![]() ![]() To fill the void from hardware vendors, software packages like Matrikon OPC, Top Server, and Kepware KEPServerEX suite came on the market. ![]() (While RSLinx from Rockwell Automation supports OPC, it wasn’t always a good option back in the Wild West days.) Back then, unlocking the power of OPC was a rather cumbersome task. There wasn’t a huge push from the hardware vendors to play nicely. And, “open” is kind of a “four letter word” in manufacturing. Most companies didn’t support OPC directly on their hardware because they already had their own protocols. ![]() Technically, MQTT was also around at that time, but it hasn’t been very well known until recently. OPC was introduced alongside Modbus, Profibus, Ethernet/IP, Profinet, FINS, and a handful of other protocols supported by various vendors. OPC was built on top of the DCOM protocol in Windows and designed to be a standard communication protocol to use with SCADA systems and other software platforms to send process data where it needed to go. Without going into a full history lesson, before OPC-UA there was only standard OPC (now known as OPC-DA). Otherwise, Kepware was fairly ubiquitous in the industry. If your SCADA platform of choice supported Modbus communication or it was made by the same manufacturer as your PLCs (like using FactoryTalk View and Allen Bradley PLCs) you could get rid of the Kepware piece. Before Ignition came on the market (and before OPC-UA was a mainstay), a very common SCADA architecture looked like “SCADA Platform of your choice Kepware PLCs” ![]()
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