3rd place: Softing's 'dataFEED OPC Suite' covers communication via the OPC standard as well as the implementation of big data solutions and integration into IoT clouds. Access to the controllers of all leading manufacturers is possible via the integrated OPC UA server.
Version V5.00 of the dataFEED OPC Suite includes store-and-forward functionality. This means that if the OPC UA connection is interrupted, the affected data is temporarily stored for up to one hour. As soon as the OPC UA connection is re-established, the data is transferred to the OPC UA client with a correct time stamp. The use of 'Store And Forward' has no effect on the security functions supported by OPC UA technology; for example, this functionality can be combined with user authentication or data encryption.
With version V5.10 of the 'dataFEED OPC Suite Extended', data can be received from an MQTT broker using an MQTT subscriber and forwarded to other applications or written to a controller via OPC UA. In addition, extensive and flexible data pre-processing options allow mathematical and logical calculations to be performed.
There will be two further releases in the course of 2021. Version V5.15, planned for June, will add the option of data type conversion and a 'Lua' script engine to the data preprocessing function. Release 5.20 in November 2021 will enable the integration of file-based legacy systems into modern Industry 4.0 solutions.