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		Effective OPC Security for Control Systems - 09/26/11 September 2011 By Eric Byres and Darek Kominek By While the consequences of cyber attacks and malware are no longer in doubt, the question remains, "Exactly how can an engineer reliably secure his or her control system?" This white paper outlines a simple and cost effective answer – a security solution based on OPC technology that can be deployed in almost any industrial facility today.

		Redundancy for OPC - 06/23/11 Automation.com, June 2011 By Robert McIlvride and Andew Thomas, Cogent Real-Time Systems What does redundancy look like in an OPC-based system? A typical scenario would have two OPC servers connected either to a single device or PLC, or possibly duplicate devices or PLCs. Those two OPC servers would then connect to some kind of OPC redundancy management software.

		Effective OPC Security for Control Systems - 04/19/11 By Eric Byres, Byres Security, and Darek Kominek, MatrikonOPC White Paper explains the security advantages of limiting network interfaces and protocols, and recommends using OPC as a communications standard because of its ease of use and its widespread deployment. Registration required to view paper.

		Using OPC Math & Logic - 02/15/11 By Cyberlogic The Math & Logic feature allows a user to program mathematical and logical operations that the OPC server will perform on its data. These operations can range from simple averaging calculations or pass/fail decisions up to complex operations involving algebraic and trigonometric functions, string manipulation, data sorting and Boolean expressions.

		OPC: The Ins and Outs to What It’s About - 12/14/10 By Darek Kominek, MatrikonOPC The Every Man’s Guide to OPC is an easy-to-read overview of the most popular industrial open connectivity standard - OPC. This paper first introduces the main idea behind OPC, shows why OPC is different from conventional (often proprietary) communication protocols, and explains how OPC helps overcome the limitations of such native protocols.


		Top 5 OPC Questions Integrators Need To Ask - 10/16/10 By Matrikon While OPC connectivity should reduce system complexity and save project time, there is the potential for expectations and cost to go astray if certain project risks aren’t properly managed. There are five important questions integrators need to ask to ensure the success of any major OPC implementation.

		OPC Server in Automation - 03/11/10 By Moxa Network management software compatible with SNMP is hard to learn and hard to use, and as a consequence did not gain widespread acceptance by control engineers. In this paper, we discuss the current status of OPC, and why you can benefit from using OPC Server in the automation industry.

		Facilities Management Solutions - 01/14/10 By Jim Bishop, Wonderware The biggest problem in building automation, identified by organizations like LonMark and Echelon, is the proprietary distribution models offered by established Building Automation System (BAS) suppliers. This white paper describes Wonderware’s Facilities Management Software Solution.

		OPC UA: 5 Things Everyone Needs To Know - 01/14/10 By Eric Murphy, Matrikon What exactly is OPC UA and what does it mean to you? When will products be ready? Can you implement it and should you be doing it now? Not to mention questions about security, scalability and backwards compatibility. These questions are best summed up in the five things everyone needs to know about OPC UA.

		Secure OPC Tunneling: Know Your Options - 07/16/09 By Software Toolbox & Cogent Real-Time Systems Anyone who has attempted to network OPC knows that it is challenging, at best. There are many options and solutions in the market that attempt to solve this challenge. This whitepaper shows how tunneling technologies solve the issues associated with networking OPC and what to look for in a tunneling product.

		Optimizing OPC Communications with OPC Middleware Products By Wolfgang Langer and Juergen Lange, Softing OPC middleware products are designed to enhance any OPC-based application. An intelligent set of OPC products simplifies the commissioning and operation of OPC clients and servers, significantly improves the data throughput of your OPC interfaces, and ensures reliable OPC communication links.

		Enterprise Mobility for Manufacturing Whitepaper - 01/21/09 By Motorola Enterprise mobility has emerged as a top strategic initiative among leading global organizations. This white paper provides insight into the advantages gained by deploying mobile solutions in manufacturing. The paper reveals how manufacturing firms have empowered their workers with mobile solutions and significantly increased their effectiveness. Based on feedback from over 6,000 decision-makers and more than 2,500 mobile workers, the white paper addresses key questions.

		Introduction to OPC for Building Automation - 07/16/08 By Darek Kominek, Matrikon HMIs, historians, and analysis and reporting packages that originate in the process control industry may not have drivers that support such protocols as BACnet or other building automation protocols. OPC can solve the problem.

		Implementing Successful OPC Projects - 04/09/08 By Eric Murphy, MatrikonOPC The issues associated with OPC projects include multiple data paths, data throughput, guaranteed data delivery and redundancy, network interoperability, communication disruption and recovery, maintainability and geographically disperse systems.

		Creating Secure OPC Architectures - 03/07/08 By Adriel Michaud, MatrikonOPC Technical guide on how to secure typical OPC implementations. It covers OPC DA, HDA, and A&E, securing OPC Servers from unauthorized OPC Client access, and restricting authorized OPC Clients to only the functions necessary.

		Using Operator Interfaces to Optimize Performance of Industrial Wireless Networks - 10/06/07 By Jim Ralston, Prosoft Technology This article will explore the use of a wireless diagnostic OLE for Process Control (OPC) server technology to embed diagnostic information in human machine interfaces (HMIs), thus optimizing industrial wireless network performance.

		Tunneling Process Data Securely Through Firewalls By Integration Objects 12-page paper describes OPCNet Broker software, which employs the OPC communication standard without the need for DCOM. The technology increases the security of data and the overall usability of the solution.

		OPC UA: An End-User’s Perspective OPC UA (Unified Architecture) represents the OPC Foundation’s most recent set of specifications for Process Control and Automation system interconnectivity. This paper explains OPC UA from the perspective of the organization that will benefit from the connectivity, in other words: the End User.

		Taking out the Garbage: Making Windows XP suitable as a HMI Platform By Marty Huff, MSI Tec Windows XP can provide a robust HMI environment, and has several advantages over either Windows CE or Linux. Out of the box, however, Windows XP is not suitable to act as a HMI / SCADA platform. There are several "tricks" that can be performed to "take out the garbage" thus creating a stable, robust, and secure environment for your application.

		Communicating Building Information Across the Enterprise with OPC and BACnet By Eric Murphy, MatrikonOPC Building automation systems have information to relay about energy management, optimized operating conditions, and asset utilization. Unfortunately, they are all speaking different languages and running into application barriers. These systems can be connected and the obstacles overcome using standard, open protocols: OPC and BACnet.

		Winning the Battle for Interoperability By Eric Murphy, MatrikonOPC End users who purchase OPC-compliant products expect reliability, full data information integrity and validated, secure interoperability. The product should seamlessly integrate with existing architecture. To ensure this, the OPC Foundation created the OPC Enhanced Certification Program.

		Communicating To the Enterprise Isn’t Science Fiction By Eric Murphy, MatrikonOPC Organizations are using OPC to integrate realtime and historic building information into existing business applications to improve the balance between people, infrastructure, facilities and their overall impact on the enterprise bottom line.

		Troubleshooting OPC and DCOM: Quick Start Guide by Randy Kondor, OPC Training Institute OPC is a powerful industrial communication standard. However, OPC relies on having DCOM work properly. Luckily, DCOM problems can usually be overcome with relatively simple configuration changes as documented in this whitepaper.

		OPC & DCOM: 5 things you need to know by Randy Kondor, OPC Training Institute OPC technology relies on Microsoft's COM and DCOM to exchange data between automation hardware and software; however it can be frustrating for new users to configure DCOM properly. This whitepaper discusses the steps necessary to get DCOM working properly and securely.

Automation.com Real-time Information for the Automation Professional Feb. 06, 2012

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