Softing Inc., a global provider of products for industrial automation, IT networks and automotive electronics, has released dataFEED OPC UA Tunnel, a new method to help customers secure communications between PLCs and business applications. Additionally, dataFEED OPC Suite version 5.30 can now move process data from PLCs to an InfluxDB database for storage.
Customers can now connect OPC Classic PLCs to OPC Classic clients through the OPC UA Tunnel with dataFEED. This allows for easy and secure access to OPC Classic servers across network boundaries and firewalls without DCOM configuration requirements of OPC Classic. Using export and import, configuring each tunnel is quick and easy. Because the OPC UA Tunnel uses standard OPC UA security mechanisms, including user authentication via certificates as well as data signing and encryption, this ensures maximum protection.
The OPC UA Tunnel extends the security benefits of dataFEED OPC Suite, which connects over 25 different types of PLC and specializes in Siemens connectivity. The dataFEED OPC Suite provides business systems with data access via databases and protocols like OPC, OPC UA, MQTT and REST to help manufacturing and process plants perform analytics and monitoring for process optimization. The dataFEED OPC UA suite currently supports 50 OPC UA Tunnel connections. Additionally, dataFEED OPC Suite version 5.30 allows process data storage in an InfluxDB for subsequent processing and analysis. InfluxDB is one of the most widely used NoSQL databases and ensures extensive scalability, high availability and fast writing and reading.
The dataFEED OPC Suite Extended is a complete package for OPC communication and cloud connectivity, providing access to the controllers of leading manufacturers and to industrial internet of things (IIoT) devices. The suite acts as a gateway between the two OPC standards, allowing for integration between existing OPC Classic components and applications into modern Industry 4.0 OPC UA solutions.