From Telemetry to Decisions: How zdSCADA Redefines SCADA for the Modern Oilfield

Every minute matters in the oilfield. When a compressor trips or a flare spikes, waiting for the next polling cycle costs production. Legacy SCADA with on-prem servers, VPNs, expensive upgrades, high IT overhead, and limited mobile access, was built for a different era. It slowed operators down and created costly gaps between the field and the office.

zdSCADA is built for this era — cloud-first, designed for energy, and secure by default. It delivers real-time monitoring, control, and analysis so teams spend less time maintaining systems and more time running their business.

What SCADA Really Does

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) is the backbone of oil and gas — tracking production, controlling equipment in the field, and capturing the data that drives business decisions. It serves four essential functions giving operators the visibility and control to act faster and smarter.

1. Collect: Data from 20+ RTU protocols, site-to-site VPNs, cellular gateways, or MQTT.
2. Monitor: Dashboards, interactive maps, and alarms via SMS, push, or voice.
3. Analyze: Reports and charts that transform raw information into insight.
4. Control: Remote actions like opening valves, starting pumps, or tuning artificial lift.

How SCADA Works: Polling vs Edge

Most SCADA platforms rely on polling — the SCADA system requests data from the field RTUs every few minutes. It’s reliable, but inherently delayed.

Edge architecture changes the model. MQTT-enabled devices stream encrypted data in real time over the public internet (MQTT.org), ensuring operators know the moment something happens instead of waiting for the next poll.

Operator benefits include:

• Stream in near real time: No polling delays; operators see events within seconds, keeping dashboards timely and actionable.
• Never lose visibility: Built-in logging backfills data after outages, so history stays intact.
• Future-ready: zdSCADA supports polling today while enabling operators to modernize with edge at their own pace.

Why Operators Choose zdSCADA

Unlike traditional SCADA locked to on-prem servers, dedicated administrators, heavy IT overhead, limited web portals, third-party onboarding, poor mobile access, and costly upgrades, zdSCADA was built for today’s energy environment — where lean teams, real-time awareness, and validated data matter most. It combines the reliability of a proven SCADA system with the flexibility of the cloud to deliver measurable outcomes.

• Scale without IT sprawl: Cloud-first design, usage-based pricing, and continuous updates eliminate servers, painful upgrades, and third-party IT dependencies.
• Act sooner: MQTT-enabled devices and advanced alarming provide real-time awareness without waiting for polling cycles. Configurable thresholds, formulas, and escalation groups ensure the right people are alerted instantly, on desktop or mobile.
• Visualize your operations: Build dashboards once and deploy everywhere, with an extensive widget library, portable layouts, and mobile-first design optimized across desktop, tablet, iOS, and Android.
• Integrate without limits: Connect counterparty SCADA, rental equipment, BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, Spotfire), production accounting (On Demand Production Operations), and measurement tools (FLOWCAL), and production analytics/AI tools.
• Keep control secure: Fine-grained role-based access ensures each stakeholder — from field crews to interest owners — has exactly the permissions they need, and nothing more.

zdSCADA isn’t theory, it’s proven in the field serving over 400 customers, monitoring over 40,00 devices, and processing 100 million readings daily.

At the heart of this success are four guiding principles:

1. Simple to use: intuitive navigation, minimal training, fast load times.
2. Constantly evolving: continuous investment, customer-shaped roadmap, all software built in-house.
3. First-class support: direct access to oil & gas SCADA experts, rapid onboarding, 24x7 responsive help.
4. Reliable & secure: enterprise-grade security, proven uptime, and rigorous SOC 2 audits.

zdSCADA Across the Oil & Gas Value Chain

 

Upstream Operations: From Wellsite Data to Faster Decisions

zdSCADA brings real-time visibility to the wellsite. Operators can monitor rod pump controllers, flare meters, and lift applications (plunger, ESP, rod, gas lift) on intuitive dashboards.

As part of Quorum’s Upstream On Demand suite, zdSCADA connects directly with On Demand Production Operations, ensuring volumes flow seamlessly into accounting and reporting workflows. The result: faster field decisions and fewer delays between operations and finance.

 

Midstream Measurement: From Compliance Burden to Connected Assurance

For pipelines and facilities, zdSCADA extends control beyond the wellhead. Flow maps and system balance dashboards provide network-wide visibility, while detailed compliance tools keep allocations accurate:

• AGA data: Enough detail to reconstruct full volume calculations (CFX exports to FLOWCAL).
• Hourly archives: Meter data (DP, SP, MCF, MMBtu) plus alarms and flow time, kept indefinitely once ingested into zdSCADA.
• Meter configuration: Manage constants like orifice size, gas composition, gravity, and pressure base.
• Event logs: Historical records of meter changes, calibration events, and power cycles.

Through direct integration with FLOWCAL, zdSCADA validates and reconciles meter data to meet strict compliance standards — delivering accurate, connected, and auditable data across the value chain.

 

The Future of SCADA: Smarter, Faster, More Sustainable

The oil and gas industry is under pressure to operate leaner, safer, and more sustainably. Legacy SCADA was never designed for this environment.

zdSCADA is already delivering real-time awareness, validated data, and seamless cloud access. Looking forward, industry trends like AI-driven anomaly detection, predictive alerts, and ESG reporting will reshape SCADA even further — enabling operators to work smarter, not just harder.

Connect SCADA Data to Business Outcomes

zdSCADA represents the best of both worlds: deep oilfield expertise paired with modern cloud technology. It’s simple yet powerful, proven yet evolving — a platform that turns telemetry into insight, and insight into action.

Discover how zdSCADA can connect your field to your business. Watch the recent webinar to see zdSCADA in action or schedule a demo today.