EP03: What is OPA? Part 2

Open process automation is more than an acronym - it's a blueprint for breaking vendor lock-in, improving cybersecurity, and making industrial systems easier to change, scale, and trust. In this second part of the OPA mini-series, Jarie and David unpack why a "standard of standards" could reshape how automation gets built and maintained.David, who served on the OPA forum subcommittee and co-led the application portability work, breaks down the core promises behind OPA: interoperability, interchangeability, adequacy, and portability. He explains how the Open Process Automation Standard, or OPAS, pulls together proven standards like OPC UA, IEC 62443, IEC 61131, 61499, and PA-DIM instead of inventing everything from scratch.You'll hear why automation teams spend so much of their lives trying to get A to talk to B, why proprietary form factors create painful warehouse and maintenance headaches, and why portability matters when you want to move engineering work between systems without rebuilding everything from zero. The conversation also gets into the non-negotiables - security, manageability, and reliability - and why cybersecurity has become the watchword in an era of constant breaches and accelerating AI-driven threats.Jarie and David also zoom out to the business impact. If you've ever had to tell leadership "no" because the system couldn't support a new capability, this episode shows how open standards change that equation. Instead of forcing advanced control and new technologies to live outside the system, OPA aims to make innovation part of the architecture itself.Perfect for plant managers, control engineers, automation practitioners, and anyone frustrated by closed systems that slow progress. If you want a clearer picture of how open automation creates more choice, more flexibility, and fewer dead ends, this episode makes the case in plain language.