National Instruments 'connected with' Kepware

• National Instruments LabVIEW connects to hundreds of PLCs through collaboration with Kepware

PORTLAND, ME, Sept. 24, 2007 -- Kepware Technologies today announced that it was selected as a provider of communications technology to National Instruments (NI), allowing engineers and scientists using LabVIEW to easily incorporate advanced measurements, analysis, and control into their existing industrial systems.

The latest generation of Kepware's OPC server technology, KEPServerEX, was designed to allow users to quickly setup communications from equipment to control systems via a wide range of available "plug-in" device drivers and components. NI used KEPServerEX technology to create the new NI OPC Server. Automation users can now use the NI OPC Server to incorporate LabVIEW into their automation systems with concurrent connections to multiple PLCs.

"NI is a leading vendor in the test, measurement, and control marketplaces and we are excited to have been selected as a supplier of industrial communications technology to NI," said Roy Kok, VP of Marketing and Sales for Kepware Technologies, "This relationship will significantly enhance the ability of NI to serve the automation marketplace with its industrial measurement and control solutions."

"A guiding principle for NI is openness, and working with Kepware enables our customers to easily connect NI platforms with their existing automation systems," said John Hanks, Vice President of Product Marketing at National Instruments, "Kepware products have an excellent reputation in the marketplace, and we are confident that this relationship will enable NI customers to more easily optimize their existing automation systems with NI tools for machine vision, data acquisition, and embedded control technologies."

"Manufacturers are expressing a desire to procure their OPC communications solutions, both client and server, from a single source", according to Craig Resnick, Research Director at ARC Advisory Group. "This capability is critical for suppliers who would like to make further inroads and eliminate barriers to entry into the industrial automation market. National Instruments' relationship with Kepware, along with their support for OPC, will make their industrial communications capabilities a non-issue going forward by enhancing the ability of their products to communicate with devices on the plant floor. Manufacturers benefit from not having to contend with a myriad of suppliers, custom interfaces, or drivers to achieve device communication."

Kepware is a leader in communication software for automation and offers unique experience in both OPC and embedded device communications. Since its beginning in 1995, Kepware has focused on the development of communication drivers to automation controllers, I/O and field devices.

National Instruments empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 25,000 different companies worldwide.

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