Ready to Go.  That was the message from Reinhold Achatz, head of Siemens Corporate Research and Technologies and OPC Foundation Board member, in his opening keynote address at the OPC UA 2008 DevCon in Munich this morning.  This pronouncement is backed by real action. Siemens has already released a major OPC UA enabled product line and is using OPC UA technology on a large power project.  “For a company like Siemens to commit to releasing both a product line AND use the technology on a significant project is not a simple decision.  We have to know that the technology we choose is reliable, and ready to be used in an industrial environment.  We believe OPC UA is ready to go”

In September 2008, Siemens released their SIMATIC NET OPC UA product which supports an OPC UA Server built on the OPC UA C++ implementation, as well as an OPC UA Client built using the OPC UA .NET SDK.   Achatz also outlined a Control Center Energy Transmission & Distribution project that uses OPC UA standardization work in IEC TC 57 WG 13 and is built using the C++ implementation.  This leaves little doubt that OPC UA is ready for primetime applications in the industrial setting.

The rest of the afternoon sessions built on the theme of OPC UA as a ready to go technology.  Tom Burke gave presentations on the motivating factors behind OPC and why so many companies are working on making OPC UA a success.  Jim Luth and Juergen Lange gave talks on more of the details of OPC UA and its architecture while Paul Hunkar outlined the process and importance of Certification and Compliance.  All and all an exciting first day.

Tomorrow promises more OPC UA details, demos and discussions.  Stay tuned.