Mirasoft is the creator of the cloud service AnyViz. After 10 years of experience in the automation industry, Mirasoft decided in 2016 to simplify the world of automation. Everyone should be able to visualize and analyze machines – without technical expertise, without time-consuming training and without investment costs.
Interview with Thomas Hepp, Co-Founder of Mirasoft.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Thomas Hepp: With AnyViz Cloud, we offer a comprehensive tool for mechanical engineers, building managers, energy producers or in short: for anyone who wants to get insights into their technical assets. With AnyViz, data from many controllers, sensors and meters can be collected and intimately visualized in dashboards or reports with just a few clicks. This also includes functions for data analysis, remote control and condition monitoring.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
T.H: AnyViz is constantly being developed to support new devices, to make work easier or to cover new use cases. Our most recent developments have been in the area of “remote access”. After our integrated VPN service is very popular, we have developed more features like that: Some systems already have a locally accessible web interface or a control panel that provides VNC access. We can make these existing HMIs accessible in a secure way by embedding them in the AnyViz Cloud. Since December, we have also been able to embed IP cameras, which can be controlled remotely. This shows that we are not just limited to operational data. All information around a machine should be centrally monitorable via AnyViz.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
T.H: We see AnyViz as a one fits all solution. This is also evident in the diversity of our customers, which are not only machine builders and manufacturing companies. We also have customers in building management, agriculture or maritime sectors. AnyViz can be used for monitoring the chicken coop as well as for global energy management.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
T.H: We are in a fairly young market that is in transition. The transition from marketing promises to reliable solutions. Many large companies wanted to be part of it from the beginning and made big promises. But now customers want to have solutions that work, and some market players are losing relevance.
It should be noted that we are in a market with high demands in terms of reliability, stability, security and usability. Engineers do not accept when a cloud solution is unavailable for several hours or the setup is too time-consuming. We can observe that some customers of large providers switch to us for these reasons.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
T.H: We see a trend to open eco systems that enable easy integration of automation technologies. This is a trend we are happy to follow, as we also see ourselves as a technology-open no-code platform. That is why we are involved in all emerging eco systems, such as Phoenix PLCnext, ctrlX World or FLECS, right from the beginning. It will be easier for users to integrate our cloud solution and also to connect different technologies with each other.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
T.H: The most innovative products are those that provide smart solutions for complex problems. We did everything to make AnyViz the best product in class.
E.E: What estimations do you have for the rest of 2022?
T.H: Together with national and international partners, we will demonstrate that AnyViz brings great value to many industries. Through smart data analysis we will make processes transparent and help to optimize them. Finally, we will play an important role in increasing energy efficiency in many sectors.