Clean water – it’s essential to human health and the health of the planet. Based in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region, one of the world’s largest advanced wastewater treatment facilities provides clean water to nearly a million people, and treats wastewater, returning it to the water cycle, for nearly as many. Radical and rapid technology changes require the water treatment giant to maintain vigilance against potential vulnerabilities in its system. To that end, the utility brought in BlueGranite to build a revolutionary Azure platform that transforms security infrastructure, and furthers advanced analysis, machine learning, and equipment-monitoring capabilities.
BlueGranite worked with the utility to design and implement a custom Azure buildout and a custom web app. The app allows end users to bring additional equipment sensors online, as they become available, into the self-service reporting environment; this allows process engineers to validate that the sensors are configured and functioning correctly before alerting and process controls are triggered.
BlueGranite used a cloud-based, managed IoT Hub service as the conduit between the utility's tens of thousands of equipment sensors and the cloud. The managed Azure service securely scales to millions of connected devices and events per second, allowing the utility to store the vast amounts of data it generates for future exploration. The new infrastructure offers the capability to secure each individual device connected to the network; in the event a device becomes compromised, it also holds the ability to shut down individual components, rather than the whole system.
We created two data load pathways: one feeds “hot” (or live) data into the new platform as it’s generated, while a “cold” path feeds in data from the utility’s legacy system (which is still operational during the transition to new technology). The utility can now see all of its data in one place, without having to go back and forth between systems.
Additional Azure technologies collects and cleanse and store data at scale, enabling real-time analytics on the utility’s equipment network. The platform connects to Power BI for easy, but secure access to dynamic reporting and rich visuals.
BlueGranite also designed a web application that monitors equipment temperatures and sends alerts if equipment reaches critical thresholds. It supervises fluctuations; if something exceeds a specific low or high threshold for a defined time period, it alerts the operator in charge notifying them what sensor is affected, and what the data values are. This enables rapid response, and has potential to save money and equipment. 
