Many chemical processes can be complex and depend on the Distributed Control System (DCS) to prepare teams to adopt with confidence new innovations that will drive lower costs, while speeding the development and startup of new process areas or plants. The backbone of innovation are the supporting standards to ensure consistency and robustness of new solutions to age old challenges. To put this into perspective, we will start with a quick look back of how standards have influenced today’s DCS, and then we will focus on the standards being developed now such as Modular Type Package (MTP) and Power Over Ethernet (PoE) that will drive innovations to make the DCS even more nimble and easier to implement than it is today.