Similarities between the Two Optionsīoth connectors leverage the ThingWorx AlwaysOn™ protocol, which provides efficient and secure communications within a local network or across wide area networks. It is a publish only interface that does not allow writing back to KEPServerEX-ideal for monitoring analytics applications where you do not need closed-loop control of the automation process. KEPServerEX with the ThingWorx Agent allows users to model their Things and map them to unique Remote Things within the ThingWorx server. The IoT Gateway’s ThingWorx Agent allows administrators to manage and control the environment by identifying what tags in KEPServerEX will be sent to one or multiple ThingWorx applications. This solution is ideal for those real-time, closed-loop applications where you want to rapidly model Things within ThingWorx utilizing KEPServerEX tags. The client interface provides bi-directional communication, meaning that users can read and write to tags (known as data properties in ThingWorx) after they’ve been modeled into Things. Once connected, users can model their data points into meaningful Things using a set of services for browsing, adding, and removing tags-all from within the ThingWorx IoT Platform. This interface includes a new KEPServerEX Extension available in the ThingWorx Marketplace that identifies all the KEPServerEX services available from within ThingWorx. The ThingWorx native client interface provides a direct connection to the ThingWorx IoT Platform with minimal configuration. To support tight integration across multiple use cases, Kepware has developed two different connectivity options to ThingWorx: the ThingWorx native client interface and the ThingWorx Agent in the IoT Gateway. When integrated, KEPServerEX provides real-time access to industrial data to developers creating applications in ThingWorx. For example, KEPServerEX can tell you the current value of a temperature tag but it does not model the temperature sensor as a discrete sensor. It does not provide tools for modeling the data.
KEPServerEX, on the other hand, provides device connectivity, protocol translation, and tools for efficiently moving industrial data from many devices to many applications. You can model just about any Thing within your industrial environment-a sensor, PLC, robot, or even an entire line.
The ThingWorx IoT Platform provides great tools for modeling your industrial Things. For example, if you plan on utilizing ThingWorx in the Cloud for applications like visualization, analytics, mobile, data mashups, for quality, productivity, reliability monitoring, and material tracking, you may choose a different strategy than if you were implementing a real-time, closed-loop, on-premise solution for monitoring and control of your industrial automation systems.
To support this wide range of use and application, Kepware extended the integration options available for connectivity between the platforms-providing users the ability to select the best integration method for their systems.īy taking a look at how users plan on implementing the ThingWorx IoT Platform, we can get a better sense of the best integration strategy between KEPServerEX and ThingWorx. Both KEPServerEX and ThingWorx are extremely flexible, and can be deployed in many different environments and integrated with a variety of solutions to meet customer needs. In KEPServerEX® version 5.21, Kepware’s industrial connectivity platform expanded interoperability with the ThingWorx® IoT Platform, the industry’s leading application development platform for Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
Tuesday, AugKEPServerEX and ThingWorx Integration Furthers Industrial IoT Posted by John Harrington