Wastewater Treatment SCADA Upgrade for Critical Utility Operations

High-Availability SCADA Infrastructure Modernization for Wastewater Treatment Facilities

Modernizing SCADA Infrastructure for Continuous Wastewater Treatment Operations

This regional water and sewer authority needed a reliable and resilient infrastructure platform to support the SCADA systems powering its wastewater treatment operations. Because these systems provide real-time monitoring and operational control for critical utility services, the organization required a solution capable of maintaining continuous uptime, supporting secure operational technology (OT) environments, and simplifying long-term infrastructure management.

To support these goals, Data Networks completed a comprehensive wastewater treatment SCADA upgrade that modernized the organization’s virtualization, storage, and network infrastructure while aligning the wastewater treatment plant environment with the architecture already deployed at its water treatment facility. The result was a highly available, standardized SCADA platform designed to improve resiliency, reduce operational risk, and support long-term maintainability.

Addressing Reliability and Security Challenges in a Live SCADA Environment

The organization’s wastewater treatment operations depended on SCADA systems that could not tolerate extended downtime or interruptions. Any disruption to monitoring or control systems had the potential to impact treatment operations, maintenance activities, and regulatory compliance requirements.

At the same time, the wastewater treatment facility operated within a highly secure OT environment utilizing segmented and air-gapped networks. These security controls limited the ability to perform traditional infrastructure discovery and required a deployment approach based on validated architectural standards already trusted within the organization.

The utility provider also wanted to create operational consistency between treatment facilities. Its water treatment plant already leveraged a resilient Hyper-V-based architecture, and extending that same model to the wastewater treatment plant would simplify support, standardize management practices, and reduce infrastructure complexity across locations.

Because all upgrades needed to occur within an active SCADA environment, the organization also required a staged deployment and migration strategy designed to minimize operational disruption and maintain continuity of wastewater treatment services.

Implementing a Highly Available Hyper-V and Storage Spaces Direct Platform

As part of the wastewater treatment SCADA upgrade, Data Networks deployed a two-node Microsoft Hyper-V failover cluster utilizing Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) on Dell AX-R660 infrastructure. The solution also included a dedicated Dell PowerEdge witness server to support cluster quorum and automated failover capabilities.

To provide resilient network connectivity, Data Networks installed redundant Juniper EX4100 switches supporting SCADA workloads, management traffic, and host connectivity requirements. The solution leveraged redundant 10Gb networking for LAN connectivity and direct-connect 25Gb Storage Spaces Direct networking between cluster nodes to maximize storage performance while maintaining secure, isolated storage communications.

The deployment included:

• Installation and configuration of Windows Server 2025 Server Core
• Hyper-V and failover cluster configuration
• Storage Spaces Direct clustered storage deployment
• Windows Admin Center implementation for centralized management
• Dell OpenManage integration for monitoring and lifecycle management
• VLAN configuration and resilient host networking
• Failover validation and infrastructure health testing
• Controlled migration of up to fifteen SCADA and supporting workloads

Data Networks coordinated closely with operations personnel to execute workload migrations during approved maintenance windows using a phased deployment methodology that minimized operational impact throughout the project lifecycle.

Delivering Long-Term Resiliency and Standardized SCADA Operations

Following completion of the wastewater treatment SCADA upgrade, the organization gained a modernized and highly available infrastructure platform capable of supporting critical wastewater treatment operations with greater resiliency and operational consistency.

The new environment provides automated failover protection, simplified infrastructure management, and a standardized architecture shared across treatment facilities. By modernizing the SCADA platform with resilient virtualization, storage, and networking technologies, Data Networks helped the utility provider strengthen operational continuity and establish a secure, supportable foundation for future growth and lifecycle management.

Tags: SLG, local, government, utilities