[foxboro] OPEN LETTER TO THE AUTOMATION SOFTWARE INDUSTRY (Jim Pinto eNews)
- From: "Joseph M. Riccardi" <Joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "'Foxboro Free List'" <foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:58:27 -0500
Folks,
I may not be using this list for how it was intended, but thought I would
pass on an excerpt from another industry-related mailing list; the infamous
Jim Pinto eNews. It just touches on a number of issues that surface
periodically in this list. It appears that there are other Invensys/Foxboro
customers screaming elsewhere to get them to listen ...
He/She may even be one of us ...
This "open letter" letter was sent by an engineer who has significant
background and experience in industrial automation software. He includes
some interesting insights and comparisons between Siemens, Rockwell and
Invensys/Wonderware. It's unusual for an engineer to "speak out" like this -
I thought this forum would be an appropriate one for his remarks. The author
wishes to remain anonymous, because he continues to do business with all the
companies discussed.
"I'm a customer of Invensys, Rockwell, and Siemens. Our companies investment
in each is substantial. "Siemens seems to be much more of a top-down
engineering company, whereas Rockwell seems to have a more "middle of the
road" approach to product engineering. Often, fundamental usability features
are left unaddressed for many months or years by Siemens, because they
didn't think the customer would need them. Rockwell seems more responsive.
On the other hand, Siemens is definitely in for the long haul. They try to
engineer their products so that there is always a viable upgrade path.
Rockwell products are more "disposable" - though in fairness, if you pay
their asking price you'll get support. "Comments about Wonderware and
comparisons to Intellution and Rockwell Software are interesting to me. We
use Wonderware and we're looking at alternatives. The real problem, however,
is the industry's insistence on using a Microsoft Windows platform. Even the
standards like OPC are based upon this unfortunate limitation. "The big
issues for us these days are security and patch management. Unfortunately,
these are the weakest elements of Microsoft's operating systems. The problem
isn't the lack of security; it's the haphazard nature of the security models
they're using. I suspect it's possible to secure a 2003 Windows box well
enough to expose it to the Internet safely, but most people don't know how.
"Furthermore, with many standards insist on the use of DCOM objects. I think
it's dangerous to expose our control systems to our own Intranet, let alone
the big bad Internet. "Finally, I think it's time software vendors got a
clue about where the real money is: Integration and Maintenance. I'm tired
of endless license tracking. It's expensive. I'm tired of these endless
releases of new OS which we have to keep up with. I'm tired of these
products morphing day after day, forcing us to upgrade what we have, whether
we like it or not. In some areas, we're two major releases behind current
offerings. We don't see much benefit to upgrading either. "So while you guys
are busy looking at all this feature development, you should know that we
are thinking at a more basic level: The OS. "It's time to think about moving
away from Microsoft and go either toward a more embedded system using well
known standards to communicate, or to a generic POSIX based environment.
We're holding back our dollars until that happens. We don't like where we
are, and we sure don't like where the offerings in this industry are. This
foolishness needs to end soon..."
Joseph M. Riccardi
DCS Services - Industrial Process Control
<mailto:Joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
"To give real service you must add something that cannot be bought or
measured with money; and that is sincerity and integrity." - Donald A. Adams
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