OPC Foundation and OPC UA are scaling!

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening – wherever you are in the world!

The world is very big, and definitely too big for me to attend all the important events worldwide. That’s why I always plan to attend 1-2 major events in each region of the world to get my personal impression from conversations in direct contact with people on site. At the beginning of September, I was at the IMTS/SPS in Chicago and spent 4 days there at the OPC Foundation booth advising customers and answering questions.

This experience has left me very enthusiastic about OPC UA in North America:

• Quantity: The booth was very busy on the main days and I was constantly involved in discussions, as were my colleagues Mike Clark, Director North America, and Peter Lutz, Director Field Level Communications Initiative.
• Quality: I was delighted with the level of inquiries, as it is no longer a question of explaining OPC UA itself: OPC UA is a very powerful modeling language and once the available data and services are available, a variety of transport paths with built-in security are ready to go. When I tried to remind people in conversations that OPC UA also offers file transfer (since 2013) and REST interfaces (since 2016) in addition to TCP, UDP and MQTT, I have often heard “yes, I know that”. This was great to listen to since unfortunately we haven’t done a great job in promoting those features.
  OPC UA File Transfer Integration in PLC and use cases
  OPC UA REST and OpenAPI Definitions
• To do: OPC UA is an incredibly powerful interface standard, but these options are sometimes also a hurdle for an easy entry into digitalization solutions. It is comparable to a child being given a huge box of Lego bricks with the task of “please build a simple house”. It is certainly easier to start with the pre-packaged Lego set with instructions and only the required bricks being included. The OPC Foundation’s homework is to create a “quick start” guideline which explains “what steps should I take and what do I need to consider in order to achieve my goal”.

Scaling is a key aspect

Various discussions at IMTS/SPS revealed that although an MQTT-based solution had been implemented, this supposedly simpler solution does not scale: Neither in really large projects nor in terms of distribution. That’s why they now want to offer OPC UA in parallel. These conversations reminded me of a huge advantage of OPC UA and inspired me to write about it in this newsletter: OPC UA scales!

• Client/Server and PubSub
  OPC UA was defined in just 3 years from 2003 to 2006 and is still backwards compatible today in 2024. It was launched in 2006 with a pure client/server-based architecture, but the extension with PubSub was created in 2016 and released in 2018. Since then OPC UA can cover even further industry use cases.
• PubSub via UDP and MQTT
  PubSub does not just mean “transporting data via MQTT and brokers” to cloud providers such as Amazon Web Sercvices (aws) and Microsoft, which directly understand “OPC UA over MQTT”. OPC UA PubSub UDP also scales at field level and enables further use cases there, such as standardized horizontal communication between machines which internally use various fieldbus ecosystems such as Ethernet-IP, ProfiNET and EtherCAT (to list just the largest).
• Online and offline data
  OPC UA does not only transport live data but also scales for solutions with pure static data or files. It is even much easier to implement an OPC UA server that has no underlying data source like a PLC or Gateway but “only” holds variables and files in the namespace that are read or written by clients. This use case is “peanuts”, so to speak.
  OPC UA File Transfer Spec and performance measurements
• All levels from sensor to cloud
  OPC UA not only addresses all levels of the automation pyramid and provides standardized information via “OPC UA over MQTT” to the cloud, but also scales within the cloud: the OPC UA standard also applies to digital twins, DataSpaces or product passports and the exchange of information between them. Certainly not via TCP, UDP or TSN within the cloud, but via OPC UA over MQTT, the REST interface and file transfer.
  The “sexy” thing is that OPC UA allows communication levels to be skipped: A sensor can deliver its information to the Scada/MES system but also directly to the cloud, the Digital Twin or the DataSpace.
  With this you can fulfill all requirements to provide an OPC UA solution which is “ISA95 compatible” – but you also have all freedoms to adjust to your own needs.
• Configuration instead of implementing: Instead of implementing “specific solutions” (for IoT, for Gateways, for DigitalTwins, for DataSpaces, etc.) OPC UA delivers a standardized solution which you just configure with “project settings” for the specific use-case.
• OT and IT
  Over the past decades, both camps have tried to convince the other side to agree to their own standard. OPC UA was developed by both camps – adoption started early in the OT world between the PLC and SCADA levels – but then continued in IT systems right after. This resulted in 80% of the world’s top 50 OT companies, in terms of revenue, are currently members of the OPC Foundation. But the IT side is also very strongly represented with AlibabaCloud, aws, IBM, GoogleCloud, Microsoft, NTTCommunications and SAP.If you know of any other non-profit organization with this scale, please let me know!
• UA companion specifications in the cloud
  Today more than 150+ companion specs are available (mostly from our partner associations like VDMA, CESMII, PLCopen, HKI, vending machines, …) in which domain experts have agreed on semantics for mostly OT assets like robots, pumps, flow meters, kitchen appliances. This agreement on standardized data is now being scaled to be available in the cloud: The companies supporting the OPC Foundation Cloud Initiative have agreed to manage OPC UA companion specifications within the cloud. A data format agreement that scales from the sensor to the cloud: Hallelujah!
• From the smallest companies to international corporations
  The OPC Foundation is not only proud to have over 1000* members. We are also proud that we are growing with members from all continents (except Antarctica). This is another aspect of scaling, super small companies up to the biggest companies from around the world provide OPC UA solutions. But still each company is equal and has only one vote – that’s our understanding of democracy.

To summarize: Scalability is a key aspect for successful IIoT projects and with OPC UA scalability is provided with easier integration and cost reduction. In the end, it’s not about enthusiasm, it’s just about money, let’s be honest.

Webinar series kicks off with a discussion of the European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)

At the OPC UA Security Summit, which was held at Microsoft on June 5 and 6, 2024 in Munich, prominent speakers from the EU Commission, the German BSI, the American FBI and CISA as well as from the industry answered many questions about the CRA: What does this mean? What needs to be implemented by when? What does OPC UA already do?

The event in Munich was designed to meet in person in a room and talk confidentially about “what do you think”.

Now we want to share it with the world and make it easy for you to participate too: We start with Dr. Gerrit Hötzel from Völker Group, who was voted most valuable speaker in Munich by the audience. One of his core competencies is to explain complex legal topics in the language of engineers.

After the announcement, we received over 400+ registrations for Gerrit’s sessions within one day.

Don’t miss this webinar!

Register here: https://shorturl.at/ynacZ

Call for review

Since the last newsletter in June 2024, we have started these “call for review”:

• Sept 17^th: OPC 40091, UA CS for PlasticsRubber – Winder
• Aug 6^th: OPC 10000-100, UA for Devices
• Aug 2^nd: OPC 30145, UA CS for PROFINET Drives
• July 30^th: OPC 40082-5, UA CS for PlasticsRubber-PeripheralSystems, Part 5: Moulds
• July 19^th: OPC 40082-4, UA CS for PlasticsRubber-PeripheralSystems, Part 4: Dosing Systems
• July 16^th: OPC 40450-1, UA for Joining Systems – Base
• June 27^th: UA Companion Specification for PlasticsRubber – Peripheral Devices – LSR Dosing Systems

Please subscribe to https://opcfoundation.org/news/technology-news to receive immediate information about new standards releases, release candidates for review, and new working groups.

OPC Foundation Cloud Initiative

We launched the new OPC Foundation Cloud Initiative in April 2024, involving AlibabaCloud, aws, Huawei, Microsoft and SAP. In preparation for the SPS in November, things are happening that I personally would never have thought of in my wildest dreams – it’s just incredible.

At the moment we are contacting end users to participate in this important and visionary initiative. Please stay tuned as we release incredible news during SPS.

Election of the OPC Foundation Board of Directors 2025/2026

The OPC Foundation is an open and democratic organization; therefore, the members of the Board of Directors are elected by each appointed representative of the corporate members of the OPCF. Each year, the members elect half of the seats on the Board of Directors for a period of two years based on a list of proposed candidates.

For the 2025/2026 period, we are in the process of collecting nominations. Voting will begin on November 1, 2023, when the nominated representatives will receive an email to participate in the electronic vote. The results will be publicly presented during the OPC Foundation General Assembly on December 4, 2024 – please register here.

Success story

Just Wow! OPC UA in a civil rocket! OPC UA is scaling to the space!

Read the success story here

Do you have an exciting OPC UA related success story? Please contact us!

Events

In the last part of this year, we are actively participating in these conferences and tradeshows around the globe, with our own booths. We would be happy to meet you at:

• Sept 24^th: China International Industry Fair (CIIF) in Shanghai, China
• Oct 1^st: IoT TechExpo in Amsterdam, Europe
• Oct 14^th: Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC in Singapore
• Oct 23^rd: Wireless IoT Tomorrow in Wiesbaden, Europe
• Nov 12^th: SPS show in Nuremberg, Germany
• Nov 20^th: OPC Day in Norway, Europe
• Nov 21^st: OPC Day in Finland, Europe
• Nov 26^th: OPC Day in France, Europe

 

See the list of events here  including available sponsorship opportunities.

My hair has grown further than it appears in this photo and I think I need a new business photo after all. Why am I letting my hair grow? Because I can!

Stay tuned, and I hope to meet you in person at one of these events!

Stefan Hoppe
President, OPC Foundation
stefan.hoppe[AT]opcfoundation.org