From Operational Data to Enterprise Insight: Secure and Resilient Integration between FactoryTalk Historian and AVEVA PI Server
Existing System
- PlantPAx and FactoryTalk Historian support reliable plant operations and capture critical operational data.
PlantPAx provides the control platform for day-to-day plant operations, while FactoryTalk Historian continuously collects and stores critical process and production data from the operational environment. - AVEVA PI System provides the enterprise platform for centralized data visibility and analytics.
AVEVA PI System serves as the centralized enterprise data platform, enabling operational information from the plant to be accessed, analyzed, and utilized by authorized users across the organization. - OT and IT environments remain segregated to protect operational reliability and cybersecurity.
The OT and IT environments are intentionally separated to minimize cybersecurity exposure and prevent enterprise network activities from affecting the availability and stability of critical plant operations.
Business Requirement
- Enable secure and reliable access to operational data across OT and IT environments.
Operational data must be made available to enterprise users and applications without compromising the security boundaries and reliability of the plant control environment. - Maintain data continuity during temporary communication disruptions.
The integration architecture must prevent unnecessary data loss when network connections between plant and enterprise systems are temporarily unavailable. - Improve enterprise visibility and decision-making using trusted plant data.
Reliable operational data enables management, engineering, and business teams to gain better production visibility and make decisions based on consistent and trusted information. - Reduce operational and cybersecurity risk while supporting digital transformation initiatives.
The solution must balance increasing demand for plant data with the need to maintain strong cybersecurity controls and operational system availability.
Solution
- Implement a secure historian integration layer through the DMZ.
A controlled integration layer within the DMZ provides a secure path for transferring historian data between FactoryTalk Historian in the OT environment and AVEVA PI System at the enterprise level. - Use buffering and automatic data recovery to minimize data gaps during network interruptions.
Buffering mechanisms temporarily retain data when communication is unavailable and automatically forward the stored information once connectivity is restored, helping maintain historian data completeness. - Apply controlled network access to preserve OT/IT segregation and cybersecurity.
Communication between systems is restricted to approved hosts, services, ports, and data flows, allowing operational information to be shared while maintaining clear OT and IT security boundaries. - Deliver a resilient data pipeline that improves business continuity, visibility, and confidence in operational data.
The resulting architecture provides a reliable flow of plant information to enterprise systems, improving data availability, supporting analytics, and increasing confidence in operational information used for business decisions.