The other day I was on a call with an engineer that was experiencing serious issues getting data from his control network historian (whose vendor *ahem* shall remain nameless) into their centralized corporate historian (whose vendor *ahem* shall also remain nameless). The problem: the data synchronization would drop out, causing them pain with their regulator. If they were found with gaps in their history, they could face serious fines.

When it comes to integrating historians from multiple vendors, there be dragons. Thousands of screens and reports built on proprietary tools, an existing user base resistant to change, and all the added expense of migration. What a headache.

High pressure sales from both sides wanted to standardize on one solution, and they were promising the moon, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars in software alone. But were the efficiencies gained really worth the pain? Each historian on its own worked fine. It was the synchronization tools that were inadequate, and neither vendor had an interest in making it easy. There had to be an easier way out.

Well there was. Fortunately both of his historians supported OPC-HDA. So we were able to recommend he try OPC HistoryLink, the world’s first true vendor-neutral Historian Integration tool. Using OPC-HDA, he could synchronize his process historians together, while protecting the integrity of his data during communication outages. Now he could safely consolidate data for corporate reporting, while leaving control network users access and control over their own data. Both corporate and control personnel could have their cake and eat it too.

Best of all, OPC HistoryLink protected his existing investment in process history, and saved him the expense of rip-and-replace. Sometimes, even in the world of manufacturing and engineering , there are happily ever afters.