(Reformatted. I switched from Safari to Firefox and the editing box came up differently and the editing was different. Now I have to play with Firefox. Problem occurred when I just upgraded the MacOS then Safari started to just disappear. Hmmm.)
Another thing I missed (other than a bunch of World Cup games) while on vacation in Alaska rather than at the ARC Advisory Group Forum in Boston last week was the OPC Foundation press conference. I've devoted about 45 minutes parsing the two press releases to figure out what I missed. The news was that the long-awaited release of the OPC-UA (Unified Architecture) specifications has finally happened. No less than 34 suppliers are listed as supporting the new specification.
This specification (it's not a "standard" although that would probably be a good idea) moves the technology from the old Microsoft COM/DCOM to the new universal Web Services (or service-oriented architecture or SOA) platform. This technology builds on the various technologies under the umbrella of XML that brings OPC up to the modern era. DCOM was almost impossible to implement, so this architecture will speed distributed information sharing development.
The only negative comments that I've heard come from Sharon Rosner whose company has just released a new SCADA product. He argues for "pure http." But, XML can go over http, so I have a feeling that there is a little of "apples and oranges" logic going on there. Also, his company claims more speed. But, if you have an entirely internal architecture it is easier to optimize for things like speed. On the other hand, if you are trying to get devices and software from many different suppliers to communicate with each other, then speed and complexity may suffer (note, I said may) but then the problem is greater and the benefits more dear.
At any rate, I'm glad to see the specification out and usable. Although we've written a couple of articles about OPC-UA at Automation World, I'm still waiting for Tom Burke's next installment. Watch for more coverage. OPC is widely used and OPC-UA is bound to be an important technology.
3:54:00 PM 
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