Apparatuses, systems and methods of secure cloud-based monitoring of industrial plants

A method for remote monitoring of an industrial plant, the method comprising:

• providing a distributed computing system including a cloud-based computing component structured to store and to access a cloud portion of a federated information model, a plurality of industrial plant-based gateway components in operative communication with the cloud-based computing component, each of the gateway components structured to store and to access respective gateway portions of the federated information model, the respective gateway portions of the federated information model being isolated from access by the cloud-based computing component, and a plurality of industrial plant asset controllers each in operative communication with at least one of the gateway components, each of the asset controllers structured to store and to access respective asset portions of the federated information model;
• operating the cloud-based computing component to receive a user-initiated query for information of one or more assets of the industrial plant and, in response to the user-initiated query, utilize the cloud portion of the federated information model to identify one or more portions of the query associated by the cloud portion of the federated information model with one or more of the gateway components and to transmit the identified one or more portions of the query to one or more associated gateway components;
• operate the gateway components to receive respective one or more portions of the query and, in response to the received one or more portions of the query, utilize their respective gateway portions of the federated information model to identify one or more of the industrial plant asset controllers to interrogate with the received one or more portions of the query,
• operate the industrial plant asset controllers to one of identify and obtain data responsive to the interrogation by the respective industrial plant-based gateway components and to transmit the identified responsive data to the respective industrial plant-based gateway components,
• operate the industrial plant-based gateway components to provide the identified responsive data to the cloud-based computing component, and
• operate the cloud-based computing component to utilize the identified responsive data received from the plurality of plant-based gateway components to generate an aggregated response to the user-initiated query and to output the response in a user perceptible format.

An industrial plant monitoring system comprising:

• a cloud-based computing device including a first processing device and a first non-transitory computer readable medium structured to store a first portion of a federated information model;
• a first industrial plant computing device including a second processing device and a second non-transitory computer readable medium structured to store a second portion of the federated information model;
• a second industrial plant computing device including a third processing device and a third non-transitory computer readable medium structured to store a third portion of the federated information model;
• and
• a user interface structured to receive a query from a user and transmit the query to the cloud-based computing device,
• wherein the first portion of the federated information model includes identifying information for the second portion of the federated information model and the third portion of the information model,
• wherein the second portion of the federated information model includes identifying information and a set of classifications for each device of a first set of industrial plant devices,
• wherein the third portion of the federated information model including identifying information and a set of classifications for each device of a second set of industrial plant devices,
• wherein the cloud-based computing device is structured to divide the query into a first portion and a second portion using the first portion of the information model,
• wherein the first industrial plant computing device is structured to select a portion of the first set of industrial plant devices in response to receiving the second portion of the query using the set of classifications of the second portion of the federated information model, receive data corresponding to industrial plant operating parameters from the selected portion of the first set of industrial plant devices, and summarize the received data,
• wherein the second industrial plant computing device is structured to select a portion of the second set of industrial plant devices in response to receiving the second portion of the query using the set of classifications of the second portion of the federated information model, receive data corresponding to industrial plant operating parameters from the selected portion of the second set of industrial plant devices, and summarize the received data,
• wherein the cloud-based computing device is structured to receive summarized data from the first industrial plant computing device and second industrial plant computing device, and generate a query answer using the summarized data from the first and second industrial plant computing devices.