Asset Management Via Virtual Tunnels

An asset management system comprising:

• a plurality of asset monitoring devices located behind firewalls under control of different third party entities, each monitoring device configured to sense an asset status of an asset;
• a network based forwarding service configured to:
• instantiate a virtual tunnel comprising an asset-side network address, a management-side network address, and a communication channel between the addresses,
• receive asset status messages from the plurality of asset monitoring devices through the firewalls and addressed to a asset-side network address, the asset status message representative of the sensed asset status, and
• forward the asset status messages to a management engine network address via a virtual tunnel and from the management-side network address according to routing information associated with the asset status messages;
• and
• an asset management engine responsive to the management engine network address and configured to:
• aggregate asset status messages, at least some asset status messages received from the forwarding service,
• generate an alert as a function of the aggregated asset status messages, and
• transmit the alert to a management interface.