The classic economic definition of the total cost of ownership (TCO) is the purchase price of an asset plus its operating costs over the asset’s lifespan. While this may be relatively easy to calculate for hard goods like a piece of machinery, the cost factors for soft goods, such as SCADA software, are more complicated to ascertain due to their wide range of features and licensing models.

Control talked with Barry Baker, vice president of Trihedral Engineering Limited, to gain some insights from his more than 30 years of SCADA systems experience in many diverse industries.