Opto 22 speaks up for open-source software.

For this month’s IoT feature in Design World magazine, Opto 22 had the chance to weigh in on the value that open-source software brings to industrial automation.

Some key points for the industry:

• Open source is everywhere in the enterprise and consumer sectors, powering innovation in products, services, and projects we all know.
• Open source changes the economic model for industry, freeing engineers and end users from the trap of vendor
  lock-in.
• Open source accelerates innovation and offers key technologies that empower IIoT growth.

In a recent blog post, Terry Orchard covered one of the programming options available on the groov EPIC: secure shell (SSH) access. If you’re familiar with Linux shell commands, you can use secure shell access to install application packages and add functionality to your groov EPIC Edge Programmable Industrial Controller.

For example, you could add a local database server.

The Embedded Linux Conference North America is happening in San Diego,
August 19 -23, 2019.

Join us at the premier vendor-neutral conference for developers, the Embedded Linux Conference, combined with the Open Source Summit.

You'll collaborate with other developers, attend technical training sessions, and learn about the latest innovations in Linux and the industrial IoT from over 800 technical experts who are focused on developing open IoT solutions. Both software and firmware developers are encouraged to attend.

As you might have read in previous blog posts, groov EPIC runs a Linux-based operating system that supports a variety of programming and operating options, including optional secure shell (SSH) access. SSH provides root access to the tools, software, and files on the groov EPIC system.

But how does SSH access work, what is it capable of, and is it right for you? In this post I’ll go into a bit more depth about secure shell and the Linux operating system (OS) on groov EPIC and provide answers to these questions.

An Automation World podcast poses the question, "Is open-source software a good choice for SCADA?"

A new podcast series, Automation World Gets Your Questions Answered, addresses questions submitted exclusively by its readers and subscribers. Opto 22's Benson Hougland and Terry Orchard recently sat down with Automation World's Editor-in-Chief, David Greenfield, to provide some insight on this open source and SCADA discussion.

The OS, or operating system, of groov EPIC is very different from traditional controllers. Instead of a proprietary OS, EPIC uses an open-source Linux® operating system.

From a security standpoint, an “open source” OS sounds scary. But in many ways it is more secure than a closed-source one, especially a well-known and often-attacked OS such as Microsoft® Windows®.