12. An automation control module (ACM) system comprising: a network; a computer electrically coupled to said network and configured to communicate with said network; and an ACM coupled to said network, said ACM comprising: a backplane configured to couple said ACM to at least one input/output (I/O) module; said ACM and said backplane are electronically coupled to a backplane interface; an ACM central processing unit (CPU) configured to carry out ACM functions including at least one of user logic and function block executions, I/O scanning, and communications with other devices; a system memory coupled to said ACM CPU, said system memory comprising an operating system; and a SOAP/XML and web server subsystem system electrically coupled to said backplane and said network and comprising a SOAP/XML server including an independent processor, said subsystem system configured to process simple object access protocol (SOAP)/extensible markup language (XML) requests received from said computer through said network.
12. An automation control module (ACM) system comprising: a network; a computer electrically coupled to said network and configured to communicate with said network; and an ACM coupled to said network, said ACM comprising: a backplane configured to couple said ACM to at least one input/output (I/O) module; said ACM and said backplane are electronically coupled to a backplane interface; an ACM central processing unit (CPU) configured to carry out ACM functions including at least one of user logic and function block executions, I/O scanning, and communications with other devices; a system memory coupled to said ACM CPU, said system memory comprising an operating system; and a SOAP/XML and web server subsystem system electrically coupled to said backplane and said network and comprising a SOAP/XML server including an independent processor, said subsystem system configured to process simple object access protocol (SOAP)/extensible markup language (XML) requests received from said computer through said network. 13. The ACM system in accordance with claim 12 wherein a user is required to enter a valid user name and user password to access said ACM system.