Collaborative PLC merging, native VS Code integration, live PLC values, IDE session recordings and a desktop local client extend SDA's Industrial DevOps platform
Boston, July 2026: Software Defined Automation Inc. (SDA), the Industrial DevOps platform for automation engineers, has introduced five new platform capabilities in Beta at Automate 2026 in Chicago. The additions strengthen collaborative engineering, native development, operational visibility and security across multi-vendor automation environments.
"Automation engineers have been working with tools that stopped evolving twenty years ago," said Josef Waltl, Founder and CEO of Software Defined Automation. "Every one of these features exists because a customer told us where the friction was. We are bringing the practices that transformed software engineering to the factory floor, without asking anyone to replace the hardware they already run."
SDA is already in use at manufacturers including Henkel and SEW-EURODRIVE.
+ Collaborative Project Merging: SDA now supports branch merging for PLC projects, currently for Siemens TIA Portal. Where version control systems like Git were never designed for automation file formats, SDA lets teams work on separate branches and bring their changes back together through a visual diff viewer. Engineers review every changed element, choose which version to keep, and generate a clean merged version. The capability is aimed at machine builders and engineering teams working collaboratively on the same project.
+ Native Visual Studio Code Integration Building: on its IDE-as-a-Service capability, SDA now integrates Visual Studio Code natively in the browser for PLC files. Engineers open a file directly in a native VS Code environment, without a framed Windows application or local installation. Because it runs full VS Code, engineers can use its ecosystem of extensions, including AI-assisted code generation. An SDA extension synchronizes work back to the platform.
+ Live PLC Values (Private Preview): SDA is extending beyond source code management into live operational data. A new capability brings PLC tag data directly into the platform, alongside the source code and version history SDA already manages. Engineers view live values from controllers, group and switch between tags, and move between live and historical data. The capability is available in private preview to a select group of customers.
+ IDEaaS Session Recordings: SDA now records IDE sessions natively across the platform. Sessions performed by internal engineers and external service providers can be captured and made available for full replay with duration details and playback controls. Recordings can be filtered by user and by vendor. The capability supports OT security governance and the audit requirements introduced by regulations such as NIS 2.
+ SDA Local Client: A new desktop client brings check-in, check-out and synchronization directly to the engineering workstation, with offline access to the latest project versions. When a project is checked out, it locks automatically, preventing multiple engineers from editing the same version simultaneously. Files open in the native engineering tool, and checked-in changes sync back to the SDA console automatically.
Together, the five capabilities - currently available in beta - reflect SDA's approach: bring the discipline of modern software engineering to industrial automation, across every vendor, without disrupting the controllers already in production.