Good morning, good afternoon, good evening – wherever you are in the world!
OPC Foundation: Numbers at a Glance
For my presentation during the OPC Day International, I collected a couple of key facts round about the OPC Foundation as an organization and the OPC UA technology. I always make a statement like “OPC UA is the base of the largest number of industrial information models in the automation space” – but I was surprised to find more than 427 models. From the start, there were domain-specific information models defined by the OPC Foundation available. But today, the vast majority are from partner organizations like VDMA, OPAF, Catena-X and IDTA for supply chain management use cases.
Wow! I would have guessed that there would have been about 8 open-source projects – but discovered 17 are officially maintained by the OPC Foundation! And an additional 1900 non-OPCF driven OPC UA open-source projects! Fantastic!
(Status 02. June, 2025)
The OPC Foundation Cloud Initiative
After announcing the initiative during Hannover Messe 2024, it was a pleasure to proceed with “Phase 4” and publish the reference architecture. I think it’s the first time that cloud providers have presented a consolidated overview of their commercial offerings! See 22 offerings from cloud suppliers like AWS, Google Cloud, Huawei, Microsoft and SAP but also OT companies like ABB, Beckhoff, Honeywell, Mitsubishi-Electric, Rockwell Automation, Schneider-Electric, Siemens and Yokogawa.
Please find more details and insights about the next steps from the Cloud working group chairperson, Erich Barnstedt, here.
Download the brochure here.
The high density of the business world in April, May and June
Traditionally the months of April, May, and June are incredibly intensive months with high density of events, including the major trade shows such as Hannover Messe, Automate show in Detroit, ARC Forum Europe, SPS in Italy, the Oil & Gas Conference in Lisbon. Not to forget our own conferences like the OPC Day International or a week roadshow in India. Let me summarize these events:
- During Hannover Messe (details here) and also Automate in Detroit, we showed, once again, a lot of demonstrators, including OPC UA over MQTT to cloud dashboards, 21 devices for UAFX-based Controller-to-Controller communication, and a new “OPC UA over 5G” demo for remote control of a crane. Not to forget the Digital Battery Passport powered by OPC UA. The conferences for field and cloud provided great insights about status and roadmaps. Attendance at Automate Detroit was excellent, exceeding expectations, which garnered a lot of interest and open discussion around OPC technologies.
- OPC Day International – slides and recordings are available for download
The complete list of presentations and the video recordings can be found here.
For the second time of OPC Days International, we launched a “Call for papers” to become aware of other content of which we, in our daily business, are not aware. We accepted all incredible inputs (surprisingly, only 2 submissions overlapped, prompting us to select one). This year, you have seen me speechless several times about the incredible content presented in the 33 presentations. I was blown away! Standardization is making the world easier for everybody – both end users and suppliers – and the measurement for the success of standardization is adoption – that’s why my personal favorite presentation was “OPC UA @ European Railway Infrastructure“ by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl-Albrecht Klinge (praedicta) and Wolfgang Klein (DB InfraGo). Their presentation was not only about DB InfraGo modeling of railway systems, based on OPC UA and reference implementations, but it’s continuing within Europe’s Rail. It also was highlighted with statements like, “OPC UA is ideally suited for digital twin applications in the railway domain.” Their recent forecasts of around 75.000 control units to be integrated through 2035 will be doubled with over 150.000 control units by 2043. Isn’t that thrilling?!The base of this is TRUST in stability of technology – OPC UA has maintained backward compatibility since its release in 2006!
- OPC symposiums across India in Bangalore, Pune and Chennai
As part of our continued commitment to global collaboration and knowledge exchange, the OPC Foundation partnered with VDMA for a series of symposiums across India in May 2025. Read more details here. - SPS in Italy
The SPS show in Parma, Italy is not only located in one of the two leading machine builder centers (Germany and Italy) of the world – it also happens to take place in the food valley.
Next to super-positive facts, like excellent talks and high interest in the OPC Foundation booth, I also increased my body weight by 3kg within 4 days ;-<
Technology News from Joint Working Groups (JWG)
Cooperating with other associations acting as multiplier-partners is key to achieving worldwide agreement on standardized information models. To get a comprehensive overview on the latest and greatest activities happening over the past three years, please subscribe to https://opcfoundation.org/news/technology-news to receive immediate information about new releases, release candidates for review, and new working groups.
Since our last Newsletter in March 2025, we have published four Companion Specifications with an additional 11 Companion Specs now in public “Call for Review”. See more details here.
Cyber Resilience Act (CRA): Education and check of OPC Foundation offerings
The European Cyber Resilience Act (EU CRA), which has already been adopted into European legislation. is a topic affecting all of us. I am glad that experts shared their knowledge via OPC Foundation webinars. All materials such as the slides and the recordings are publicly available. Download the PDF here https://opcfoundation.org/developer-tools/marketing-communication-presentations/opc-and-opc-ua-presentations/.
The link to the recording is on the cover page of the PDF.
Overview of the presentations:
- “CVE from experience & CVE in context of supply chain” by Dr. Thomas Proell, Siemens
- “SBOM & Vulnerability Management – CVE” by Jens Cordt, BSI
- “CRA and EN UEC 62443” by Dr. Kai Wollenweber, Siemens
- “Cyber resilience act (CRA) – considering fundamentals and challenges from a practical experience” by Torsten Förder, Beckhoff Automation
- “Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) – Solving some Fundamental Legal Aspects” Dr. Gerrit Hötzel, Voelker Gruppe
Right now, the Foundation is spending significant effort and money on CRA legal experts to check the open-source offerings of the OPC Foundation. Our plan is to provide all details and insights at the end of this year.
General assembly meeting 2025:
We just opened registration for the OPC Foundation General Assembly Meeting in December 2025, where we announce of the results of the election of Board of Director for the period of 2026-2027. In addition, it provides a summary of budget, technical and marketing activities in 2025, but also gives an outlook on 2026. Please register here https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1468202513542829663
This newsletter is full of updates that reflect your contributions — your ideas, your expertise, and your commitment to collaboration. I invite you to explore the articles, take part in the upcoming OPC Foundation events (Events – OPC Foundation) , and stay engaged in shaping the future of industrial interoperability.
Vacation!
After a busy and productive season of global initiatives and activities, it’s clear that we’ve all earned a well-deserved break. As summer approaches, I hope you find time to pause, recharge, and enjoy a moment of rest. May it bring renewed energy and fresh perspective for the work ahead.
As for me—I’ll be switching off my notebook for a while and heading out on a personal pilgrimage somewhere between St. Jean Pied de Port and Fisterra.
Wishing you a great summer, a good rest, and a joyful return!
Stefan Hoppe
President, OPC Foundation
stefan.hoppe[AT]opcfoundation.org