As the industrial controls and SCADA landscape evolves, so does Ignition by Inductive Automation. The upcoming Ignition 8.3 release from Inductive Automation is set to redefine modern industrial automation platforms with major enhancements in performance, connectivity, project version control, and data handling. In this post, we break down the key Ignition 8.3 features, from the redesigned Gateway UI and REST API support to the new Power Historian engine, event streams, Perspective improvements, and expanded connectivity options.
One of the most visible changes in Ignition 8.3 is the redesigned Gateway Configuration webpage. The new interface is not just aesthetically improved, but more functional, with an intuitive layout to make configuration tasks faster and easier. A powerful search feature will allow users to quickly locate specific configurations and settings. Additionally, the introduction of REST API support will open up possibilities for automation and integration, providing developers with more control over gateway configuration programmatically.
A major shift in Ignition 8.3 is the transition to storing all project configurations in the filesystem as JSON files, replacing the internal database. This means that every aspect of the project can be tracked and versioned in source control systems like Git, making collaboration and change management significantly more efficient. For many, this change alone is a game-changer, offering enhanced transparency and control over project changes.
The Perspective Module in Ignition 8.3 receives several key upgrades, positioning it as an even more powerful platform for mobile-first applications.
Perhaps one of the most exciting announcements is the introduction of the Power Historian—a new high-performance time-series data collection engine built on QuestDB. This historian is designed for high throughput, capable of handling up to 2 million data points per second under optimal conditions, with minimal configuration. The Power Historian’s performance benefits stem from being tightly integrated with the Ignition Gateway, reducing the overhead of external databases, like the SQL databases many of us currently use.
Although redundancy support isn't expected in the initial release, Power Historian will feature automatic archiving capabilities, and it will support PostgreSQL connections for easy access to historical data. Performance will vary based on the hardware, particularly the storage medium used for data writes, but the historian is designed to be fast, scalable, and simple to deploy.
Ignition 8.3 introduces “deployment modes” that allow users to set different configurations for different environments or purposes. For example, database connections can have separate test and production settings. Switching between these modes requires a Gateway restart, but this greatly reduces the need for manual configuration changes when moving from testing to production. This feature could help prevent mistakes when moving between test and production and streamline the deployment process.
The new Event Streams feature provides a powerful mechanism for piping real-time data to external consumers like HTTP endpoints, Kafka, or event listeners. This opens up new opportunities for integration with other systems and data platforms, facilitating more sophisticated real-time processing workflows. Initially, the event streams will support Kafka and HTTP, with more protocols expected in future updates.
Connectivity has been expanded in Ignition 8.3 with the introduction of a native Siemens S7 driver, making it easier to connect to Siemens PLCs directly without third-party drivers. This further strengthens Ignition’s position as a platform that bridges industrial hardware silos and seamlessly integrates with all manufacturers. In addition, native support for Twilio and WhatsApp integration provides out-of-the-box functionality for sending notifications and alerts.
Security and sensitive information management are getting some attention in Ignition 8.3 with the new secrets management system. This feature allows developers to store sensitive credentials, keys, and information separately from the rest of the project, reducing the risk of exposing sensitive data. This will be a highly used feature for sensitive industries like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
A new alarm aggregation system provides improved alarm statistics and monitoring. This feature creates properties on UDTs and folders that summarize the alarm statistics within that UDT or folder. This will allow users to reference summarized alarm properties for devices, enabling more comprehensive and centralized alarm management. Engineers can now track and analyze alarms more effectively within their projects.
In Ignition 8.3, Gateway backups have become more versatile. Users can now select specific components to include in their backups, making it easier to tailor backups for different use cases and to reduce the size of backup files. These new backups will have a different file type to avoid confusion with entire gateway backups, which will still remain.
Launching Ignition clients is faster and easier than ever, thanks to the Quick Launch feature, which allows clients to be launched directly from the Gateway page. There was also some discussion about containerization support, including mentions of Helm charts and Kubernetes, although further details are expected in later updates.
Faster and more intuitive Gateway configuration UI
Built-in versioning and easier collaboration via Git
More powerful historian for high-volume time-series data
Offline mode and forms tools for mobile/field use
Expanded connectivity (S7 driver, event streams)
Better backup, deployment, and credential management
Ignition 8.3 represents a substantial upgrade in both functionality and user experience. From high-performance data logging with the Power Historian to improved project version control, simplified deployments, and expanded connectivity, this release promises to empower engineers and developers like never before. The Perspective module sees perhaps its biggest improvements since its initial launch with native drawing tools, offline mode, and forms. With a public beta slated for December 2024 and a full release in mid-January 2025, we’re excited to start deploying the new version to our clients and taking advantage of all the new features. And for those with active support plans, the upgrade to Ignition 8.3 will be free.
Ignition 8.3 is the next major release of Inductive Automation’s SCADA/IIoT platform, introducing updates to the Gateway UI, REST API, project file structure, version control, historian performance, and overall system architecture. The release focuses on scalability, modernization, and developer-friendly workflows.
Key enhancements include a redesigned Gateway webpage, improved REST API support, JSON-based project files for Git source control, Perspective drawing/form updates, offline mobile support, the new Power Historian engine, event streams, Siemens S7 driver support, and expanded alarm and credential management.
Ignition 8.3 shifts project storage to JSON files, enabling easier change tracking, merging, and Git compatibility. This aligns Ignition with modern DevOps practices and simplifies teamwork across development, testing, and production environments.
Should I upgrade to Ignition 8.3 when it becomes available?
Most users will benefit from the improved performance, better collaboration workflows, updated historian, expanded connectivity, and enhanced UI. However, mission-critical systems should test upgrades in a development environment before deploying to production.
As Ignition 8.3 moves closer to release, now is the perfect time to evaluate how these new features can improve your workflows, system performance, and long-term maintainability. If you’d like help planning your upgrade path or exploring what these enhancements mean for your facility, our integration team is here to support you.
Contact us to start the conversation.
About the Author
Jason Barry is a Senior Controls Engineer for Hallam-ICS. He has spent his career working on process automation systems in a variety of industries including Semiconductor, Chemical, Food and Beverage, Oil and Gas, and Toxic Gas Monitoring. His area of expertise includes Rockwell PLCs, multiple SCADA software, and SQL databases.
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About Hallam-ICS
Hallam-ICS is an engineering and automation company that designs MEP systems for facilities and plants, engineers control and automation solutions, and ensures safety and regulatory compliance through arc flash studies, commissioning, and validation. Our offices are located in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont and North Carolina and Texas and our projects take us world-wide.