[foxboro] Invensys Showcase ArchestrA Wrapup

I got back to the office after the big Invensys Showcase.  That sounds a 
lot like the Price is Right's "Showcase Showdown."  I wonder if Bob Barker 
will sue them. I've already got a can of Pringles and a roll of toilet 
paper on top of the monitor so Everest is looking like a sure bet.

Anyway, the theme of the meeting was ArchestrA.  What it is, and what it 
means to you. After attending a number of seminars on ArchestrA, I think I 
have a pretty good idea of what we are looking at. But I'd like to open a 
discussion on the list to see if I got it right.

What is it?
Ask 4 Invensys employees, get 4 answers.  Reminds me of the blind men and 
the elephant story.  Everyone tells you about the part they interact with, 
but the big picture is elusive.

"ArchestrA is the comprehensive industrial automation and information 
architecture that orchestrates a new way to run or expand older plants more 
efficiently, and an optimal way to build new plants." - from the Invensys 
web site.

Well that clears up a lot.

Actually Invensys has a FAQ for the "product" that is somewhat more helpful.
Here's the link for it.

http://www.invensys.com/divisions/Archestra_faq.html

and a few white papers from the Wonderware folks

http://www.invensys.com/divisions/Archestra_white.html

After reading the FAQ and discussing things amongst the some of the users 
at the conference, here's what the general thinking is.  All of these items 
should not be considered correct, but open for discussion.

1)
ArchestrA is not a product.
It is a way of handling data that all of the Invensys products will 
eventually employ.  It's more of a design philosophy that all of the 
Invensys family promises to use. In some of the publications they call it a 
"next generation automation software platform."  That seems a bit 
overblown.  It's more an attempt to use a common language to communicate 
with applications.

2)
Archestra is not really here yet.
Although Invensys is moving rapidly to put out products that have the 
"Architecture by ArchestrA" stamp of approval, the first ones out the gate 
will be from Wonderware in an anticipated January release.  It includes a 
data server that uses the Archestra model.  It will still probably be at 
least a year before the new IACC control configurator component of I/A is 
using ArchestrA.  That will be the start of the convergence for the I/A 
system core components.

3)
We can and can't ignore it.
The existing Foxboro components will continue to work and be supported, so 
we can safely ignore ArchestrA for the time being.

All new Invensys development will be focused on ArchestrA so the newer 
tools will be ArchestrA based.  So it's get on board or get left behind.

4)
It's a Microsoft model.
Yup, it's all based on .NET and XML which is the direction that Microsoft 
is pushing. The plan is for your existing Unix equipment to communicate to 
an ArchestrA (XP at the moment) platform via the api and then viola' your 
ready to play in the ArchestrA sandbox.

Gee that's great.

Of course there's an open source movement to port .NET to linux et al. ala 
Samba.

http://www.go-mono.com/


And here's a bit from the Infoworld web site.

"SEATTLE -- MICROSOFT called on some of its top software executives 
Wednesday at a developer gathering here as it prepares to release the next 
version of its server operating system, which is expected to ease some 
server management and security headaches for customers.

Here at Microsoft's Windows .Net Server DevCon, the theme is evangelism, 
and the company is aiming to persuade of its largest customers to adopt the 
new server operating system in parts of the organization that historically 
have chosen systems known to be better suited for running large 
applications, such as Unix."

And .NET Server is just what Invensys is banking on.

5)
It's an open standard.
OK, so where do I download the specs?  Huh!  I thought so.
Invensys wants a lot of developers to embrace the "standard".  Although the 
odds of a major automation player embracing the standard are "admittedly 
slim" they would like "second tier third party" (now that's funny) vendors 
to produce products that use the ArchestrA framework.


Conclusion.

ArchestrA is a common intermediate layer that lets all of the Invensys 
products talk to each other.  It's going to happen whether we like it or 
not.  It will be a Microsoft based solution with hooks back into the older 
I/A applications, but the future development focus will be Microsoft 
based.  It's not some revolutionary idea like they would have you believe, 
but a tool to help Invensys better unify ( they say harmonize )it's product 
offerings.  It will matter to you more if you use a lot of different 
Invensys products.  In the immediate future it will have a minimal impact 
on I/A users.  In the long run it should open up more applications for use 
by I/A users. The Solaris platform will be supported, but is being phased 
out, if by nothing other than  development neglect.

If there is enough interest on the list we might want to start an ArchestrA 
special interest group as a separate list and publish a digest back to the 
Foxboro list once a week.  It's a thought.


Regards,
David Johnson


PREMIER System Integrators
Phone:  (256) 355-1732
Fax:    (256) 355-9088
Email   David.Johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 
 
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