How is PERA Related to ISA ?

PERA has a long term relationship with ISA that is demonstrated by the following:

• Ted Williams led Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture (PERA) development as head of the Purdue Laboratory for Automation and Industrial Control.
• During this time, he was also active in ISA where he served as President.
• PERA Reference Model for CIM was originally published by ISA in a two-volume hard-cover set. ISA later authorized www.pera.net to publish a free electronic version.
• Ted Williams and Gary Rathwell were early members of ISA 95 (Enterprise Integration Committee) which was based on parts of the PERA Reference Model for CIM.
• Ted and Gary established the PERA website to promote PERA enterprise integration.
• Gary also served on ISA 108 (Configuration Management) and ISA 99 (Cybersecurity) committees where he contributed concepts and educational materials from the PERA website.

The following is a summary of the relationship between ISA95 and PERA.

ISA95 and PERA (Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture) are both frameworks used in industrial automation and enterprise integration, but they serve different purposes and have distinct scopes.

• ISA95
  Focus SA-95 is a standard for developing an automated interface between process control systems and manufacturing operations IT systems. It defines the information that should be exchanged between these systems for effective integration.
  Structure: It provides a framework for integrating enterprise systems and process control systems, focusing on the data exchanges necessary .


• PERA
  Focus: PERA is a reference model for an enterprise architecture from plant sensors to enterprise-wide information systems.
  Structure: It provides a comprehensive framework for the entire lifecycle of an enterprise, from initial concept through operations and maintenance


• Complementary Roles
  PERA and ISA95 can work together to create a cohesive view of an organization's operational architecture. For example, while PERA defines the overall architecture, ISA-95 can be used to detail the interaction and data exchange between enterprise and manufacturing systems