OPC - OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) for Process Control :: The Industrial Interoperability Standard
Automation, Control & Plant Intelligence - Articles, Analysis, Reviews, Interviews & Views
You should care about OPC if your applications are largely run in personal computers and you are involved with solving plant integration problems.
As a critical mass of servers and OPC-enabled applications become available, OPC is likely to become an important part of your plant integration tool set.
The OPC specification promises a future without proprietary interfaces that will greatly benefit both manufacturing customers and automation suppliers.