FDT Group announces Executive Committee approval of FDT IIoT Server (FITS) specification for release to the FDT membership

June 25, 2019 – FDT Group, an independent, international, not-for-profit industry association supporting the evolution of FDT technology, announced that its Executive Committee has approved the FDT IIoT Server (FITS) specification for release to the FDT membership for final review.

The emerging FITS standard, set to release at year-end, will provide control system and device vendors with the opportunity to advance their intelligent automation solution offerings with FDT's standards-based, platform-independent, information-driven business models meeting the demands of the process and discrete markets. FITS is intended to empower the intelligent enterprise by transforming manufacturing practices, enabling open, secure and flexible deployment architectures and sensor-to-cloud integration with embedded OPC Unified Architecture (UA) and Web Servers, as well as built-in security features and deployment options for cloud, edge, on-premise and desktop environments.

FDT Group was founded in 1990s by a group of automation vendors during the Third Industrial Revolution to alleviate the stress of system/device incompatibility due to proprietary approaches. The foundational goal of the organization's standard was to fix interoperability issues for end users by empowering them with open access to device intelligence with the freedom to choose systems/devices that best fit their application, and seamlessly connect and communicate independent of the chosen vendor or network. Over the years, the standard has evolved from a single-user, desktop environment to a distributed, multi-user client/server approach with OPC UA compatibility for enterprise-wide integration and asset management. FDT has gained global, industry-wide acceptance and today is known as the de-facto integration and information-sharing standard across the automation sector with millions of FDT Device Type Managers (FDT/DTMs) and FDT/FRAME-enabled systems deployed.

FDT's leadership team approved the transformation journey into the Fourth Industrial Revolution era with the emerging FITS standard for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industrie 4.0 applications. "Soon, control system and device suppliers will be able to take a well-established standard they are familiar with and expand their portfolio offerings to meet requirements for next generation applications," said Glenn Schulz, managing director of the FDT Group. "FDT/FITS-based solutions, including FITS Servers and FITS DTMs, will meet the demands of today’s rapidly advancing smart plants and factories."

Approval by the FDT Executive Committee to release the FITS specification to the membership brings the standard one step closer to its official launch to the public later this year. A modernized integration development environment (IDE) and test tools will simultaneously release with the FITS specification, allowing automation suppliers to jump-start development of FDT-based universal solutions meeting market demands.
 

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