Wonderware releases FactorySuite A2 industrial application server

Lake Forest, CA—To add support for Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 operating system and Stratus’ ftServer hardware, Wonderware released Sept. 25 its new FactorySuite A2 Industrial Application Server, version 1.5 which is built on the ArchestrA software architecture.

By Control Engineering Staff September 30, 2003

Lake Forest, CA— To add support for Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 operating system and Stratus’ ftServer hardware, Wonderware released Sept. 25 its new FactorySuite A2Industrial Application Server, version 1.5 which is built on the ArchestrA software architecture. FactorySuite A21.5 supports Windows Server 2003 running on any associated hardware, and ftServer’s continuous-availability servers. Wonderware is a business unit of Invensys Systems Inc.

FactorySuite A21.5 has been thoroughly tested on the newly released Windows Server 2003 operating system, enabling users to immediately leverage its increased performance, functionality and scalability. It also supports Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows XP operating systems.

In addition, FactorySuite supports ftServer, which provides new, continuous-availability options for supervisory control and plant intelligence systems using FactorySuite’s products. Stratus’ products include ftServer 3300 series, a cost-effective, fault-tolerant server designed for continuous uptime.

‘Wonderware’s timely support of Windows Server 2003 in the Industrial Application Server enables our customers to simplify and unify their automation and IT computing environments by using the latest Microsoft .NET technology across their automation and information domains,’ says Steve Lewarne, product marketing VP for the Wonderware and ArchestrA business units. ‘In addition, the ability to leverage the Stratus ftServer family meets our customers’ desire to use the Industrial Application Server software in mission-critical, continuous operating environments.

‘This is further proof that both the Industrial Application Server and the underlying ArchestrA architecture have been designed to easily keep pace with the latest technologies and the industrial marketplace as a whole.’

Industrial Application Server also offers new enhancements that provide even more capable FactorySuite A2solutions, which enable increased performance, robustness, upward scalability, high availability, improved alarm and system management and object validation. It further decreases application engineering costs by adding several reusable component templates designed for plant intelligence and calculations, such as Event Monitor, SQL Server Access, OLE-DB Access and Generic Calculator application objects.

Industrial Application Server also provides real-time data acquisition, alarm and event management, data manipulation services and collaborative engineering capabilities, which have been designed from the ground up for use across a broad range of industrial applications. Its primary benefits to industry include significantly reduced engineering time, lower cost of application ownership and maintenance, scalability, flexibility and an extensible software framework.

Control Engineering Daily News DeskJim Montague, news editorjmontague@reedbusiness.com