Kepware Releases New Version of Flagship Industrial Connectivity Platform

Kepware’s KEPServerEX version 5.20 delivers enhancements for current users while advancing IoT offerings for improved IT/OT collaboration

Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on industrial connectivity, today announced the release of its KEPServerEX version 5.20 software. Key enhancements offer additional device and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity for customers in several vertical industries, including Building Automation, Manufacturing, and Oil & Gas.

“Our goal with this latest product release is to balance the needs of existing installations while developing new functionality for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT),” said Tony Paine, Platform President, Kepware. “Our commitment to supporting today’s requirements and tomorrow’s possibilities resulted in many important updates to our flagship product—including improvements to our BACnet/IP driver and a new ThingWorx agent that expands our IoT Gateway offering.”

The enhanced BACnet/IP driver offers users in the Building Automation Industry even more options for connectivity and control through its new support of the Accumulator Standard Object, Object-Level Command Priority, and Alarm and Event Services. These updates come amidst growing global demand—especially in Japan—driven by energy efficiency initiatives, smart building design, and system integration efforts for building automation.

The ThingWorx agent, now available in the IoT Gateway for KEPServerEX, provides improved interoperability with the ThingWorx IoT Platform. The agent enables users to move industrial data on the edge into ThingWorx using the secure ThingWorx binary protocol for high throughput. This not only provides a seamless user experience between the two technologies, but also advances parent-company PTC (Nasdaq: PTC) as a leading IoT software provider. Additional updates to the IoT Gateway include support for MQTT writes, Array writes, and Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS).

“Our newest research shows that over 60% of industrial companies are now working on a digital transformation initiative like Industrie 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing,” said Matthew Littlefield, President and Principal Analyst, LNS Research. “The enabling technology for these transformations is the IIoT Platform, including connectivity, cloud, big data analytics, and application development. Solutions like the Kepware IoT Gateway allow companies to cost effectively transcend traditional control hierarchies and use information in the most effective way possible.”

The release also features updates to 30 drivers and advanced plug-ins, including the Allen-Bradley ControlLogix Ethernet driver with added support for firmware version 28 across L8 and L7 models from Rockwell Automation.