OPC DataHub Attracts UK Distributor

M.A.C Solutions, a leading distributor of OPC techology in the UK, sees the OPC DataHub as an ideal open-standards solution.

Georgetown, Ontario (November 5, 2007) Cogent Real-Time Systems has recently reached an agreement with M.A.C Solutions in the United Kingdom to distribute the OPC DataHub. M.A.C Solutions, a leading provider of automation control solutions, believes strongly in the value of open standards, and regards the OPC DataHub as the perfect complement to their current hardware and OPC server lines.

"The OPC DataHub is multi-faceted, with something for everyone," said Dave Hammond, Product Manager at M.A.C Solutions. "Secure tunnelling is of great interest at the moment, as well as email and SMS messaging. Of course, sending OPC data to MES and ERP systems is vital, and viewing data on the web is quite handy as well. It is really a complete package."

"We are pleased to have such a highly qualified distributor in the UK," said Andrew Thomas, President of Cogent. "M.A.C Solutions has strong marketing skills, and they recognize the value of open standards like OPC, ODBC, TCP, and others, that the OPC DataHub supports.

"We envision a three-step process in implementing open standards," said Dave Hammond. He outlined these steps as follows:

Step 1"From closed point-to-point connections between devices to open, Ethernet-based technologies."
Step 2"From closed proprietary protocols to the open standard of OPC."
Step 3"From OPC to the appropriate open-standard format, such as TCP and the web, ODBC, email and SMS messages, DDE and Excel, and so on."

"Step 3 is where the OPC DataHub fits into our picture," continued Dave. "We have used various OPC clients over the years to do one task or another, but the OPC DataHub is a single tool that can do any or all of them. We are excited by the possibilities."

The OPC DataHub gives quick, reliable, and secure access to valuable information direct from the factory floor. It is an integrated tool that can present live process data directly on an engineer's or manager's desk in a form most suitable: database, spreadsheet, or web page. It provides OPC tunnelling, bridging, and aggregation, and has a free API to support virtually any type of OPC connectivity required.

M.A.C Solutions specialises in providing connectivity reporting solutions to industrial customers. They are the UK experts in network-based, automatic backup solutions for control systems devices, such as PLCs, based wholly upon 100% open, vendor-independent, world-wide standards including TCP/IP, Ethernet, OPC, Web-servers, SQL databases, and PDF documents.

Founded in 1995, Cogent Real-Time Systems is the leader in real-time cross-platform data integration between Windows, Linux and QNX. Customers include the Bank of Canada, Cadbury Chocolate and the European Space Agency. Cogent leverages its experience in real-time data communications to provide the next generation of OPC products.