's on the front lines of industrial automation — the more voices in this conversation, the better. Episode 2 is already queued up: we're diving into OPC and OPC UA with a guest who helped build Ignition's standards foundation from the ground up.

    13 min
  • 3 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Striking the Industrial Automation Conversation

Information

  • Creator
    Inductive Automation
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Ignited Podcast

You Might Also Like