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Industrial Networking for Busy Professionals

8.4 Cloud in OT

Connectivity bridges the cloud and the plant. Cloud adoption in OT follows a specific pattern: operational data flows from the plant to the cloud for analytics, visualization, and long-term storage. Control commands remain on-premises at the plant level.

IIoT Data Pipelines

Section titled “IIoT Data Pipelines”

A typical IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) data pipeline collects data from PLCs and sensors. An on-premises historian or edge gateway aggregates the data. The gateway pushes the data to the cloud for analytics.

The edge gateway in the DMZ controls the data leaving the plant. The gateway filters, aggregates, and compresses data before sending the data to the cloud. No cloud service initiates connections into the OT network.

Historian to Cloud Architecture

Section titled “Historian to Cloud Architecture”

Many plants use the Belden Horizon architecture. HiVision collects network topology and device health data. A local data aggregator in the DMZ normalizes and buffers the data. A outbound-only connection pushes the data to the cloud platform. This architecture delivers fleet-wide visibility across multiple plants.

Key Takeaways

Section titled “Key Takeaways”

Data flows out, commands stay local

OT cloud adoption sends monitoring data to the cloud. Control commands remain on-premises. No cloud service initiates inbound connections.

Edge gateways filter before sending

The DMZ edge gateway aggregates, compresses, and filters data before the data leaves the plant network.

Belden Horizon for fleet visibility

HiVision plus a DMZ aggregator delivers cross-plant network health visibility through an outbound-only cloud connection.

What Comes Next

Section titled “What Comes Next”

Parts 1 and 2 covered the foundations of networking: from Ethernet frames to cloud infrastructure. Part 3 shifts to industrial networking, where the priorities change from throughput and flexibility to determinism and availability. The next chapter introduces the fundamental differences between OT and IT networks and the Purdue Model governing industrial network architecture.

References

Section titled “References”
  • CompTIA Network+ N10-009 Exam Objectives, Domain 1: Networking Concepts (Cloud)