With the use of Inductive Automation's Ignition platform, Cirrus Link MQTT modules and the IoT Bridge for Azure service, OT data from Industrial applications is delivered to Azure Digital Twins (ADT) and Azure Data Explorer (ADX) with minimal configuration and zero coding. Simply point and publish both data models and real-time data changes from the Ignition Platform to a MQTT server and the Digital Twin model, properties and hierarchy are 100% self-discovered from the IoT Bridge for Azure service to ADT and ADX. This enables the modeled real-time data to be securely and efficiently delivered for Big Data Analytics, ML and AI solutions within Azure or by 3rd party applications. This solution provides the simplest data ingest for Azure delivering the Digital Transformation organizations are striving to achieve.

This solution provides:

• Automatically Discovery of Digital Twins
• Automatically Creates Digital Twin model
• Automatically Defines Digital Twin Template Parameters
• Automatically Defines Digital Twin hierarchy
• Efficiently pushes Tag Data into ADX Time Series Database
• Requires No Coding, just a little Configuration!

There are a lot of challenges in bridging the OT - IT gap to make use of IT services in the industrial operating environments. To understand the difficulty of this process it is important to first understand the difference between OT data and IT data requirements for enabling Big Data services such as Predictive Maintenance or Machine Learning.

OT Data Consists of:

• Proprietary Protocols
• Multiple Data Formats
• No Contextual Information
• Designed for Operations
• Poll / Response Date Retrieval
• Directly Coupled to Applications
• Isolated Networks

IT Data Needs:

• Data Objects/Modeling
• Standard Data Formats
• Contextual Information
• Decoupled to Enterprise
• Publish / Subscribe Methodology
• Easy to Integrate
• Secure

The Ignition platform enabled with the Cirrus Link MQTT Transmission module provides an easily deployable solution that installed on the factory floor, at a corporate data center, or at a remote facility. It connects to the OT data sources at the Edge and converts into IT defined data as specified by Eclipse TAHU Open MQTT standard specification called Sparkplug trough User Defined Templates (UDT's). Sparkplug provides the contextual information on the OT data for consumption into ADX and ADT from the IoT Bridge for Azure service using MQTT. The Sparkplug specification offers the auto-discovery of the Digital Twins for the modeling and real-time OT data consumption. The IoT Bridge for Azure subscribes to the MQTT Sparkplug data from any 3.1.1 MQTT Broker and sends it to ADT using the API’s. This application developed by Cirrus Link is available to purchase via the Azure Marketplace.

The IoT Bridge for Azure Offers:

• Service consuming MQTT Sparkplug Data Models (Asset Model and Properties)
• Auto-Creates Digital Twin Model - Auto-Creates Digital Twin
• Auto-Defines the Hierarchy
• Updates real-time data changes in Azure Data Explorer time series database through Event Hub