System for remote management of applications of an industrial control system

A system for providing remote configuration management over a wide area network for an industrial control system (ICS), the configuration management including keeping track of each application used by each device of the ICS, the system comprising:

• a) a configuration database, responsive to updates on which devices are in use by the ICS and to which versions of which applications are used by each device, and further responsive to which applications on which devices constitute each past configuration about which update information has been made and also to the present configuration of the ICS, for providing copies of each version of each application for which an update has been made;
• b) a remote sensing module, responsive to information stored in the configuration database, for providing over the wide area network to the ICS devices queries as to the identity of the ICS devices and as to the application identifier and version number of at least some applications used by at least some of the devices, and responsive to corresponding application information provided over the wide area network by the at least some devices and for storing the corresponding application information in the configuration database;
• c) a configuration manager, responsive to the corresponding application information in the configuration database, for obtaining over the wide area network backup copies of the current version of at least some of the applications on at least some of the devices, and responsive to restore commands, for providing over the wide area network a restored copy of an application based on either an application identifier and version number or based on a configuration identifier;
• and
• d) utilities for enabling communication over a wide area network.