Mobility moves to the cloud

Accessing manufacturing and other industrial data in the cloud via mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops provides many benefits, but security must be carefully considered. In this article, it is assumed that data will be provided to the cloud by one or more Windows-based and PC-based human-machine interface (HMI) platforms, with each connected to the cloud via Ethernet. Also assumed is access via three main types of mobile devices: smart phones, tablets, and laptop computers. This access can be two-way, with mobile devices not only viewing data, but also making changes to the process or the machine monitored by the HMI, although the primary focus will be on data distribution. Consequently, using the cloud to enable mobile device access to HMI data is often a better alternative than purchasing, implementing, and maintaining internal computing infrastructure. Users can start slow with one HMI application, and then expand to others as the technologies become familiar and proven in use.