Data Integration
In my opinion, we need another major heading here for an important part of your user group. I see 4 major audiences, we have 1) Customer/Operators 2) Customer/Engineers 3) LBP Engineers 4) LBP Data Integrators. I haven't come across any (serious) Customer Data Integrators yet.
Like every other system I've dealt with, DeltaV needs to be usable from an integrators standnpoint. No system can operate in a vacuum any more. This means, I should be able to hook into services that use current technologies and have my code respond to the events occuring in the control system as well as call methods and have the control system respond accordingly. I realize this presents challenges to the "Security" major topic but it is doable.
I realize integration is currently available using OPC. Yes, OPC is a good communication layer, however it is slow by today's standards and still relies on COM at its core. In my opinion, because it is combersome to implement, it is not typically implemented as Securely as it should be.
Let's implement the new DeltaV so Integrators can have the pleasant experience of calling a true Service Oriented Architecture. I don't want just a service layer that is done as an after-throught that wrappers the core. I need to be able to call the SAME methods, properties and events that are being used at the core.
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Data Integration
Yes, Emerson has products for customers to purchase. However, many of them are scaled to achieve a wholistic need. Most of our customers have these systems or their non-emerson systems in place but need a hole filled. Eg. Take data from 6 systems (DeltaV being one); aggrigate it to one data source and give us a reporting system using all of the data. Then, based on a System1.value1 and SystemX.value3 have DeltaV perform X function.
That is where a Data Integration Engineer like myself comes to play. Our team is kept quite busy filling these specific needs. Currently, DeltaV is not a system architected to cater to Integrators.
What I mean is, it is not best practices of an integrator to go after a system at its core. Eg. database queries, config files, etc. Instead, DeltaV should have a services layer designed by Emerson that allows me to activate DeltaV functionality from an external custom system. Eg. Change DeltaV alarm bool value from a 0 to a 1 when X happens in the customer's proprietary MES system.
Data Integration
S95 suggests that integration should be done at level 3. Syncade is the Emerson level 3 product. It integrates with DeltaV seamlessly and has OPC, web services and other hooks to interface to many different packages. It has been interfaced to several PLC's, SAP, Maximo, and a couple LIMS packages so far.
Lynn Richard