Remote industrial monitoring and analytics using a cloud infrastructure

Abstract

A cloud-based infrastructure facilitates gathering, transmitting, and remote storage of control and automation data using an agent-based communication channel. The infrastructure collects the industrial data from an industrial enterprise and intelligently sorts and organizes the acquired data based on selected criteria. Message queues can be configured on the cloud platform to segregate the industrial data according to priority, data type, or other criteria. Behavior assemblies stored in customer-specific manifests on the cloud platform define customer-specific preferences for processing data stored in the respective message queues. An agent-based analytics framework in the cloud platform performs desired analytics on the data using distributed parallel processing.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for cloud-based analysis of industrial data, comprising:
 a memory that stores computer-executable components; and   a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the computer-executable components, the computer-executable components comprising:
 a receiving component configured to receive, at a cloud platform, first industrial data from a first cloud gateway device that resides at a first industrial enterprise and second industrial data from a second cloud gateway device that resides at a second industrial enterprise; 
 a cloud storage component configured to store the first industrial data the second industrial data on the cloud platform; and 
 an analytics framework configured to perform an analysis on the first industrial data and the second industrial data based on an analysis application executed on the cloud platform, and to generate recommendation data for the first industrial enterprise based on a result of the analysis, wherein the recommendation data defines at least one of a recommended device configuration, a recommended modification to an industrial process, or a recommended modification to a production schedule. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first industrial data and the second industrial data comprises at least one of production data generated by one or more industrial processes, data identifying equipment in use at the first industrial enterprise and the second industrial enterprise, or configuration data for respective industrial devices in use at the first industrial enterprise and the second industrial enterprise. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the result of the analysis comprises at least one of a trend or a correlation of device configuration settings with a metric of system performance. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the analytics framework comprises a set of virtual servers that execute the analysis application on the cloud platform. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the analytics framework is configured to assign a first processing task associated with the analysis to at least one of the set of virtual servers, and to assign a second processing task associated with the analysis to at least one of the first cloud gateway device or the second cloud gateway device. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the analytics framework is further configured to distribute processing tasks associated with the analysis application between at least two of the set of virtual servers. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the set of virtual servers execute a plurality of agents that facilitate execution of the analysis application to perform the analysis. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the plurality of agents are configured to exchange data with an on-premise cloud agent residing at at least one of the first industrial enterprise or the second industrial enterprise to facilitate localized analytics processing by the on-premise cloud agent. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the analytics framework is configured to determine, based on another result of the analysis, whether at least a subset of the first industrial data or the second industrial data meets a defined alarm criterion, and to generate an alarm output based on the other result. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the analysis application comprises a predictive analysis application configured to determine, based on the result of the analysis, a probability of a future occurrence of at least one of a machine downtime event, a machine failure, an inventory shortage, a material shortage, or a failure to fulfill a work order. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the analysis application is configured to identify, based on the result of the analysis, a dependency between two or more subsets of the first industrial data or the second industrial data. 
     
     
         12 . A method for performing cloud-based industrial analysis, comprising:
 receiving, by a system executing on a cloud platform and comprising at least one processor, first industrial data from a first cloud gateway device residing at a first plant location and second industrial data from a second cloud gateway device residing at a second plant location;   storing, by the system, the first industrial data and the second industrial data on cloud-based storage;   executing, by the system on the cloud platform, an analysis application that performs an analysis on the first industrial data and the second industrial data; and   generating, by the system, recommendation data for the first plant location based on a result of the analysis, wherein the recommendation data specifies at least one of a recommended device configuration, a recommended modification to an industrial process, or a recommended modification to a production schedule.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the receiving comprises receiving at least one of production data generated by one or more industrial processes, data identifying equipment in use at the first plant location and the second plant location, or configuration data for respective industrial devices in use at the first plant location and the second plant location. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the executing comprises identifying at least one of a trend or a correlation between device configuration settings and a metric of industrial system performance based on the analysis. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the executing comprises assigning a first processing task associated with the analysis to a virtual server residing on the cloud platform and assigning a second processing task associated with the analysis to at least one of the first cloud gateway device or the second cloud gateway device. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the executing comprises distributing processing tasks associated with the analysis between at least two virtual servers residing on the cloud platform. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the executing comprises executing a plurality of agents associated with the at least two virtual servers, and wherein the plurality of agents facilitate execution of the analysis application. 
     
     
         18 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
 receiving, at a cloud platform, first industrial data from a first cloud gateway device residing at a first industrial facility and second industrial data from a second cloud gateway device residing at a second industrial facility;   storing, on cloud storage associated with the cloud platform, the first industrial data and the second industrial data;   executing, on the cloud platform, an analysis application that performs an analysis on the first industrial data and the second industrial data; and   generating recommendation data directed to the first industrial facility based on a result of the analysis, wherein the recommendation data identifies at least one of a recommended device configuration, a recommended modification to an industrial process, or a recommended modification to a production schedule   
     
     
         19 . The transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the receiving comprises receiving at least one of production data generated by one or more industrial processes, data identifying equipment in use at the first industrial facility and the second industrial facility, or configuration data for respective industrial devices in use at the first industrial facility and the second industrial facility. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 19 , wherein the executing comprises identifying at least one of a trend or a correlation between device configuration settings and a metric of industrial system performance based on the analysis.