Manufacturing Hub · 2026-05-14 · 1h 11m
Inductive Automation cofounders Colby Clegg and Carl Gould go deep on the origins of Ignition, the road to 8.3, and what AI means for industrial automation. Vlad and Dave host Colby Clegg, CEO, and Carl Gould, CTO, of Inductive Automation together for the first time to trace the full arc of the company. The story begins in 2003, when Sacramento systems integrator Steve Heckman brought Colby and Carl in to build the missing glue layer between OT data and modern IT tooling. What began as logging values into SQL databases became Factory PMI and eventually Ignition. A key thread is why Ignition broke through when larger automation vendors had superior distribution. Colby points to Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma. Incumbents could not match Inductive's unlimited per gateway pricing or partner with integrators because their own services groups competed with them. Carl adds the culture piece. Inductive refused to gate downloads, kept the module SDK open, made education free, and ran a public forum when competitors called it reckless, a posture they once called innovation without permission. Ignition 8.3 takes center stage, arriving after a deliberate five year gap from 8.1.
Ep. 265 - Automate 2026 Survival Guide: Booths, Networking, and a Production Line Demo #scada #mes50 / 100Ep. 264 - Why AI Loves Automation: Siemens on Digital Twins, Guardrails, and OrchestrationEp. 263 - Why Industrial Protocols Win on Business Not Technical Merit, with Horner AutomationEp. 262 - The Human Side of Manufacturing Change: Incentives, Pain Points, and Operator Buy InEp. 261 - Change Management in Manufacturing: Operators, Tribal Knowledge, and the Industrial Elder