Case Study: Rockwell Automation achieves up to 90% cost reductions and real-time actionable insights with Microsoft Power BI

Industrial Automation Firm Cuts Costs up to 90 Percent with Big Data Solutions

Rockwell Automation, a global industrial automation firm, faced rapidly growing data volumes and complex integration needs after outgrowing its on‑premises data capacity. To gain a single, holistic view across on‑premises and cloud systems and to deliver faster, more innovative analytics for customers in oil, gas and manufacturing, Rockwell turned to Microsoft Power BI and a suite of Microsoft Azure technologies (HDInsight, Data Factory, Machine Learning, Azure SQL Database, Blob Storage) to manage, analyze, and visualize big data.

Using Microsoft Power BI alongside Azure HDInsight, Azure Data Factory and Azure Machine Learning, Rockwell implemented end‑to‑end data pipelines, automated Hadoop orchestration, predictive analytics, and interactive dashboards for field workers. The Microsoft Power BI/Azure solution cut development time by 80% (Hadoop integration deployed in two weeks vs. 10), delivered full pipeline visibility, reduced maintenance/support costs by up to 90%, and produced a proof‑of‑concept 1% energy efficiency gain with potential multi‑million dollar annual savings for large systems.

Rockwell Automation

Doug Weber

Business Manager, Remote Application Monitoring