5 Keys to Mastering OPC Integration

Eric Murphy,P.Eng-2008

What makes a Fortune 500 CEO, a Grammy winning

musician, or a Nobel Prize-winner different from the

rest of us? How do you find the secret to their success?

Regardless of your industry, there is always a line of

self-help gurus, experts or inspirational speakers willing

to let you in on the mystical answers.

Automation vendors face real world problems, with

major consequences from powerful end users. When

dealing with industrial scale integration problems,

vendors need more than happy platitudes and slick

marketing ads. The reality of mastering any challenge,

including OPC implementation, is recognizing the

roadblocks and applying best practices to overcome

them. Using reliable products, competent partners and

a positive attitude are also key to success.

Executive Summary

5BarrierstoSystemInteroperability

The objective of any key is to unlock the barriers between you and what you need to achieve. The most important keys any vendor wants to get their hands on are the ones that deal with the five most common barriers to successful system interoperability.

1. Multi-vendor Interconnectivity - The nature of system integration tends to produce generalists who have some knowledge of a large number of products from multiple vendors. This also means systems integration includes a substantial amount of diagnostic and troubleshooting work since most vendors have not validated their systems interconnectivity with rival products.

2. Proprietary Protocols – Even in the current age of OPC and other open standards, many vendors still rely on proprietary protocols within their systems. New protocols continue to appear and evolve from those claiming to have a superior solution to accepted open standards. Vendors need to handle the problems of the past and the future to come.

3. Non-compliant OPC Software – Although the OPC Foundation provides much in the way of compliance and interoperability test tools, there are still vendors who put less than perfect product on the market. Unreliable, non-compliant or custom OPC products are a real fact of life for many system implementations.

4. Architecture Design – There is more to reliably moving data through out the enterprise than just choosing the right products. Any OPC system architecture needs to consider aspects such as reliability, guaranteed data delivery, redundancy and recovery and what that means in terms of OPC implementation.

5. Firewalls, Domains and Windows Security Settings – Operations security is top of mind for everyone, and Microsoft technology is a dominate feature in many industrial automation settings. Typical IT imposed security features such as firewalls, multiple isolated domains, DCOM and other Windows Security settings are the bane of many interconnected systems.

The OPC Foundation

Enhanced Certification

Program has established a

testing methodology that

ensures secure, reliable and

interoperable high-quality OPC

solutions for the end-user

community for current and

future products.

Look for products displaying

the Certification Logo

The5KeysListening to the likes of Covey or Robbins will lead you to believe that these aren’t really issues. They are merely self imposed mental challenges that can be overcome by thinking “Win-Win” or “Being the Voice”. “Chicken Soup for the Soul” might be a great up spiritual up-lifter, but what the industrial world really needs is “OPC Expertise for the Solution Vendor”.

FOLLOWYOURBLISSSimple Access and Universal Connectivity

Vendors have to ensure their products seamlessly fit into end users systems and ensure that the components function together properly. If there is one thing every vendor wants is universal connectivity and the ability to harness all the available information into one complete picture. OPC gives applications across the manufacturing enterprise access to real-time information in a consistent manner, making multi-vendor interoperability connectivity a reality. MatrikonOPC is the world’s largest developer of OPC products with connectivity to every major control system and application on the market. OPC keeps users free from data-source implementation details, is vendor independent, and works with all types of data: real-time, historical, alarms and events.

EXPERIENCEANDDEDICATIONLegacy Friendly and Future Ready

Persistence, patience and perseverance may get the job done, but integrating components together is much easier when you use trusted OPC products. The wide range of proprietary protocols and solutions system integrators face means they require OPC servers that are legacy friendly and future ready. They need to be able to work with all devices, not just the latest-and-greatest versions yet robust enough to handle future connectivity advances. All MatrikonOPC servers are built on their certified, integrated OPC Framework. The MatrikonOPC Universal Server provides connectivity to all main OPC specifications and versions, including OPC DA, HDA and A&E.

GETAGUIDEFind the Right Partner

For vendors whose core competency does not focus on OPC or data connectivity, resources must be diverted from their core activities to address their communication needs. The result is they are not maximizing their efforts in the areas that differentiate them in the market. In order to establish and maintain a competitive advantage that is significant and sustainable, vendors need to ensure they maintain focused effort on value derived from their core competency. Effectively troubleshooting OPC systems, recognizing and dealing with compliancy issues requires a specialized skill set. The MatrikonOPC Vendor Partner Program allows vendors to confidently connect to a wide array of systems knowing that they have expert assistance in providing data connectivity: from initial communication architecture design and proper connectivity software selection to implementation support and training.

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VISUALIZETHEOUTCOMEReliable Design

In order for the best solution to be implemented, the requirements need to be clearly designed for from the beginning. Different systems require different products or specific configurations, and successful implementation hinges on a reliable design. Optimal connectivity solutions may have minimum downtime constraints, guaranteed data delivery requirements for real-time or historical data. The ability to select the right OPC products and architecture is key.

ALLTHINGSAREPOSSIBLEFlexible Security

All too often vendors or their automation end users face opposition from IT departments stating that open standard connectivity is at odds with secure systems. In order for various departments to work together, rather than against each other, both sides need to recognize how the right OPC products and architecture can provide flexible security. The MatrikonOPC Tunneller and Security Gateway applications are used in numerous architectures that allow external access while providing internal ‘zoned’ access for process specific applications. The OPC Security specification gives users the advantages of open standard connectivity, with the security of controlled user access.

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Are you Using the Right Technology?

MatrikonOPC uses a flexible OPC server environment called the MatrikonOPC Universal Connectivity Server to build the right connectivity to the right devices for your customer’s needs. Security, redundancy, simulation mode, and many other standard features come with the Universal Connectivity Server.

MatrikonOPC Server Advantage

OPC Security

“Simulation Mode”

Advanced tag pre-processing (calculation)

Maximum Interoperability

Learn more about the Universal Connectivity Server

GrabtheKeys

Customers from all industries are demanding improved productivity. Every inspirational speaker, self help tape or industry guru’s message boils down to the same thing “Work Smarter, Not Harder”. One way to achieve this is collaborating with a company with the best technology, resources and products to help overcome the implementation obstacles. MatrikonOPC provides solutions-focused, OPC domain experts that can help systems integrators to design, build, install and service new and retrofit integrated solutions in their industries and applications. Einstein once said “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”. If OPC integration is your difficulty then now is your opportunity. The ability to seamlessly implement OPC systems is within your grasp.

Just grab the Keys.

The MatrikonOPC Vendor Partner Program offers you an opportunity to create business value by embedding or including MatrikonOPC industry-leading Data Connectivity products. This program enables our partners to better serve their customers and to grow their business.

There are 3 ways to work with MatrikonOPC’s Vendor Partner Program:

• OeM: Put your brand on our technology• Resell: Add our technology to your product catalogue• Bundle/embed: Combine MatrikonOPC software with your solution

Learn more about the MatrikonOPC Vendor Partner Program at http://www.matrikonopc.com/partners

MatrikonOPCVendorPartnerProgram

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Email: info@MatrikonOPC.comWeb: www.MatrikonOPC.com

A m e r i c a s A s i a - Pa c i f i c E u r o p e M i d d l e E a s t A f r i c a

AbouttheAuthor

Eric Murphy, BSc, PEng (Alberta), is a Chemical Engineer with a Process Control specialization and an OPC expert. Eric has been a part of the OPC community since its early beginnings. Eric is heavily involved with the OPC Foundation and is a member of the OPC Technical Advisory Council (TAC). Eric is an active member of the OPC Unified Architecture (UA) working group and editor for the OPC UA Parts 11 and 13 specifications. He also acts as the chair for the OPC Historical Data Access (HDA) working group.

Eric has worked for companies including Honeywell and MatrikonOPC holding position’s including software development architect, OPC R&D Manager, OPC Project Manager and OPC QA Manager. Eric has acted as chief consultant on hundreds of OPC projects where he has architected standards based OPC solutions.

You can often find Eric presenting online as the featured speaker for webcasts or at industry related events such as ISA Expos, OPC Conferences and other events.

ForMoreinformationonOPCArchitectures

For more information on OPC topics be sure to follow up with these associated titles on our website at http://www.MatrikonOPC.com

Look before You Leap: Implementing Successful OPC Projects

For a successful project, the right people need to be involved in all aspects of the process; from design and analysis, through factory and site testing, to deployment and monitoring. To reduce risk in complex OPC projects requires specialized training and the involvement of the people with the right qualifications. No one would expect any other technology to run a plant for years without proper planning and testing. Using plug-and-play OPC is no different.

Top 5 OPC Questions Integrators Need To Ask

As the saying goes, there’s a fine line between success and failure. System integrators, who face the challenge of delivering projects that handle more information, give more functionality, faster and easier while being on time and budget understand how fine the margin really is.

While OPC connectivity should reduce system complexity and save project time, there is the potential for expectations and cost to go astray if certain project risks aren’t properly managed. There are five important questions integrators need to ask and get answered to ensure the success of any major OPC implementation.