The fact is that regulations and standards are now requesting that inspection data is to be recorded and traceable. This means that inspectors of nuclear plants, airplanes, refineries, and aerospace equipment need a strategic plan to store the data. Many factors should be considered to choose the right solution.
We were interested to get a deeper understanding of companies’ criteria. And this is a portion of what we discovered.
We have asked 150 businesses in the NDT market what is their current data storage solution? They gave us the following answers:
NDT Market - Current Data Storage Solution
NDT Market - Near Future Data Storage Solution
* See definitions at the end.
We know that ‘’public clouds’’ are recognized as a secure solution. For example, people are confident enough to manage their money through a public cloud offered by their bank. But for the NDT business, the research as shown that the inspection data is, in many cases, regulated and cannot be stored on just any type of server.
Therefore, many NDT business managers told us that they cannot choose a solution targeting a unique type of destination. Even if a public cloud solution is the most popular type of server, it does not cover all needs or requirements. The solution managers are looking for needs to be more flexible.
We find that NDT businesses have to ask themselves a few questions to determine the appropriate solution.
NDT Data Storage Solution: Private Local Server vs. Private Cloud vs. Public Cloud
There is a tendency for manufacturers to offer their own cloud solution for storage. This is a wise move because they can sell a complete solution to their customer; but there is a catch, not all proprietary clouds are flexible. For instance, the Olympus Scientific Cloud (OSC) does not allow data coming from another manufacturer. Which means your inspection data will be fragmented into different storage solutions for each type of equipment you are using.
Can you imagine how complicated it could get to manage files if you have to record PU, UT, ET, and RT data on different cloud types depending on the manufacturers’ test equipment.
After our dozens of interviews, we have come to these conclusions:
- Select a data storage solution that matches your inspection requirements (in terms of privacy).
- Select a solution that will not limit your company to the usage of one inspection technique or one instrument manufacturer.
The benefits of automating your data storage are:
- Get your data backed up automatically.
- Streamline your process and get a better collaboration between the field and the office.
- In some cases: GPS location of each file created or drastically reducing the time spent managing files.
Hope this article has been useful to you.
*Private Cloud
The data is saved on a server owned by the inspection company. This also means that the inspection company will have to manage the infrastructure (server, hard disk, backup, maintenance, upgrade over time, and manage the security).
*Public Cloud
The data is saved on a server not owned by the inspection company. Infrastructure is managed by a third party (server, hard disk, backup, maintenance, upgrade over time, and manage the security).
*Local Server
The data is saved on a server owned by the inspection company. There is no remote access (except through a VPN access). This also means that the inspection company will have to manage the infrastructure (server, hard disk, backup, maintenance, upgrade over time, and manage the security).
