I was encouraged by people's response to OPC UA during last week's SPS Drive Show in Germany.  It's exciting to know that vendors are working hard to release their UA products.  So I thought I would check with my friends at the OPC Training Institute (http://www.opcti.com) who work with the End-Users and Integrators.

The latest sessions were in Houston, London, and Oslo.  The general consensus is OPC UA provides a powerful data model that can describe almost any object at the plant.  From sensors and valves, to bumps and boilers, to actual plant units!  The hands-on exercises even have students test out the new data transportation mechanism by having them connect OPC products over the Internet without requiring any additional tunneling products.  New training sessions are already scheduled for Asia and Australia, and more sessions are on the way in the United States and Europe.

OPC UA products are coming online, while End-Users and Integrators are already getting trained.  The pieces of the puzzle are coming together quickly, and that's very exciting to see!  If you're wondering what the End-Users are thinking about OPC UA, I encourage you to read the whitepaper titled "OPC UA: An End-User’s Perspective".  Check it out at http://www.opcti.com/OPC-UA-End-User-Details.aspx.

  I am sure you'll get an interesting viewpoint.