Remote access to industrial devices has many undeniable advantages. In the case of a machine failure it enables you to reprogram or repair the machine much faster. The technician dealing with the problem does not have to be physically present on site – whether they are in a neighbouring plant or thousands of kilometres away they have access to the machine via their computer or tablet. This is certainly very cost-effe…

Implementing continuous diagnostics of your industrial network does not necessarily mean that you have to rebuild it. Deployment can be easy – even when it comes to huge machines. See for yourself in this case study about mining machines in northern Bohemia.

The OPC UA communications standard has made OPC communications much easier to use. We're seeing an increasing number of devices with an integrated OPC UA server, which enable such systems as HMI SCADA, MES and ERP to collect data directly from them. Yet there are also disadvantages. Let's look at what OPC UA is all about and why you still can't do without a classic OPC server on your computer.