Microsoft , OPC (OLE for Process Control) and IOT

Object Linking and Embedding is a Microsoft developed technology for the Windows OS. Most of you must have used it one time or another. OLE Client and OLE Server based technology that was present in most of Microsoft products.

The OPC Foundation started by industrial automation vendors took OLE, COM and DCOM one step further to create the basic specification for OLE Process Control which is Universal.

Basically the standard focuses on interoperability of device instrumentation; controllers that utilize device information output; software and enterprise systems.

There are several specification groups in the OPC standards such as:
OPC Data Access
OPC Alarms and Events
OPC Batch
OPC Data Exchange
OPC Security
OPC XML-Data Access
and many more including a Certification Process. Read more about certified products here:

https://opcfoundation.org/certified-products

Read more here:
https://opcfoundation.org/

Pioneering the 4th industrial operation, the OPC Unified Architecture making the IoT to happen.
Make sure you get this PDF from here:
https://opcfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/OPC_UA_I_4.0_Pioneer_US_v2.pdf