Schneider Electric Endorses the OPC Foundation to Extend Communications to the Field Level and Harmonize Interoperability from Machines and Process Units to Cloud

BOSTON, Nov. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, welcomes the OPC Foundation recognition of industry efforts to bring interoperable communications to field level industrial operations.

In the fast-changing industrial space, operations technology and information technology are becoming increasingly interconnected to enable more flexible and agile manufacturing and processing operations to meet evolving market requirements.

The recognition of the importance of standards-based communication between operational technologies and information technologies (OT & IT) across device, machine to machine, process units and cloud infrastructure as the basis for industry to achieve the full benefits of automation is a vital step.

"The benefits OT and IT connectivity can only be realised through open, deep interoperability. This drives an urgent need to move away from proprietary communication protocols in favour of open, unified, standards based, Industrial IoT (IIoT) communications between sensors, actuators, controllers and cloud platforms," says Fabrice Jadot, Senior vice president, Technology & Innovation and CTO for Industry business at Schneider Electric.

Schneider Electric has been working to bring open interoperable communications between devices and systems with a number of market leader partners and supports the Open Platform Communication Foundation (OPC F) as the organisation sharpens its focus to deliver interoperability, flexibility and security between vendors' automation and control systems at all levels.  

OPC UA TSN (Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture Time Sensitive Network) is a flexible architecture offering new levels of performance and certified interoperability which will enhance interoperable, standard communication down to the field level.

As the layer that unifies the way data is exposed and exchanged, OPC UA is one of the major achievements of the OPC Foundation community. OPC UA along with TSN is a foundational platform for fully secure systems, delivering a new single set of end-to-end natively secure communication profiles for industrial control, safety and motion built on real time Ethernet to drive automation in factory, plant and process environments.

By opening secure communication possibilities within devices, process units, across machine to machine and up to major cloud infrastructure platforms, industry customers also benefit from common device services (e.g., discovery, configuration), true open communications and vendor agnostic data models which enable agile business and industrial operations.

Fabrice Jadot of Schneider Electric, continues: "At the field level it is connected IT and OT that will be the foundation of the IIoT or 4^th industrial revolution. For industrial customers to realise the value of automation at every level requires technology interoperability. We believe open standards-based communications system architectures are key to future success."

Schneider Electric is committed to the continued evolution of the OPC Foundation, the open standards body for industry, and welcomes the growing influence and recognition of OPC UA TSN as a de facto standard. As part of its continued belief in open standards as the future for Ethernet-based industrial communications, Fabrice Jadot, Senior Vice President, Technology & Innovation and CTO, Industry Business, at Schneider Electric is to take a seat on the board of the OPC Foundation.

About the OPC Foundation:
Since 1996, the OPC Foundation has facilitated the development and adoption of the OPC information exchange standards. As both advocate and custodian of these specifications, the Foundation's mission is to help industry vendors, end-users, and software developers maintain interoperability in their manufacturing and automation assets. The OPC Foundation is dedicated to providing the best specifications, technology, process and certification to achieve multivendor, multiplatform, secure, reliable interoperability for moving data and information from the embedded world to the enterprise cloud. The Foundation serves over 600 members worldwide in the Industrial Automation, IT, IoT, IIoT, M2M, Industry 4.0, Building Automation, machine tools, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and Smart Energy sectors. For more information about the OPC Foundation, please visit https://opcfoundation.org.

About Schneider Electric

Schneider Electric is leading the Digital Transformation of Energy Management and Automation in Homes, Buildings, Data Centers, Infrastructure and Industries.

With global presence in over 100 countries, Schneider is the undisputable leader in Power Management – Medium Voltage, Low Voltage and Secure Power, and in Automation Systems. We provide integrated efficiency solutions, combining energy, automation and software.

In our global Ecosystem, we collaborate with the largest Partner, Integrator and Developer Community on our Open Platform to deliver real-time control and operational efficiency.

We believe that great people and partners make Schneider a great company and that our commitment to Innovation, Diversity and Sustainability ensures that Life Is On everywhere, for everyone and at every moment.

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