Secure Industrial AI

The best way to connect process data for Industrial AI

Industrial AI needs secure access to process data. But this requires a new architecture since most operations networks (OT) lack secure Internet access.

Today, security means completely isolating the OT network using a DMZ. Skkynet’s Cogent DataHub software puts OT data on a DMZ using only outbound connections. This keeps all inbound firewall ports closed and requires no VPNs.  On the DMZ, connected DataHub software provides secure, bidirectional data flow to and from any cloud service to support real-time Industrial AI.

Industrial AI

Key factors to consider:

  • Access plant data securely: Using a DataHub instance within a DMZ means no firewall ports open into the plant—zero attack surface.  The DataHub instance on the plant network provides an outbound connection to the DMZ using the DHTP protocol, and the DataHub instance on the DMZ makes an outbound MQTT, DHTP, Kafka, or Event Stream connection to send data to the cloud.
  • One-way or bidirectional data flow: Each connection can be configured as read-only or read-write, to support data monitoring or supervisory control.
  • Unified namespace In-plant connections integrate data from any supported industrial protocol, such as OPC UA, DA, A&E, MQTT, Modbus, ODBC and more into a single, unified namespace to optimize AI processing.
  • No compromise on performance: Real-time data is delivered at microseconds above network latency, easily scaling to 50,000+ value changes per second for millions of data points, all while preserving the data model across networks.
  • Easy connections to popular cloud services: Pre-configured support for Azure IoT Hub and Event Streams, AWS IoT Core, and Apache Kafka.  Also connects to any other cloud service running an MQTT broker like RabbitMQ or Mosquitto.
  • No incoming connections. Optional data diode mode  can be used with or without data diode hardware to provide an extra layer of security, ensuring that absolutely no data passes into the OT system.
  • No access beyond the required data:  The plant decides which data to make available remotely.