Two-tier approach to enterprise connectivity debuts
by Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 8/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
Ron Monday, CEO of Online Development, says a three-tier approach to plant/enterprise connectivity—via PC-based supervisory control software, for example—can be costly and complex, even as it introduces information latencies and security threats. On the other hand, says Monday, an appliance-based approach—using something that looks much like a Cisco router—has many advantages. "First of all, it gives plant-floor managers control of their own data, without being overly reliant on programmers," says Monday. "Plant managers tell me every time they call IT, it costs them $5,000. This is cheap compared to that."
Online's xCoupler module is the first in a series of enterprise transaction appliances that snap into the backplane of a PLC for two-tier data exchange between plant-floor devices and enterprise servers in their native language.
