Using Cloud Storage in Production Monitoring Systems

Cloud Computing has received much rumour during the last year. Although the idea of lending processing power and data storage is, in essence, known since the very beginning of the computer industry, a new distributed computing platform coming from Microsoft is expected to have much impact on the enterprise software development and usage. However, production monitoring systems are traditionally built with on-site data stores and specialized hardware and software solutions that interconnects data sources (process controllers) and data stores. We propose an alternative approach. Using modern PLC solutions, one is able to avoid on-site data store in favor of Cloud Storage available over the Internet, lowering capital and maintenance expenses.