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Monday, April 7, 2008 |
Took yesterday off from blogging--and reading. I often teach a class on Sunday mornings, then I assessed the referees in a couple of youth soccer games. My adult men's games were canceled because the fields were still under water. Good thing. I was the only referee assigned to two games at the site. I did two games alone last fall, but they were on different days. I'd have been one tired puppy if they hadn't been canceled. Got home in time for dinner, then off to see Leatherheads. I think my wife wanted to see Georgy Clooney. After staring at me all the time, you'd want to do that too ;-} Of course Renee Zellweger is not only a very talented actress, she's cute, too. Anyway, it's an entertaining movie. I enjoyed it, but it's not a deep movie leading to intense social analysis.
I'm on Southwest Airlines this afternoon (I hope they inspected the plane I'll be on) to Houston. Tomorrow I'll be reporting from the Yokogawa User Conference. Looks like I should be at the Hilton Americas in time to watch the National Championship game (college basketball for all of you who read this from outside the US).
7:58:51 AM 
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I had an email conversation with Roy Kok, VP of Marketing for Kepware, Saturday evening while I was watching the Final Four. During the conversation, he sent this press release. Since it was dated today, I waited until this morning to post it. The company has announced two new partner programs--Vendor Managed Protocol (VMP) and Vendor Endorsed Protocol (VEP).
Kepware's KepServerEX contains over 130 protocols and connectivity to thousands of devices. It is also a leading connectivity tool for OPC Data Access. The two new vendor programs leverage this technology. With Vendor Managed Protocols, the hardware vendor will develop the Plug-in driver to KepServerEX, under the training, support and QA of Kepware. In the case of the Vendor Endorsed Protocols, the hardware vendor shares their unique protocol information and feature requirements with Kepware to ensure that Kepwareâo[dot accent]s engineering team develops the best solution for the vendor's needs. With both programs Kepware's internal engineering and quality control teams will make sure the resulting vendor protocols have successfully completed its testing procedures before being included in the KepServerEX server offering. After release, vendor protocols will be available to all OEMs and resellers of Kepware technology and will be made available to Kepware's global customer base. Hardware vendors will also resell KEPServerEX with their Plug-in, in an OEM relationship with Kepware.
"In 2007, it became apparent that Kepware had reached a level of success in the market that delivers more than just driver sales," said Roy Kok, VP of Sales and Marketing for Kepware in the press release. "Kepware has become the ideal vehicle for delivering hardware connectivity throughout the automation industry, via its relationships with most software providers and their channels. If a hardware company wants to be sure their hardware works with the leading client applications on the market, then Kepware is the natural choice."
"Kepware has a solid architecture that goes far beyond device communications. Device manufacturers, that are investigating building or upgrading an OPC server for their hardware platforms, should investigate Kepwareâo[dot accent]s partnership development program," said Thomas Burke, President of the OPC Foundation. "Kepware is the model the OPC Foundation uses for product quality and customer support. Partnering with Kepware for the vendors complete communication, OPC advanced functionality, and driver delivery is the best way for any hardware vendor to quickly deliver robust communications and have immediate connectivity with all the major HMI, SCADA, Historian, MES, and ERP applications in automation. While OPC is the common technology thread in all this, Kepware, with their model to support automation software OEMs, Channels and Direct Sales have created a value that hardware vendors can't find anywhere else."
"Kepware continues to make strong progress in developing a growing number of OEM relationships," according to Craig Resnick, Research Director, ARC Advisory Group. "In addition to their already extensive list, recent announcements of agreements with National Instruments, Control Microsystems, HP, and Oracle, as well as the resigning of a five-year agreement with Rockwell Automation, reaffirm that strong progress. In a briefing with ARC last fall, Kepware outlined their plans for continued growth in the automation market, including the expansion of their ability to be a leading vehicle for connectivity between automation hardware suppliers and automation software suppliers. End users and partnering suppliers will be able to leverage the field-proven connectivity solutions that Kepware is able to deliver as a result of these OEM relationships."
I've been a little amazed at the seemingly sudden momentum that Kepware seems to have generated lately. I thought maybe it had to do with hiring a solid marketing VP in Kok, but he assures me that there is a confluence of things that have led to this state of affairs. First, Kepware has been developing technology in OPC leadership. It has dedicated itself to becoming the leading device driver developer. Then, software companies have decided that it just doesn't pay them to use good talent for device driver integration when they can buy it from one supplier. And Kepware doesn't compete with its customers. Kepware sells to many, if not most, software OEMs. It will also sell device drivers and OPC connectivity products to users. In this regard, the company has really stepped up from the back row of the chorus line to a leading role. The whole goal of openness in automation hinges on standard connectivity. Kepware is developing itself into this "standard."
7:52:06 AM
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© Copyright 2008 Gary Mintchell.
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