Supporting Europe’s Digital Product Passport vision.

Open, interoperable standards for scalable and trusted data exchange.

A Liaison Agreement with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) has been announced by The OPC Foundation. This marks an important step forward in the standardisation of Digital Product Passport (DPP) solutions in Europe.*

Through this liaison, the OPC Foundation will actively contribute to the work of CEN/CENELEC JTC 24 – Digital Product Passport – Framework and System, providing technical expertise and input through direct participation in the relevant working groups. The cooperation focuses on aligning data modeling technologies and fostering interoperable, system-agnostic and open-source DPP solutions that scale seamlessly from embedded devices to cloud and enterprise environments.

The collaboration supports the development of interoperable DPP solutions that ensure trusted, semantic rich data exchange, regulatory compliance, and scalable deployments across sector-specific data spaces. By combining the European standardisation framework with OPC UA’s proven interoperability technologies, the liaison contributes to a harmonised and future-proof approach to Digital Product Passports.

Although OPC UA is widely known for secure information transport in automation, its true strength lies in its rich, semantic information modeling capabilities. Through the liaison with CEN/CENELEC JTC 24, OPC UA will be used and extended with standardised Digital Product Passport data models and interfaces, supporting system-agnostic and interoperable DPP implementations.

Commenting on the cooperation, Bmstr. Ing. Otto Handle, Convenor of CEN/CENELEC/JTC 24 WG4 – Digital Product Passport – Interoperability, stated: “One aim of the standardisation work of JTC 24 is interoperability beyond all system borders. The standardisation request of the European Commission clearly states that the DPP shall be system agnostic and vendor independent. Integration and Interoperability with the full DPP system shall be possible for any software and any system according to these standards. Therefore, we highly appreciate and welcome OPC Foundation in the Liaison and look forward to the modelling of DPPs with OPC UA and integration of the specified JTC24 API and data models, as well as shop floor integration with OPC UA-enabled embedded systems as DPP data sources.”

Erich Barnstedt, Microsoft, liaison officer for the OPC Foundation “This liaison ensures that Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are built on truly open, standardised, and interoperable foundations. By contributing the very successful OPC UA modelling capabilities to DPPs, including an open-source reference implementation, we help enable seamless integration of DPP data across vendors, platforms, and system layers. What is remarkable is the timeline in which this was possible: From initial concepts to finished implementation, the OPC Foundation only took 2 weeks.”

The Liaison Agreement is established for an unlimited period, contingent on the OPC Foundation’s continued participation in the work of JTC 24. It reflects a shared ambition to advance open, interoperable, and internationally aligned standards that support the European Union’s digital transformation and sustainability goals.

By working together, CEN, CENELEC, and the OPC Foundation reaffirm their commitment to ensuring that Digital Product Passports are built on robust, open standards — enabling innovation, interoperability, and long-term value across industries.

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* CEN strengthens Digital Product Passport standardisation through cooperation with the OPC Foundation  (CEN-CENELEC)

@OPCFoundation  @Standards4EU #PAuto #Europe

Single device integration for process and factory automation.

FieldComm Group’s Strategic Integration Committee (SIC), composed of leading automation industry suppliers and Standards Development Organisations (SDOs), has announced the official timeline for releasing the updated Field Device Integration (FDI) Specification. This milestone marks a critical step toward unifying device integration across process, hybrid, and factory automation.

Following the transfer of FDT/DTM assets to FieldComm Group in 2024, the organisation has significantly accelerated its efforts toward unified device integration. The resulting roadmap is a product of coordinated work by the SIC and specialised working groups. Comprised of board-level companies from FieldComm Group along with key leaders from OPC Foundation, ODVA, and PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI), the SIC has led the harmonisation of FDI and FDT technologies. This collaboration aims to deliver a unified, intuitive, and scalable device integration standard that addresses the evolving needs of modern manufacturing, helping both end users and vendors.

Key enhancements in the updated FDI Specification:

• Compliance, incorporating the requirements of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)
• Unified device integration standard for process and factory automation
• Support for legacy systems, enabling modernisation without infrastructure replacement
• Real-time OT/IT connectivity through a common information model (PA-DIM)
• Support for modern platforms and development tools
• Empowering intelligent device and lifecycle management with protocol tunneling support, also known as nested communications

FDI specification timeline for migration:

• End of 2026: Release of the updated FDI Specification
• End of 2027: Deployment of the updated FDI Developer Toolkit
• 2029: Market availability of registered FDI-enabled systems and devices

"Today’s industrial systems are more complex than ever, yet this complexity must not compromise interoperability," said Steve Biegacki, Chair of the Strategic Integration Committee and former Managing Director of the FDT Group. "Our goal is to deliver a unified device integration solution that enhances data interoperability with OT/IT systems while supporting innovative features for modern manufacturing. This approach also provides a practical migration path, safeguarding existing investments and preparing the industry for future advancements."

“As a co-owner of the FDI specification, the OPC Foundation is committed to robust and interoperable device integration for OPC UA users and fully supports the harmonization of FDI and FDT technologies to achieve this goal,” said Stefan Hoppe, President of the OPC Foundation.

“ODVA is pleased to support the harmonization of FDI and FDT technologies to enable enhanced device integration interoperability for users of EtherNet/IP,” said Al Beydoun, President and Executive Director of ODVA.

“PI appreciates that the FieldComm Group initiated the valuable discussions to determine the need for merging FDI and FDT, taking into account the needs of interested companies, as well as the technologies of the four participating standards development associations,” said Dietmar Bohn, Executive Director of PI.

This update will enable manufacturers to transition toward more intelligent, responsive operations, unlocking the full value of industrial data and modern automation architectures.

FieldComm Group encourages automation stakeholders, vendors, integrators, and end users alike, to engage in this transition and follow key milestones.

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@FieldCommGroup @FDTGroup @OPCFoundation @ProfibusUK #PAuto #Standard

Connecting industry to the metaverse.

The OPC Foundation has announced the completion and publication of its Metaverse work. After needs for a standardized Metaverse solution being raised by Dr. Holger Kenn, Microsoft, in October 2022 the Board of Directors of the OPC Foundation decided to establish a Working Group to ensure OPC UA is well suited for the Metaverse use-cases.

In less than one year the group, chaired by Erich Barnstedt, Microsoft, finished its work and published the results. The groups quick success was enabled by OPC UA already providing standardized solutions to the important requirements like information modelling, information exchange, cloud connectivity and asset identification.

With this base being available to the working group the main task became bringing the necessary pieces together to provide solutions for the use cases:

• Remote or on-premises condition monitoring using augmented and virtual reality technology
• Remote assisted maintenance of machinery carried out by local workers with the assistance of remote experts.
• Production processes training in safe, simulated environments for real-world tasks in hazardous environments
• Manufacturing logistics planning and execution using head-up display technology for drivers of transport systems.

The code for those solutions has been open-sourced and published on the OPC Foundation GitHub repositories for the industry to get a quick success when establishing their Metaverse concepts and products:

• Condition monitoring sample application built on Unity 
• OPC Foundation UA Sample Client application capable of running on HoloLens for remote assisted maintenance 

The YouTube channel of the OPC Foundation also provides an instructive recording detailing the standardized solutions for public access.

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@OPCFoundation #PAuto #Communications

Interoperable interfaces for Industrie 4.0.

The digital association Bitkom e.V. and the OPC Foundation want to contribute to the establishment and implementation of interoperable interfaces in the context of Industrie 4.0 in a constructive exchange of views. The overall goal of the cooperation is to formulate requirements for interoperability with the digital economy to jointly promote harmonization efforts for machine and plant engineering.

"Lack of interoperability is a key barrier when exchanging data and information between different industrial platforms. OPC UA is an open and vendor-independent standard for the interoperability of systems and devices in industrial and automation technology. Especially in the context of data sharing and thus of data ecosystems, OPC UA can contribute to a uniform standard for the transmission of data between different systems in the context of Industrie 4.0. We are therefore very pleased that we are now entering into a direct exchange with the OPC Foundation through the MoU," says Susanne Dehmel, member of the Bitkom management board.

"Interoperability is important to ensure seamless collaboration between different systems. The OPC Foundation manages a global standard for secure industrial interoperability for information modeling and data exchange in the context of industry that scales from OT to the IT world. As part of the collaboration with Bitkom, we want to ensure that industrial data aspects can be modeled quickly and accurately, taking into account all the needs of the IT world," said Stefan Hoppe, President of the OPC Foundation.

Bitkom e.V. and the OPC Foundation will work together on the following topics:

• Promotion of interoperability and other elements
• Discussion of interoperability requirements together
• Derivation of actual interoperability and standardization needs based on specific use cases or business models
• Input on standardization requirements
• Promotion of security and trustworthiness
• Understanding aspects of open source and the relation to reference implementations
• Marketing activities to communicate the collaboration

Bitkom and OPC Foundation are sharing information on the above topics, host exchange formats and establish contacts with stakeholders to support productive collaboration at this week's Hannover Fair. 

@OPCFoundation @Bitkom #HM23 #PAuto #Industrie4

Colloboration strengthens development of digital twin technology.

Digital Twin Consortium® (DTC) and OPC Foundation announced a liaison agreement to accelerate the development and adoption of digital twin-enabling technologies during this months ARC Forum 2023. The DTC and the OPC Foundation have worked closely in several open-source reference implementation projects on GitHub and have agreed to collaborate even closer.

“We are excited about working with OPC Foundation,” said Dan Isaacs, GM, and CTO of DTC. "Through our collaboration, we will influence interoperability standards and processes that will advance the use of digital twins in manufacturing across many industries.”

The DTC and OPC Foundation have agreed to the following activities:

• Collaborating on standardization requirements
• Realizing interoperability by harmonizing technology components and other elements
• Aligning work in horizontal domains for adoption in vertical domains and use cases, proof of concepts, and Value Innovation Platforms (VIP) programs, including:
> Technology, terminology, and taxonomy
> Security and trustworthiness
> Conceptual, informational, structural, and behavioral models
> Enabling technologies, such as simulation and AI
> Technology stack across the digital twin lifecycle
> Case study development


• Developing and understanding open-source reference implementations

Stefan Hoppe, President OPC Foundation, said, “The OPC Foundation maintains the global standard for secure industrial interoperability for information modeling and data exchange, which, as part of this relationship with DTC, benefits all who wish to create semantically identical digital twins. Our involvement to liaise with DTC further strengthens the user’s ability to model each data aspect quickly and precisely, creating and interacting with any digital twin. Digital twins will be fully compatible with the OPC UA framework used in the run-time components within the operational domain.”
“As one of the key contributors to Digital Twin Consortium’s open-source program, Microsoft saw the rising demand for open digital twin technology and industrial interoperability standards like OPC UA. The collaboration of OPC Foundation and DTC will continue to elevate the impact of digital twin technologies. These two organizations have already started collaborating on open-source projects and these projects will expand to include emerging technologies,” said Erich Barnstedt, Chief Architect Standards, Consortia and Industrial IoT, Azure Edge + Platform, Microsoft Corporation.

Both consortia will exchange information through regular consultations, joint contributor relations, seminars, open-source projects, and other activities.

@OPCFoundation @DigitalTwinCon @arc_advisory #PAuto 

Towards an instrumentation device profile for OPC UA Field eXchange.

The OPC Foundation (OPCF) and the FieldComm Group (FCG) are collaborating to drive multi-vendor interoperability of instrumentation devices based on OPC UA and the extensions for the field level, named OPC UA FX (Field eXchange). This development will incorporate preliminary work by both organizations. This will ensure that the market will have only one single standard. The aim is to provide an interoperable interface between PLC / DCS and instrumentation devices, such as transmitters, instruments, and actuators. The solution shall support different industries such as oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, water & wastewater, and pulp & paper.

To begin this work, a new OPC UA Instrumentation Working Group is being hosted by the OPC Foundation, under the leadership of the Field Level Communications (FLC) Initiative. Participation in the working group is open to members of the OPC Foundation, as well as corporate entity members of the FieldComm Group. Many well-known manufacturers in the process and factory automation industries are represented within this working group to ensure a uniform, worldwide, and coordinated standard for OPC UA-based instrumentation devices.

In order to achieve inter-vendor interoperability of instrumentation devices, the working group will add to the UAFX base specifications the definition of interfaces and behaviors which are typical for instrumentation devices, including:

• commonly used interfaces and data types for the industries mentioned above including functional safety,
• diagnostic information specific to instrumentation devices,
• operation modes of instrumentation devices,
• state machines and timing models for instrumentation-specific functionality, where appropriate.

The new instrumentation device profile specification will use PubSub and can be combined with different underlying communication protocols (e.g. UDP/IP) and physical layers (e.g. Ethernet-APL) to support all relevant use cases in discrete and process manufacturing, including safety instrumentation based on OPC UA Safety and deterministic data exchange based on Ethernet Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), where appropriate.

The Instrumentation Facet shall be complementary to the jointly-owned OPC 30081 / FCG TS10098 “OPC UA for Process Automation Devices (PA-DIM)” and other Companion Specifications. The working group will also strive to manage overlap with other information models already released or under development. Examples include, the models for “Calibration” (a Harmonization sub-group) and “Laboratory and Analytical Devices” (LADS working group).

Thoralf Schulz (ABB), Chairperson FCG says: “OPC Foundation and FieldComm Group joining forces in the Instrumentation Working Group is a significant milestone. This collaboration unifies separate volunteer initiatives previously underway in each organization, and creates the basis for a broadly accepted single standard. It will harmonize device integration while supporting the transition of existing device technologies and their installations into the future. Combined with FDI-based device management and the Advanced Physical Layer (APL) for the lower-layer connectivity, this is a major milestone towards a harmonized data exchange infrastructure, which will benefit both users of process automation as well as vendors of process automation products and solutions.” 

Thomas Hahn (Siemens), Vice President OPCF says: “Digitization needs interoperability. Interoperability needs standards. Extending the OPC UA framework to include an information model for instrumentation devices is important to ensure cross-vendor interoperability and common semantics. No single organization can achieve this alone! Therefore, cross-organizational collaboration is essential - from process automation to discrete manufacturing, from customer to provider, from machine tool builder to solution partners, and so on. Through this collaboration, an important step towards meeting the needs of our customers and the industry is achieved.”

“Extending the OPC UA Framework with an information model for instrumentation devices is important to ensure – in combination with OPC UA Safety, Deterministic Communication, Motion and Ethernet-APL/SPE – cross-vendor interoperability and common semantics, not only for the Controller-to-Controller and Controller-to-Device use cases in Factory and Process Automation, but also supporting OPC UA as a fully scalable technology from the sensor across all levels to MES / ERP and also to the cloud,” stated Peter Lutz, Director FLC Initiative at OPC Foundation

@OPCFoundation @FieldCommGroup #PAuto #Communications

New Chairman and board for data transfer standards body.

Dr. Holger Kenn (Microsoft), Mr. Claudius Link (SAP), Mr. Andreas Faath (VDMA), Mr. Aurelien Le Sant (Schneider-Electric) and Dr. Kazuhiro Kusunoki (Mitsubishi Electric) have been elected to the Board of Directors of The OPC Foundation. and names Dr. Kenn as the Board’s newly elected Chairman.

Dr. Holger Kenn

Dr. Kenn replaced Ms. Veronica Schmid-Lutz, as the chairperson. Dr. Kenn has extensive technical and business-related IoT experience gained working with Microsoft customers and partners for over a decade. His insights from an IT company perspective and leadership will play a key role in helping the Board navigate the challenges and opportunities in the increasingly mixed IT and OT business landscape.

“I am honored by the trust and confidence placed in me by my fellow board members. With the future opportunities in the domain of OT that are offered by the cloud, but also emerging technologies such as autonomy, AI, and the industrial metaverse, there has never been a better time to work together within the OPC Foundation.”

Reflecting on the broader context an organization like the OPC Foundation plays in the global community, Dr. Kenn added, “At the same time, we all realize that disruption can occur rapidly, like global catastrophes such as the COVID-19 pandemic. But also, the far-reaching consequences of the climate crisis and the necessary decarbonization reminds us that it is also up to the engineers and technologists like us to ensure a resilient and safe future of our planet.”

The OPC Foundation sincerely thanks Ms. Schmid-Lutz (SAP), Dr Fabrice Jadot (Schneider-Electric) and Russ Agrusa (ICONICS/Mitsubishi Electric) for their years of service on its Board of Directors and wishes them all the best in their retirement or new business role.

• Mr. Link, Senior Vice President of Engineering for Manufacturing and Industrial IoT at SAP, will replace Ms. Schmid-Lutz on the Board
• Mr. Le Sant, CTO Industrial Automation and SVP Innovation & Technology, will replace Mr. Jadot as the Schneider-Electric representative
• Dr. Kusunoki, Chief Technology Officer of Factory Automation Systems Group, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation replaced Mr. Agrusa. Russ Agrusa has been representing Mitsubishi Electric Japan on the OPC Board since the acquisition of his company, ICONICS in 2019. He has the long-term experience on the BoD first been elected in November 2003 representing ICONICS

The OPC Foundation members elected Mr. Faath, Managing Director of the Machine Information Interoperability Department (MII) at VDMA as a new member on the Board of Director. Mr. Faath looks after member companies’ OPC UA needs by coordinating OPC UA-based information model definition efforts via OPC Foundation Joint Working Groups. Mr. Faath has wide-ranging exposure to the changing needs of businesses in process and discrete markets. He is actively involved in the broader Information Model standardization and harmonization efforts globally.

Commenting on the role OPC UA plays in the industry, Mr. Faath explained, “The machine and plant engineering industry favors OPC UA communication technology for Industry 4.0. This is reflected in the enormous OPC UA Companion Specification development efforts being put in by more than 600 European and international companies as they develop industry-specific interfaces via over 40 OPCF [OPC Foundation] joint working groups under the leadership of the VDMA.”

“Through this worldwide unique technological breadth of the numerous working groups, we also succeed in harmonization in the so-called OPC UA for Machinery. In summary, we are developing the world language of production based on OPC UA."

Stefan Hoppe, President OPC Foundation said “OPCF started as an OT dominated organization – we extended the board representatives to IT in 2015 and now it’s the second time an IT company is elected as chairperson. Microsoft has been spent huge efforts over years supporting open international standards – electing Dr. Kenn is reflecting these efforts.

"As OPC UA is more than just a protocol and instead the value is to transport standardized information models it’s a logical consequence that VDMA with pushing half of the 65+ information models is represented on the BoD now. Mr Faath is getting the honor of all the efforts from all more than 600 VDMA member companies around the world trusting the promise of industrial interoperability.” Hoppe continued: “The mix of OT and IT companies comprising the OPC Foundation Board of Directors attests to how far the organization has grown from its shop-floor-centric OT roots to playing a key role in enterprise-wide and cloud-based IT solutions.“

@OPCFoundation #PAuto #Communications #Standards

Information exchange in edge-to-cloud applications.

Leading Internet-of-Things (IoT) vendors are adopting OPC UA technology for edge-to-cloud applications. The list now includes Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft, SAP and SIEMENS.

Testimonials from IT/OT companies:

Melanie Ruhe, Head of Global Product Management Siemens MindSphere:
“Siemens Mindsphere is fully committed to OPC UA with its powerful data modelling capabilities and rich platform services to effortlessly connect shopfloor devices.”

Sven Goldstein, Product manager Connectivity, BECKHOFF:
”Beckhoff is the first automation vendor to support OPC UA Pub/Sub using both UDP and MQTT. The requirement to connect industrial assets in a secured and standardized format to the cloud is of utmost importance and an emerging topic in all industry sectors. With its PC-based control architecture, Beckhoff can easily adapt new communication technologies to enable machine builders to connect their assets directly to the cloud.”

Claudius Link, Senior Vice President Engineering Manufacturing and Industrial IoT at SAP SE:
“SAP welcomes the evolution of standards to solve issues in the customer’s reality – today, hybrid cloud and edge computing solutions are becoming the norm and the basis for many customers to accelerate their digital transformation. As a member of the OPC Foundation, SAP is committed to simplifying the integration of industrial and business operations, based on open communication patterns as defined by the OPC Foundation.”

Sanat Joshi, Managing Director, Manufacturing Industry Solutions, AWS:
“AWS understands the complexity of industrial data connectivity and the challenges manufacturers and industrial customers face implementing IIoT and Industry 4.0 applications. This is why AWS has a portfolio of services that extend cloud functionality into industrial operations to provide industrial edge capability. With AWS IoT Greengrass and SiteWise connecter, manufacturers can securely ingest OPC UA-based data onto AWS with open data access for real-time visualization, analytics, and machine learning to drive operational efficiencies, innovation, scalability, and agility.”

Charlie Sheridan, Global Technical Directory Manufacturing, Automotive & Energy - Google Cloud:
"Google Cloud is committed to openness and industry collaboration. By contributing to and leveraging the OPC UA Cloud Library, we can enable "cloud-based" access to OPC UA information models for our customers and partners. OPC UA will be our way of incorporating machine data into our data analytics and AI capabilities, to ultimately deliver on the promise of accessible data and easy-to-use AI across factories."

Ulas Cubuk, IBM App Connect for Manufacturing Product Manager, IBM:
"IBM has a long-running partnership with OPC Foundation. OPC Foundation’s dedication to ensuring interoperability in automation was the number one choice for this partnership. We had a long journey in helping our customers to build patterns to publicize OPC UA messages via MQTT. Now we want to step up this game by adapting the OPC UA PubSub specification."

Erich Barnstedt, Chief Architect Standards & Consortia, Azure IoT, Microsoft Corporation:
“Microsoft was the first vendor to support OPC UA PubSub over MQTT when we launched Microsoft OPC Publisher in 2016. Additionally, Microsoft has been working with the OPC Foundation on the OPC UA PubSub specification since the beginning.”

1. Key drivers behind this progression are, first and foremost, the global adoption of OPC UA as the open standard of choice for secure production-system interoperability across OT and IT networks, leveraging standardized data exchange. As such, there are over 850 registered OPC Foundation members supporting a large, rapidly growing eco-system of end-users, standards bodies, and vendors.

2. Second, OPC UA uses a standardized method of defining, discovering, and using Information Models (IMs) and services associated with the production systems. This standardized approach to semantic information sharing prevents vendor lock-in and costly custom programming needed for non-standard IM ingestion in the cloud. With the launch of the UA Cloud Library, OPC UA IMs are globally available to all cloud applications, making it easy for cloud applications to directly utilize OPC UA-based semantic information as well as live data coming from the edge.

3. Third, as a transport-agnostic, IEC standard, OPC UA is supporting two different communication patterns: Client/Server (over e.g. TCP or WebSockets) as well as Publish/Subscribe (over e.g. UDP or MQTT) to meet different industry requirements from the production systems to edge and cloud scenarios.

4. Fourth, the quality assurance program of the OPC Foundation extends to the OPC UA Publish/Subscribe communication patterns and forms the first multi-vendor, multi-cloud standard. Interoperability workshops, including leading PLC vendors, like Beckhoff and Siemens, sending OPC UA data from the controller, over MQTT, have already started. Fifth, end users benefit from and eagerly welcome the commitment from major IoT vendors that support OPC UA as a standard for IoT communications. Stefan Hoppe, President of the OPC Foundation says: “It’s thrilling to see that OPC UA is the one solution harmonized for process and factory automation, scaling from field to cloud (and back). The continued vision of the OPC Foundation – to establish OPC UA as THE open standard of choice for data interoperability throughout the world of automation – started and flourished with controllers and visualization systems and has now reached IT & the cloud. This will lead to a further growth of the open eco-system, based on OPC UA.”

The criteria for companies to be listed with these features is that they either support OPC UA over MQTT in their products today or that it is on their development roadmap.

@OPCFoundation @Azure @Siemens @beckhoff @SAP @awscloud @IBM #IoT #PAuto

Cloud library launched.

The OPC Foundation has announced the launch of the globally available UA Cloud Library co-developed with the Clean Energy and Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII). With its multi-cloud architecture, the UA Cloud Library saw contributions from all major cloud vendors leveraging open interfaces and is available for sharing, finding, and collaborating on OPC UA Information Models. The Library already contains over 65 OPC UA Information Models created by individual companies as well as international standards organizations like AutoID, DEXPI, MDIS, MTConnect, and over 30 VDMA working groups as part of their OPC UA Companion Specification work.

"The UA Cloud Library is the missing link that makes OPC UA information models available in the cloud on a global scale without requiring a connection to physical machines," said Erich Barnstedt, Chief Architect Standards & Consortia, Microsoft Corporation, and chair of the UA Cloud Library working group. "It enables OPC UA Information Models – used as blueprints for industrial digital twins - to be looked up and matched against time-series machine telemetry data provided by cloud-based analytics software, which is a common requirement in Industrial IoT projects."

The UA Cloud Library offers two standout benefits:

1. OPC UA information model access for applications
2. Ease of use of the entire OPC UA Companion Specification collection for end-users in general

While shop floor (OT) components routinely discover and use data structures and services of other OPC UA components, direct access to such semantic information has not been readily available to cloud-based applications due to security considerations. The UA Cloud Library eliminates this gap by providing IT and cloud-based applications access to semantic information directly from the cloud instead of manually getting it from the OT systems.

"It was an honor to partner with the OPC Foundation in this strategic initiative," said John Dyck, CEO of CESMII. "The UA Cloud Library is truly an important step on the journey to Smart Manufacturing Interoperability and will pave the way for dramatic simplification and cost savings for manufacturing systems!"

Stefan Hoppe, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation, said, "The value of what the OPC Foundation and CESMII joint working group created cannot be overstated because it equips us with the mechanism needed to facilitate access to all known OPC UA information models via an open, global, single-source of truth.

"Beyond the value the UA Cloud Library brings to applications, it will help with global OPC UA information model coordination and harmonization efforts by making it easy to search and cross-reference the latest OPC UA companion specifications in real-time. Finally, the UA Cloud Library will serve a crucial infrastructure role in Smart Manufacturing initiatives that depend on interoperability."

@OPCFoundation @CESMII_SM #PAuto #Communications