Rockwell’s Automation Fair is always a firehose of announcements. Shiny demos, partnership announcements, and enough buzzwords to fill a bingo card. But behind the marketing, there are usually a few genuinely useful developments.

Here’s my take on what’s actually relevant for mid-size Australian manufacturers.

The FactoryTalk Hub announcements

Rockwell’s been pushing their cloud-based FactoryTalk Hub platform, and this year saw meaningful expansion of its capabilities.

What was announced

Expanded analytics: More pre-built analytics applications, particularly for predictive maintenance and quality analysis. These are designed to work out-of-the-box with Rockwell equipment.

Edge integration improvements: Better tools for connecting older Rockwell equipment to the cloud platform, addressing the “brown field” challenge most manufacturers face.

AI-assisted engineering: Tools that use AI to accelerate PLC programming and troubleshooting, similar to what Siemens has been doing with their copilot offerings.

What’s actually useful

The edge integration story is the most practically relevant. Most Australian manufacturers aren’t building greenfield facilities—they’re trying to get value from equipment they’ve had for years or decades.

If you’re running older Allen-Bradley PLCs and want to connect them to modern analytics without replacing hardware, the new edge connectors are worth investigating. Several clients have quoted the old approach at $50-100k per line; the new tools promise to cut that significantly.

The AI-assisted engineering is interesting but early. If you have skilled Rockwell programmers, it might speed them up. If you don’t have those skills internally, it won’t magically create them.

Caveat

As always with platform announcements, there’s a distance between “announced” and “available and working.” Get specific release dates and pricing before planning around these capabilities.

Cybersecurity focus

Security was a major theme, reflecting broader industry concerns about OT security.

What was announced

Integrated security monitoring: Built-in anomaly detection for industrial networks that doesn’t require third-party security tools.

Secure-by-design updates: New firmware versions with improved security defaults and easier patching processes.

Zero Trust architecture support: Tools for implementing network segmentation and least-privilege access in industrial environments.

What’s actually useful

With SOCI Act requirements expanding (as I wrote about recently), security is no longer optional for many Australian manufacturers. Rockwell making security easier within their ecosystem is genuinely helpful.

The integrated monitoring is potentially valuable—third-party OT security tools often struggle with industrial protocols. Native monitoring from the automation vendor should work better, at least for Rockwell networks.

The practical question is cost. Security features sometimes come at premium pricing. Make sure you understand what’s included in standard licensing versus additional cost.

Workforce and training updates

Rockwell’s putting significant emphasis on tools to address the skills gap.

What was announced

AR/VR training integration: Better support for augmented and virtual reality in training applications, connected to digital twins of equipment.

Skill assessment tools: Platforms for identifying skill gaps and tracking training progress across organisations.

Simplified programming interfaces: Lower barrier to entry for basic automation programming, aimed at upskilling existing workers rather than requiring specialist hires.

What’s actually useful

The simplified programming interfaces are the most practically relevant. If you can enable your existing maintenance or operations staff to do basic PLC modifications safely, you reduce dependence on contractors and improve responsiveness.

I’m more sceptical of AR/VR training for most mid-size manufacturers. The technology works, but creating effective content requires investment that often exceeds the benefit unless you have high training throughput.

Partnership announcements

Rockwell announced expanded partnerships with various companies. The ones worth noting:

NVIDIA: Deeper integration of AI capabilities, particularly for computer vision applications. This is about making it easier to deploy vision-based quality inspection on Rockwell platforms.

Microsoft: Continued Azure integration for cloud analytics and enterprise system connectivity.

PTC: Ongoing digital twin and augmented reality collaboration.

These partnerships matter because they affect what’s available in the Rockwell ecosystem and how integrated those capabilities will be. If you’re evaluating vision systems, for example, knowing that Rockwell is working with NVIDIA to provide easier integration paths is useful context.

What wasn’t announced (that matters)

Trade shows are about what’s announced. But sometimes what’s not there is equally telling.

Pricing pressure relief: No indication that Rockwell’s premium pricing is changing. Australian manufacturers often pay significantly more than US counterparts for the same hardware. That gap remains.

Simplified licensing: Rockwell’s software licensing model is notoriously complex. Despite customer feedback, no meaningful simplification was announced.

Regional support improvements: For Australian users, support responsiveness and local expertise remain concerns that weren’t really addressed.

Should you care?

It depends on your situation:

If you’re heavily invested in Rockwell: Yes, worth understanding the product roadmap. The FactoryTalk Hub developments particularly may affect your analytics strategy.

If you’re evaluating platforms: Rockwell is one option among several (Siemens, ABB, Schneider, etc.). These announcements don’t fundamentally change the competitive landscape—each vendor has similar capabilities at broadly similar maturity levels.

If you’re not using Rockwell: There’s nothing here that should make you switch. But if you’re evaluating future platforms, Rockwell’s direction (cloud-centric, AI-integrated, security-focused) reflects where the industry is going broadly.

The Australian context

Some specific considerations for local manufacturers:

Cloud capabilities: Rockwell’s cloud services operate from Australian data centres (Sydney, I believe), which matters for data sovereignty concerns and latency.

Local integrator ecosystem: Australia has a decent pool of Rockwell integrators, though quality varies. Major announcements usually take 6-12 months to translate into local implementation capability.

Pricing: As mentioned, we pay a premium. That’s not changing. Factor it into your ROI calculations.

Support: For complex issues, escalation often means working with US-based resources in unfriendly time zones. This is a reality of the Rockwell ecosystem that announcements don’t change.

Bottom line

Automation Fair announcements are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Rockwell is continuing to develop its cloud analytics platform, adding security capabilities, and investing in tools to address workforce challenges.

If you’re in the Rockwell ecosystem, track these developments and plan for what’s coming. If you’re evaluating platforms, consider this alongside similar offerings from competitors.

And as always, don’t make decisions based on trade show announcements. Wait until capabilities are shipping, get hands-on evaluation, and talk to reference customers who’ve implemented what you’re considering.

The technology direction is clear. The execution and practical value in your specific situation—that still requires due diligence.