Alewijnse implements new control concept for offshore installations

Control systems aboard dredgers and offshore installations face an unusually harsh operating environment — continuous exposure to vibrations and salt air accelerates hardware degradation, forcing complete PC infrastructure replacements roughly every five years. For a modern fleet operator, this cycle is far more disruptive than a simple hardware swap: evolving operating systems require parallel software upgrades across dozens of interconnected systems simultaneously. Each replacement cycle consumed significant crew downtime, specialized IT resources, and capital expenditure. Alewijnse's dredging customer needed a way to simplify and compress this maintenance burden without compromising the reliability demanded by critical dredge control, draft-loading, and suction tube systems.

Alewijnse Marine, drawing on a partnership with Rockwell Automation dating to 1997, developed the AlViVi (Alewijnse Virtualization & Visualization) platform in collaboration with one of the world's largest dredging companies. The architecture centralizes all vessel process applications — Draft and Loading Systems, Suction Tube Systems, and the overarching Dredge Control System — onto a fault-tolerant virtual server where every component is duplicated for continuous availability. Rockwell Automation's ThinManager® Content Delivery Software manages access and session routing, while VersaView® thin clients replace traditional PCs at each workstation, connecting point-to-point via Ethernet. A hardware-independent configuration template means the entire server environment can be cloned to a new ship in minutes. Sonar and radar signals, which cannot be virtualized, are handled separately via ThinManager-distributed streaming video.

The most immediate measurable outcome is a 75% reduction in onboard hardware and cabling, shrinking what was previously multiple 19-inch server racks on the bridge down to a single half-rack cabinet. Beyond the footprint reduction:

• Faster hardware recovery: replacing a failed VersaView zero client takes minutes — the replacement unit automatically downloads its firmware and rejoins the network without manual reconfiguration
• Software longevity: decoupling applications from physical hardware means operating systems and user software no longer need to be updated on each hardware replacement cycle
• Rapid redeployment: the hardware-independent server template can be fully copied to a new vessel in an emergency, forming the foundation for future digital-twin simulation capabilities

The system has been successfully deployed across multiple ships in the customer's fleet.

• Virtualization pays off most in high-churn hardware environments — marine and offshore settings, where physical degradation is accelerated, see disproportionate ROI from centralized architectures.
• Decouple software lifecycles from hardware refresh cycles to extend the useful life of control applications and reduce per-replacement complexity.
• Fault tolerance must be built in from the start: duplicating every server component ensures zero-downtime failover for safety-critical vessel systems.
• Hardware-independent configuration templates are essential for multi-vessel fleets — they enable rapid commissioning and consistent configuration across ships.
• Pilot with an engaged customer: Alewijnse's dredging partner stayed involved through proof-of-concept testing, ensuring real-world requirements shaped the final design before fleet-wide rollout.