The Gateway

Volume 1, Number10

Software Services and System Solutions for the Enterprise

Welcome to The Gateway, a monthly newsletter highlighting products, services, customers, and partners of The S4 Group, Inc. The purpose of this monthly newsletter is to provide information on Enterprise Management technology and the integration of non-It systems into enterprise environments.

"For the companies who focus primarily on remote facility management services, this technology and its implementation will prove to be a strong competitive advantage"

Interview: Richard Warner

Brian Jones, Editor of The Gateway, recently conducted an interview with Richard Warner of O&M Engineering, Inc (O&M).  Mr. Warner is the President of the company and has 15 years of experience in the field.

BJ: Mr. Warner, would you please provide some background on yourself and O&M for our readers?

RW:  My formal education is in Electrical Engineering.  I finished coursework for my masters degree, however, I was unable to finish my thesis work in evolutionary algorithm control methods for power system voltage stability due to the increasing success of O&M Engineering. 

O&M, which stands for operation and maintenance, was founded to meet the diverse needs of facility operations and maintenance professionals.  Although the company originally focused on design and consulting services, the computer application and information technology solutions would soon dominate our strategic focus.

Our goal is to be the premier service provider of graphical interface systems and information technology solutions that establish optimum and innovative operation and maintenance of facility management systems.

Although we still provide design services, we render these primarily on building automation systems for fault-tolerant environments.  As our registered tagline implies, we provide “Innovative Facility Solutions”.

Read the full interview here.

Automating device point discovery and the creation of corresponding OPC process points for each of the data types, or regions, available to N2 devices is currently the area we are focusing on.

S4 N2 Router Alpha Update

Alpha testing of the S4 Open: OPC-N2 Router continues to progress nicely with the emphasis now shifting from testing the software only version to testing on the standard embedded PC platform that the product will be delivered on. Approximately 80% of the functionality of the initial product release has been demonstrated and tested in our lab with the remaining logic scheduled to be added as we move to testing on the target delivery platform and to the Beta test phase.

We are successfully finding real and simulated N2 devices through our Autodiscovery process on multiple Downstream N2 Networks, merging them into the Virtual N2 Network, and automatically taking care of resolving any address conflicts. Conflicting addresses are logically mapped to available addresses on the Virtual N2 Network. Assignment of OPC Process Point names to the points of devices has been tested in manual assignment mode. We are successfuly monitoring N2 device OPC Process Points from within an OPC client.  Automating device point discovery and the creation of corresponding OPC process points for each of the data types, or regions, available to N2 devices is currently the area we are focusing on.

For further information click here.

Download readymade profiles or have one custom made for your device.

2 New Device Profiles Now Available

The first new profile was developed and contributed by Rittal GmbH & Co.  This profile was designed to work with their CMC-TC system.  The second profile was developed by the S4 Group, Inc. for the Cisco Catalyst 2955 line of managed Industrial Ethernet switches.  This device profile was created for information available through the standard MIB-II MIBs. Some of the standard MIB-II variables have not been implemented in this version of the Cisco 2955 switch but have been kept in the device profile so that they will become available if Cisco adds them in future revisions.

Another device profile is in development for the Microwave Data Systems MDS 900 radio.  Currently, this profile is being tested at several customer sites prior to being released.

There is no charge for downloading and using any device profile that is published on this page. Contact us if you need a quotation for having The S4 Group develop a Device Profile for a new device and integrating it into your automation system.

Click here to view all device profiles available for download.

Seasons Greetings!

Happy Holidays from the S4 Group

The S4 Group would like to extend our sincerest holiday wishes to all of our partners, customers, associates, and colleagues across the world.  The next issue of The Gateway will be rather light due to our holiday schedule, expect an update on the N2 router only.

Please send comments or submissions to:

The S4 Group, Inc.

585 - 24th Street, Suite 106

Ogden, UT

84401

Phone:

(801) 621 1970

E-mail:

sejones@thes4group.com

www.thes4group.com

About The Gateway

The Gateway will be distributed on a monthly basis. You can view previous issues, news items and press releases at S4 Group News.

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