Industrial automation is currently undergoing a fundamental shift in its technological foundation. For decades, automation platforms were closely tied to proprietary operating systems, specific hardware, and closed architectures. This model worked reliably for a long time – but today it is reaching its limits.
Modern industrial companies are under increasing pressure: production environments must become more flexible and be in accordance with rising cyber security regulations. This means software needs to be updated more frequently. At the same time, requirements for cybersecurity, scalability, and data availability for AI applications are becoming more demanding. The answer is software-defined automation.
Containerization as the foundation of software-defined automation
In many industrial environments, automation applications have traditionally been isolated using virtual machines (VMs). While this model works, it comes with high resource consumption and additional complexity.
Containers are significantly leaner, faster to start, and easier to scale. Most importantly, they enable a much more consistent approach to software deployment. A containerized application behaves identically regardless of whether it is operated at the edge, or in a cloud environment. This consistency is just as critical for software-defined automation as the way automation software is developed, operated, and updated. Instead of tightly coupling applications to specific hardware or operating systems, containerization packages them into standardized, portable runtime environments. Software is therefore decoupled from the underlying infrastructure. While this may sound highly technical, it has enormous strategic implications for industrial operators.
Traditional automation environments have often evolved over many years: different hardware generations, proprietary systems, and complex dependencies between software and infrastructure. As a result, updates become cumbersome, migrations risky, and innovation slow. Containers help address precisely these challenges.
Strategic relevance for industrial operators
Containerized applications run independently of the underlying hardware or specific operating system configurations. This makes deployment significantly easier, more standardized, and more portable. For plant managers this means:
- Faster software updates independent of hardware refresh cycles
- Easier scalability across different locations
- Greater portability between edge, data center, and cloud environments
- Reduced dependence on individual vendors or proprietary platforms
- Having a foundation for automated testing, deployment, and software updates through DevOps and CI/CD, reducing manual effort and deployment risks
This is particularly relevant in industries such as pharmaceuticals, life sciences, energy, and critical infrastructure. Systems in these sectors often remain in operation for many years or even decades, while requirements for flexibility and security continue to increase. Containerization creates the foundation for making automation systems more open and adaptable over the long term.
Open standards are becoming a competitive factor
As containerization gains momentum, the relevance of open standards is growing as well. Technologies and frameworks built around OCI (Open Container Initiative) standards ensure that applications can operate in an interoperable and vendor-independent manner. For site owners, this is far more than an IT issue.
Vendor lock-in is emerging as a strategic risk. Organizations that can only operate software within closed vendor ecosystems lose flexibility over time – whether in innovation initiatives, component replacement, or the integration of new technologies. Open containerized architectures, by contrast, create greater technological sovereignty. Against the backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, growing cybersecurity requirements, and accelerating innovation cycles, this openness is becoming increasingly important.
Edge, IIoT, and cybersecurity require software-defined, containerized architecture
In addition, modern industrial architecture continues to evolve towards edge computing and IIoT. Data is no longer generated solely in centralized environments but is distributed across machines, production assets, and locations.
Containerized platforms are ideally suited to these decentralized architectures. Applications can be distributed, updated, and orchestrated flexibly, regardless of where they are running.
Containerization can also help to improve cybersecurity: Standardized container environments enable more consistent patching processes, clearer isolation of individual applications, and more controllable software life cycles. Security updates can be rolled out more quickly and in a more standardized manner.
Software-defined automation and containerization as key enablers of industrial AI
The importance of this development becomes even more apparent in the context of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs). The value of industrial AI does not arise from the model itself alone, but from the environment in which the model operates. AI requires standardized, accessible, and flexibly integrable data and software environments.
Only open, containerized platform architectures provide the technical framework that enables AI systems to interact reliably with industrial data, processes, and applications. Without standardized software layers, many AI applications remain isolated point solutions. Containerization therefore also becomes the foundation of future industrial AI ecosystems.
The industry is moving – but still slowly
Many industrial companies are already actively exploring containerization and software-defined automation. Demand is growing significantly. At the same time, operational implementation is still at an early stage in many organizations.
This is not surprising. OT environments traditionally evolve more slowly than conventional IT landscapes because stability and availability are top priorities in industrial settings. Nevertheless, the direction is clear: the future of automation will be more open, more software-defined, and more containerized. Containerization is an important accelerator in this transition. And open standards will determine just how interoperable, flexible, and innovation-ready industrial systems will be in the future.
Our zenon software platform can run in containerized environments, supporting exactly the openness and flexibility that industrial companies require today. Read more here (pages 26–28).
