Securely Move Industrial Data Without DCOM Using OPC Tunneling

How can I avoid DCOM and remain secure?

OPC tunneling was created as an easier, more secure alternative to DCOM for remote OPC connections. There are four key limitations of DCOM, translating into four specific reasons to move to a Tunnel for OPC data.

• Configuring & supporting DCOM is difficult & costly
• DCOM lacks reliability, resilience, and efficiency
• DCOM notification is delayed on a network break
• Security of your data and network

Software Toolbox offers two methods of effectively tunneling your data: Data Tunneling and OPC-UA Tunneling.

What is advanced tunneling?

Advanced tunneling goes beyond just avoiding DCOM and actually reduces network traffic while remaining easy to configure. Most OPC tunneling programs don’t give you this added benefit so while you don’t
have to configure DCOM you can still have problems with your Client and Server communication that can cause them to freeze or perform inefficiently.

Explore the Cogent DataHub to learn more about why it is the best tunnel product available for these and many more reasons. The Cogent DataHub can also tunnel MQTT, ODBC Data, DDE data and much more.

The Cogent DataHub is a great addition to the TOP Server or any OPC server, because of all the additional features it can make available to your system, providing you with the flexibility and power to solve virtually any integration challenge.

Key features of OPC UA tunneling

• Two TOP Server instances work together as a secure tunnel using the UA Client driver on one side connecting to the UA server interface on the other side.
• High performance using the OPC UA Binary standard.
• Communication encryption and endpoint authentication based on current accepted industry standards of RSA and x509, using technology familiar to the IT community.
• Keep Alive and Watchdog features to ensure reliable connectivity.
• Tunneling for OPC DA 1.0. 2.05a and 3.0.
• A solution based on an open standard – OPC UA.
• Works within the corporate network, through wide area networks and properly configured firewalls.