Initially, Grafana started as a tool for IT. Now, we are trying to use Grafana for industrial automation. ogamma Visual Logger for OPC aids us in obtaining industrial data and presenting it in Grafana. It has 2 features: you can historize time-series data from OPC UA Servers in InfluxDB or present the data without historizing. Our company utilizes different PLCs, and most of them are supplied by Siemens. We are witnessing a big transformation leading to the evolution of IoT concepts, and manufacturers embedding IoT protocols such as OPC UA or MQTT directly into PLC.

For example, model S7-1200 with upgraded firmware has embedded OPC UA Server. Luckily, you can connect with ogamma Visual Logger for OPC directly to the PLC and stop using third-party software (such as OPC servers). I like the way it works because you can do amazing things with the software. Before Grafana was used in IT to monitor the status of servers, but ogamma Visual Logger for OPC will transform it to start using in OT. Therefore, you can now link IT with OT. We have been using ogamma for months, without any issues, and the program’s stability is very good. If support to write data back to OPC UA servers is added to the software, Grafana could be used not just as a monitoring tool, but also as a control tool in OT.