What Is an Industrial Historian? Process Data Storage Explained

What Is an Industrial Historian?

An industrial historian (also called a process historian or data historian) is a specialised time-series database designed to capture, compress, and store large volumes of process data from PLCs, SCADA systems, sensors, and drives. Unlike a relational database (SQL), a historian is optimised for timestamped numerical data — recording thousands of tag values every second with minimal storage footprint.

Why Manufacturers Need a Historian

• Root-cause analysis — replay historical process data to investigate why a batch failed or a machine tripped
• OEE calculation — track availability, performance, and quality metrics over time
• Compliance and audit trails — FDA 21 CFR Part 11, ISO 9001, and GMP require documented process records
• Energy monitoring — track power consumption trends for efficiency projects
• Predictive maintenance — detect degradation patterns before failures occur

Popular Historian Software

• OSIsoft PI — industry standard for large process plants
• Ignition Historian — open, flexible, runs on any Windows/Linux PC
• Wonderware Historian — widely used in Indian manufacturing
• InfluxDB / TimescaleDB — open-source time-series databases for modern IIoT deployments

Historian Server Hardware Requirements

A historian server must run 24/7, handle burst write loads from hundreds of tags, and provide fast read access for trend queries. Recommended specifications:

• Intel Core i5 or i7 processor
• 16–32 GB RAM
• High-speed NVMe SSD (500GB+)
• Fanless industrial design or rack-mount industrial PC
• RAID 1 mirroring for data protection

TSL Automation supplies Avalue industrial servers and Panel PCs suitable for historian deployments — contact us to specify the right hardware for your data archiving requirements.