Summary Dylan DuFresne and Zack Scriven go tool-by-tool through the five platforms that run most serious industrial stacks — Ignition, Flow Software, Litmus Edge, HighByte, and Fuuz — and answer the question every IT/OT team is asking: when do I use which, and why. This is Episode 2 of the Prove It series on Abelara Ascent, building toward the live reference architecture at the Prove It conference.

About the Speakers Dylan DuFresne leads architecture and digital transformation engagements at Abelara. Zack Scriven hosts Abelara's podcast and livestream content. Both are preparing Abelara's Prove It booth — a full Enterprise B reference architecture running locally on-site at the conference.

Key Topics

• The "motor overheating" problem that explains what data ops actually is
• Each platform's native home turf — composable SCADA, analytics, edge, integration, cloud-native MES
• HighByte vs Flow: data in motion vs data at rest
• The Prove It Enterprise B architecture — 3 sites, 5 platforms, different combinations per site
• Fuuz security: single outbound tunnel, no third-party surface
• Rapid-fire: when NOT to use each platform
• Pricing reality across all five vendors
• SESME / SMIPS: the interoperability initiative for shared data models

Key Takeaways

1. Start with a problem, not a technology. Every digital transformation that skips this tends to fail.
2. Data in motion → HighByte. Data at rest → Flow. Device connectivity at scale → Litmus. Plant-floor visibility → Ignition. Cloud-native enterprise backbone → Fuuz.
3. For small companies without process maturity, a clipboard and Excel beat any of these tools. People, process, technology — in that order.

Notable Quotes

"HighByte is for data in motion and Flow is best for data at rest." — Dylan DuFresne

"For the really small companies, a good process is way more important than the tools you're using." — Dylan DuFresne

"It's people, process, and technology in that order for a reason." — Dylan DuFresne

Timestamps

• [00:00] — Welcome + Prove It series recap
• [04:44] — The five platforms and their native homes
• [15:01] — Why more platforms doesn't mean more data models
• [18:35] — HighByte vs Flow: data in motion vs at rest
• [23:19] — The Prove It Enterprise B architecture walkthrough
• [28:26] — Fuuz security: the single outbound tunnel
• [37:24] — Rapid fire: when NOT to use each platform
• [44:23] — Pricing reality check
• [48:54] — SESME / SMIPS and the interoperability vision