[this announcement is available online at https://s.apache.org/ABqy ]
Open Source universal protocol adapter powers Industry 4.0 by connecting and
integrating Industrial hardware and IoT edge gateways once blocked by
closed-source, proprietary legacy systems, incompatible protocols, and vendor
lock-in.
Wakefield, MA —23 April 2019— The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the
all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of more than 350 Open Source
projects and initiatives, announced today Apache® PLC4X™ as a Top-Level Project
(TLP). Apache PLC4X also has the designation as being the 200th project to
graduate from the Apache Incubator.
Apache PLC4X is a universal protocol adapter for creating Industrial IoT
applications through a set of libraries that allow unified access to a wide
range of industrial programmable logic controllers (PLCs) using a variety of
protocols with a shared API. The project was originally developed at
codecentric AG, and entered the Apache Incubator in December 2017.
"There is a lot of hype about 'Industry 4.0,' 'industrial IoT,' and
'digitization', however, there's unfortunately been no viable way to access
industrial PLCs from the Open Source world," said Christofer Dutz, Vice
President of Apache PLC4X. "Apache PLC4X is the missing link between Open
Source and the reality on today's industrial shop floor. We are proud that
PLC4X is helping redefine how industrial software is created, and graduating as
an Apache Top-Level Project is an important milestone in solidifying our
project's maturity."
Connectivity and integration across industrial hardware and IoT edge gateways
is often impossible with closed-source, proprietary legacy systems,
incompatible protocols, and locked-in vendor solutions. Not only is Apache
PLC4X an API for communicating with industrial hardware, it also provides a set
of drivers for communicating using a variety of industrial protocols. In
addition, PLC4X ships with a wide variety of integration modules to make it
easy to use in other Open Source solutions and frameworks.
Companies needing unified access to any type of industrial PLCs are choosing
Apache PLC4X to capture actionable intelligence through a growing number of
interconnected systems and sensors.
"We build industrial IoT solutions and do edge computing in the industrial
ecosystem, thus PLC connection is an important concern for us but no part of
our core business," said Julian Feinauer, CEO at pragmatic industries GmbH. "As
there were no open alternatives, we used our own home-made stack for PLC
communication and regularly had issues with edge cases or bugs. We moved to
Apache PLC4X about half a year ago and already see the payoff of the initial
efforts. Since moving to PLC4X we see a massive performance boost, have
connectors to more types of PLCs, and reached very good stability."
"At first we intended to use OPC-UA to establish a connection between our
software and the PLC in question," said Andreas Wieland, Technology Consultant
at Intelligent Data Analytics GmbH & Co. KG. "We decided to switch to Apache
PLC4X for various reasons. One of the major advantages PLC4X has over OPC-UA is
a measurable performance improvement and higher responsiveness due to its
direct low-level access of variables provided by the PLC. With PLC4X we are
able to support a wide range of systems without additional effort or the need
of making changes to our software while keeping compatibility to a number of
well-known standards."
"Cost and lack of interoperability are significant hurdles in the digital
transformation of the shop floor," said Dr. Boris Adryan, Chief Digital
Organization at Merck KGaA. "Open Source software can help to overcome these
hurdles. We've assessed Apache PLC4X on a training setup for chemical engineers
and plant operators, and find it a valuable addition to our toolbox of OT/IT
interfaces."
Written in Java with support for various protocols including S7-Step7, Modbus,
EtherNet/IP, and Beckhoff ADS, future versions of Apache PLC4X will include
versions in C++ and C#, as well as support for BACnet, Emerson DeltaV,
KNXNet/IP, Profinet, and other protocols. In addition to providing integrations
modular to Apache IoT projects such as Apache Camel, Apache Edgent
(incubating), Apache Kafka, and Apache NiFi, the project is planning to also
add Apache Brooklyn and Apache Mynewt, among others.
"The past two years have been very challenging, but also very rewarding. It is
clear how Apache PLC4X can really help make a difference, and we’re excited to
build upon our work thus far," added Dutz. "We invite those interested to join
us and help bring the benefits of The Apache Way in developing open software,
open communities, and sharing knowledge to the industry."
Catch Apache PLC4X in action at Jug Thüringen (18 June in Erfurt, Germany),
ApacheCon North America (9-12 September in Las Vegas, United States), and
ApacheCon Europe (22-24
