Building the Open SCADA Revolution: From Tagat to Independence

When I finished my two-year tenure as the lead developer at Tagat, one thought consumed me: why does the electroplating industry remain locked into proprietary SCADA systems? Thousands of coating lines across the globe run on closed-source software, each facility dependent on a single vendor for updates, support, and innovation. That frustration became the fuel for BorisovAI.

I assembled a team with the same hunger for change. Together, we didn’t just talk about an alternative—we built one. Our SCADA system for electroplating is production-ready, battle-tested, and fundamentally different. It runs on open standards, which means manufacturers gain something they’ve never had: independence from vendor lock-in.

The technical challenge was immense. Electroplating requires real-time control of temperature, current density, pH levels, and chemical composition across multiple tanks. One miscalibration cascades into waste and equipment damage. We engineered redundancy into every layer—from sensor input validation to fail-safe switching protocols. The system communicates via standard APIs, integrates with existing PLCs, and logs everything in a transparent database. No black boxes. No mystery bugs that only the vendor understands.

But building the software solved only half the puzzle. The real bottleneck? We needed a manufacturing partner willing to take a risk on open-source SCADA. That’s where the partnership proposal came in. We approached leading electroplating equipment manufacturers with a simple offer: your facility becomes our proof of concept. You get a turnkey system that’s already proven. We get the real-world validation and deployment case study we desperately need.

The economics are compelling. Traditional vendors charge licensing fees and lock customers into service contracts. Our model flips that—the software is free and open. Manufacturers profit through independence, customization freedom, and the knowledge that their investment in process optimization stays their investment, not licensed intellectual property they’ll lose if the vendor goes under.

What we’re proposing isn’t just a technical upgrade; it’s a structural shift. One coating line becomes two. Two become ten. Suddenly, the electroplating industry has options. That’s the revolution we’re building.

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The glass isn’t half-full or half-empty—it’s twice as big as it needs to be. Same with proprietary SCADA: oversized prices for undercapacity innovation. 😄