Open Automation Software

What Open Automation Software does

Open Automation Software (OAS), founded in 1993 and headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, is a privately held industrial automation software vendor that builds a unified platform for SCADA, HMI, MES, and IIoT data connectivity. The platform is anchored by the Universal Data Connector (server-based data transport and transformation), a Data Historian with high-speed logging (claimed 100-nanosecond resolution and store-and-forward reliability), visualization tools (UIEngine no-code builder, Web HMI HTML5, and .NET WinForm/WPF controls), and device connectors with native drivers for Allen Bradley, Siemens, Modbus, OPC UA/DA, MQTT, and MTConnect. Cloud and streaming integrations include AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub/Event Hubs, and Kafka, with deployment options spanning Windows, Linux, Docker, and Raspberry Pi.

The company sells perpetual software licenses with annual maintenance contracts on a tag-based pricing model, supplemented by OEM and System Integrator partner programs that offer quantity discounts and flexible tag distribution. Go-to-market combines direct enterprise field sales (Request Demo / Quote CTAs), self-serve 30-day free trials, product-led content marketing (knowledge base, video tutorials, REST API documentation portal), and channel partnerships with system integrators. Customer logos include General Dynamics, US Navy, JBT Aerotech, Volvo/Mack, Intel, Michelin, and AES, serving verticals such as industrial manufacturing, water/wastewater, defense, building automation, energy, and smart cities.

OAS operates as a privately held, founder/management-owned corporation led by founder and president Ken Eldridge, with a reported 1–10 person headcount supporting 10,000+ server deployments worldwide. No external funding, M&A activity, or institutional ownership has been disclosed, suggesting organic, self-funded growth across three decades. The revenue mix is heavily weighted to perpetual license upfront payments with recurring annual maintenance renewal revenue, and the company claims zero data loss on network failure, throughput under 50ms, and scalability to one million data points per server as core technical differentiators.

Name

Open Automation Software

Legal name

Open Automation Software, Inc.

Website

https://openautomationsoftware.com/

Company type

Private

Founded year

1993

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Open Automation Software (OAS) is a privately held Lakewood, Colorado-based industrial automation software vendor offering a unified SCADA, HMI, MES, and IIoT data platform with native PLC, OPC, MQTT, and cloud integrations, serving thousands of industrial customers worldwide via tag-based perpetual licensing.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Industrial Automation Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Industrial Automation Software (SCADA, HMI, MES, Historian) (IMAHAHAJ)

Keywords

• Industrial automation software
• SCADA HMI software
• IIoT data platform
• MES manufacturing software
• PLC connectivity solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Lakewood

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Software Licenses: Perpetual software licenses with annual maintenance/support contracts. License tied to server instances with configurable tag counts per instance. Flex tag licensing allows distributing tags across multiple instances.
2. Annual Maintenance & Support: Annual software maintenance contracts providing updates, technical support (24/7/365 via phone, chat, email), and license portability. Maintenance expiry date tracked per license.
3. Feature/Connector Add-ons: Modular product features and connectors (Allen Bradley, Siemens, Modbus, MQTT, Azure IoT, AWS IoT, Kafka, etc.) can be enabled based on purchased capabilities.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Open Automation Software (OAS) develops and sells a suite of industrial automation software for HMI, SCADA, MES, IIoT, and data connectivity. The platform centers on a Universal Data Connector that transports and transforms data across industrial devices (Allen Bradley, Siemens, Modbus), databases, and cloud IoT gateways (AWS IoT, Azure IoT, Kafka, MQTT), with visualization, alarm notification, and data historian capabilities bundled around it. Products are sold as perpetual licenses with annual maintenance and deployed on Windows, Linux, Docker, and edge devices.

Product overview

Open Automation Software (OAS) offers the OAS Platform, a unified industrial automation software suite combining MES, HMI, SCADA, IIoT, and data connectivity capabilities. The core platform centers on the Universal Data Connector for data transport and transformation, with the Data Historian for high-speed logging to databases and CSV files. Visualization Tools provide HMI/SCADA interfaces through UIEngine (no-code), Web HMI (HTML5), and .NET WPF/WinForm options. Device & Data Connectors enable direct PLC connectivity (Allen Bradley, Siemens, Modbus) while IoT Connectors bridge to cloud platforms (Azure IoT, AWS IoT, Kafka). Alarm Logging & Notification provides real-time alerting with email/text/voice. Developer Tools & APIs include .NET Data Connector, REST API, and Portable Class Libraries for mobile. Networking Features deliver edge computing with Distributed Network Architecture supporting basic networking, Live Data Cloud, and secure unidirectional transfer.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• OAS Platform: Comprehensive industrial automation and IIoT data platform combining HMI, SCADA, MES, and connectivity tools
• OAS Data Historian
• OAS Universal Data Connector
• OAS OPC Tunnel Connector
• OAS REST API
• OAS Web HMI
• OAS .NET HMI Toolkit
• OAS Report

Products and services

• Universal Data Connector Server-based, highly scalable network platform at the core of the OAS suite that enables transport and transformation of data from anywhere to anywhere in industrial environments without proprietary plugins.
• Data Historian High-speed industrial data logging to SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Azure SQL, Access, and CSV files with store-and-forward technology ensuring zero data loss on network or database failures.
• Visualization Tools Scalable server-based interface suite for modern HMI, SCADA, and MES applications, including UIEngine for no-code UI development and tools for building interactive operator dashboards.
• Device & Data Connectors Built-in device drivers providing direct connectivity to Allen Bradley, Siemens, and Modbus PLCs without requiring third-party drivers.
• IoT Connectors Connectivity to cloud-based IoT platforms including AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, Azure Event Hubs, Kafka, and MQTT brokers.
• Alarm Logging & Notification Industrial alarm monitoring and notification product that logs events to open formats and triggers real-time alerts via email, text, and voice messaging (Twilio).
• Web HMI HTML5-based web HMI/SCADA interface software for building responsive, platform-agnostic applications using JavaScript, CSS, and JSON without browser plugins.
• UIEngine No-code HMI development and hosting platform for building interactive dashboards, trend charts, gauges, and data grids within a web browser using drag-and-drop components.
• OPC Tunnel Connector (Data Route) Machine-to-machine data transfer and protocol translation product enabling secure real-time OPC tunneling and data sharing between multiple local and remote endpoints.
• REST API REST API for industrial automation providing programmatic read/write access to real-time and historical data and OAS server configuration using JSON over HTTP/HTTPS.
• .NET Data Connector .NET Standard SDK for programmatic read/write access to OAS Data Engine data from .NET applications across Windows, Linux, and other supported platforms.
• Report Automated IIoT reporting software for creating and delivering customized reports in PDF, Excel, Word, HTML, and XML formats from live or historical OAS data.
• Networking Features Distributed Network Architecture product supporting edge computing, basic LAN/WAN networking, Live Data Cloud over dynamic IPs, network forwarding, and secure unidirectional data transfer via communication diodes.
• WinForm HMI .NET Classic WinForm HMI toolkit providing 100 managed components for building interactive SCADA and HMI applications in VB and C# using Visual Studio.
• WPF HMI .NET Windows Presentation Foundation HMI/SCADA toolkit with controls and real-time data communications components for WPF applications with no programming required.

Quantifiable outcome

• Data resolution of 100 nanoseconds
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments10 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration24 records

AI capability1 record

Feature10 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• AVEVA: Global industrial software incumbent offering AVEVA Plant SCADA, HMI/SCADA, and the CONNECT industrial cloud platform - competes with OAS across enterprise manufacturing accounts with a much broader portfolio and larger installed base.
• Rockwell Automation (FactoryTalk): Industrial automation incumbent offering FactoryTalk View SE/ME and the FactoryTalk InnovationSuite - competes with OAS where Allen Bradley/ControlLogix PLCs are deployed and across discrete manufacturing accounts.
• Schneider Electric (EcoStruxure): Industrial automation incumbent offering EcoStruxure SCADA Operations, Citect, and the broader AVEVA-integrated platform - competes with OAS across process industries, water/wastewater, and energy accounts.
• Honeywell (Experion): Process-industry automation incumbent offering Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) - competes with OAS in oil & gas, refining, and chemicals accounts that require integrated DCS-adjacent SCADA.
• Siemens Digital Industries (WinCC): Major automation incumbent with SIMATIC WinCC SCADA and the broader Xcelerator digital enterprise portfolio - competes with OAS particularly where Siemens PLCs (S7-1200/1500) are deployed and on large enterprise accounts.

Direct peers

• COPA-DATA (zenon): Independent SCADA/HMI software vendor offering the zenon platform with strong European presence - directly competes with OAS in mid-market industrial automation with comparable open architecture and integrated HMI/SCADA/energy data management capabilities.
• OSIsoft (now part of AVEVA - PI System): Industrial data historian and time-series platform - directly comparable to OAS Data Historian capability and competes in high-speed industrial data logging use cases across process and manufacturing customers.
• Iconics (Mitsubishi Electric): SCADA/HMI software vendor (now owned by Mitsubishi Electric) offering Genesis64 and Hyper Historian - directly comparable product set to OAS with overlapping OPC UA, MQTT, and web-based HMI capabilities.
• Inductive Automation (Ignition): Direct competitor offering the Ignition SCADA/MES platform with unlimited licensing model, web-based HMI development, and broad device/cloud connectivity - the closest head-to-head competitor to OAS in the modern, open-architecture SCADA segment.

Emerging players

• HighByte (Industrial DataOps): Industrial DataOps software provider focused on OT/IT data integration with a Sparkplug B-native architecture - competes with OAS IoT Connectors and Data Route for cloud and edge data routing use cases in modern IIoT deployments.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/OpenAutomationSoftware
• Xx.com/opcsoftware

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Open Automation Software