Leveling Up Ignition: UDTs, UNS, & Scaling Architectures — Jonathan Huddle - Ep. 043

Live from ICC 2025 in Sacramento, we sit down with Jonathan Huddle of Electron Automation—long-time oil & gas practitioner, electrician, and core member of the Ignition Oil & Gas Collective (IOGC).

Jonathan walks through 25+ years in OT/SCADA and the hard-won patterns that actually scale: why UDTs and a clean tag model / unified namespace are non-negotiable, how and when to move from Vision to Perspective for responsive/mobile UX, planning scalable architectures that survive M&A and 10× tag growth, and practical ways to blend MQTT + “cloud” with on-prem realities. We also kick around the current AI/ML/MCP hype cycle and where near-term wins likely show up (alarm management, pipeline recommendations, maintenance).

Recorded live at ICC 2025.

Presented by OpSite Energy — Insight-Driven Remote Optimization.

What you’ll learn:

- Building a durable UDT/tag structure as the foundation for UNS, Perspective, and downstream analytics.

- When & why to standardize on Perspective (and stop shipping new Vision projects)

- Scaling patterns for 0.5M → 1M+ tags, load balancing, and planning for M&A

- Blending MQTT + data center/cloud without breaking operations

- A pragmatic take on AI/ML/MCP in industrial environments (early wins & pitfalls)

- How communities like IOGC accelerate real-world adoption

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00:00 Intro — Live from ICC 2025

00:34 Guest intro: Jonathan Huddle (Electron Automation)

01:31 Early roots: electronics repair → troubleshooting mindset

02:08 25 years in oil & gas automation; host-side SCADA; Ignition journey

03:49 Electrician background & why hardware perspective matters

04:10 Inside the IOGC: origins, purpose, 275+ companies, ~400 members

05:22 ICC 2025 theme “Level Up” — what’s different this year

06:40 The recurring challenge: bad tag structures & why UNS matters

08:59 UDTs as leverage for Perspective & future analytics/AI

10:56 Rapid iteration story: delivering features in hours, not weeks

12:22 Do it at the edge: context where it’s created

13:31 From Vision → Perspective: mobility & responsive by default

15:22 Scaling architectures & planning for growth/M&A

16:46 Load balancing, tag providers, and “infinite” front-end scale

18:58 Quoting & architecture tools; getting to cost quickly

19:08 “Masterclass” mode — cloud data, MQTT, & on-prem reality

20:55 AI/ML/MCP hype: pragmatic adoption and real use cases

22:39 Ignition updates (file-based tags, new modules) & impact

24:15 Where MCP may land first: alarms, pipeline recs, maintenance

25:50 Takeaways from ICC 2025 & staying energized by the community

26:30 Wrap-up & subscribe

Uygar Duzgun “Fast Life” courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com