For years now, cloud services have been increasing in popularity among businesses in many (if not most) industries.
For those unfamiliar with the cloud, it is essentially a suite of remote computing services purchased from a vendor on a subscription basis. Employees in offices anywhere in the world can connect to their employer’s cloud account to access files, send and receive email, analyze sensitive data and store information securely and at a lower cost than previous on-premises systems. That’s because on-prem solutions are difficult to access securely from remote locations, and require a team of employees to maintain the systems and ensure its security 24 hours a day. Removing those barriers and additional costs gives the cloud a clear advantage.
However, not all cloud service providers were created equal. In some cases, lax security from second-rate providers has led to significant issues for a handful of businesses which failed to properly vet their cloud suppliers. In the past, this one issue more than any other has given pause to energy companies in particular, which are looking to adopt new cloud-based technology.
That’s why mCloud has several failsafes in place with its cloud products which make these incidents all but impossible. This means companies in the resource extraction sector can have piece of mind when they work with mCloud, because your security is our top priority.
Today, mCloud’s suite of cloud products provide not only the security the industry requires, but the cost/benefit ratio it desires as well.
What about the safety and integrity of our network?
mCloud is proud to offer a suite of products and services based on cloud technology which are among the safest anywhere. That’s because our products are “one way”, meaning that data only flows from a device in the field to the cloud and never the other way around. That means malicious actors cannot send any control commands to the equipment we monitor through our cloud network. Rather than send operational commands, our systems monitor the performance of equipment and display that information for operators. This allows better decisions to be made in terms of planning maintenance, reducing downtime and cutting emissions.
Furthermore, we have multi-factor authentication, which every API and connection to the system is goes through. And mCloud works with Microsoft Azure, which helps us to ensure there are a number of firewalls in place, providing an additional, surplus layer of protection. All our systems are also frequently tested to look for any attempted attacks.
mCloud is currently undergoing an extensive process to achieve SOC2 certification, through which our products, systems and procedures are all vigorously tested and vetted by an independent third party. This certification confirms world-class levels of cyber security, and validates the integrity of suppliers who achieve it.
ESG applications via the cloud
When it comes to ESG and reducing carbon emissions, much of the improvement mCloud provides comes from better monitoring, energy efficiency, or reducing the need to travel to the field to make repairs. When there’s a shutdown in the oil & gas sector, the hydrocarbon that’s in the plant at the time of the shutdown is flared off for safety reasons. However, if you can avoid this unplanned maintenance, you don’t have that extra burn.
Our fugitive gas solution also provides a significant upgrade over the industry’s best practises. Currently, inspectors show up to a facility every few months and search a site for leaks. This process is time consuming and intermittent, with leaks sometimes happening for months before being found.
mCloud’s ultra-sonic, cloud-connected fugitive gas solution is carried by workers as they move around the facility, automatically sensing leaks in a continuous fashion. This game-changing systems allows leaks to be found and capped exponentially faster.
The value of auditable ESG solutions
Well, we know that roughly 0.1% of all natural gas is lost in production due to leaks. We also know that an average gas plant processes 100 million cubic feet a day. And we know that there are about 500 plants in the US and another 200 in Canada. Now if we can cut that loss by 90%, we’re looking at a reduction of leaks of more than 60,000,000 cubic feet of gas every day in north America alone! That’s 23 billion cubic feet per year kept out of the atmosphere. How would that look on an energy company’s environmental assessment?
Interested in learning more?
To learn more about mCloud’s suite of cloud-based products, contact us to request a demo.
