TheOPCFoundation

The OPC Foundation is dedicated to ensuring interoperability in automation by creating and maintaining open specifications that standardize the communication of acquired process data, alarm and event records, historical data, and batch data to multi-vendor enterprise systems and between production devices. Production devices include sensors, instruments, PLCs, RTUs, DCSs, HMIs, historians, trending subsystems, alarm subsystems, and more as used in the process industry, manufacturing, and in acquiring and transporting oil, gas, and minerals. 
The OPC Foundation Vision is to provide the best technology, specifications, certification and processes to enable companies to build products and services that demonstrate multiplatform multi-vendor secure reliable interoperability.  OPC Foundation members benefit by being able to take advantage of the technology and marketing necessary to become the leaders in the industry supporting industrial standards for industrial automation and beyond.