A blog posting from The Open Group’s Ed Harrington provided an update on progress on the TOG/ExxonMobil Open process automation forum, OPAF. OPAF was first floated in 2016 and has now published the Open Process Automation Standard, OPAS V 1.0, a TOG ‘preliminary’ standard. OPAS is described as ‘standard-of-standards’ that embeds ISA 62443 (security), OPC UA (communications) and DMTF Redfish for systems management. OPAS V1.0 is available from the TOG library.
OPAS sets out to ‘break the chain’ of proprietary non-interoperable process device software with a set of standard interfaces that will enable a ‘plug-and-play’ environment, ‘rather than being tied-in to a single vendor.’ OPAF has representation from several verticals, in particular oil and gas and petro-chemicals. Later in 2019 TOG is planning an interoperability workshop to test drive the emerging standard. On the drawing board is OPAF V2.0 which is to address ‘configuration portability’. The Forum is also working on a conformance certification program and a procurement guide to help end user organizations and systems integrators specify requirements. Harrington opined, ‘These are needed because a lot of this stuff is going to be a brave new world for industry participants’. See also the OPAF business guide.
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