Connect your on-premises operational technology assets to AWS Cloud for robust data ingestion

Publication date: November 2016 (last update: September 2022)

The Machine to Cloud Connectivity Framework solution helps factory production managers connect their operational technology assets to the cloud, providing robust data ingestion from on-premises machines into AWS. This solution allows for connection to factory machines using either the OPC Data Access (OPC DA) protocol or the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) protocol. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is an active member of the OPC Foundation, which helps manage the OPC interoperability standard. This solution also supports OSIsoft PI through the OSIsoft PI Web Application Programming Interface (API).

This solution helps to create and configure AWS IoT Greengrass and provides integration with AWS IoT SiteWise, so you can ingest OPC DA, OPC UA, and OSIsoft PI telemetry data into AWS IoT SiteWise. This solution also provides the capability to store telemetry data in an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket, thereby allowing for analysis of factory machine data for insights and advanced analytics.

By providing the framework, you can focus on extending the solution's functionality rather than managing the underlying infrastructure operations. For example, you can push the equipment data to Amazon S3 using Amazon Kinesis Data Streams and Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose and run machine learning models on the data for predictive maintenance, or create notifications and alerts. In addition, you can send the data to Amazon Timestream. You can also extend this solution with other solutions, such as Machine Downtime Monitor on AWS, for added value.

This implementation guide describes architectural considerations and configuration steps for deploying Machine to Cloud Connectivity Framework in the AWS Cloud. It includes links to an AWS CloudFormation template that launches and configures the AWS services required to deploy this solution using AWS best practices for security and availability.

The guide is intended for IT infrastructure architects, administrators, and DevOps professionals who have practical experience with AWS IoT Core and AWS IoT Greengrass, and architecting in the AWS Cloud.