MachineCDN vs AWS IoT SiteWise: IIoT Platform Comparison for Manufacturing

AWS IoT SiteWise is Amazon's industrial IoT service designed to collect, organize, and analyze data from factory equipment. MachineCDN is a purpose-built manufacturing intelligence platform with edge-to-cloud connectivity. Both promise to unlock value from your machine data — but the paths they take could not be more different.

If you're evaluating industrial IoT platforms for your manufacturing operation, this comparison will help you understand what each platform actually requires to deploy, what it costs in practice, and where each one excels.

What Is AWS IoT SiteWise?

AWS IoT SiteWise is part of Amazon Web Services' IoT portfolio, launched in 2020. It provides a managed service for collecting industrial equipment data, organizing it into asset models, and creating dashboards for monitoring operations.

Key components of SiteWise include:

• SiteWise Edge — a software gateway that runs on-premises to collect OPC-UA data from industrial equipment
• Asset Modeling — a hierarchical modeling system for defining equipment, properties, and metrics
• SiteWise Monitor — a managed web application for creating dashboards without code
• SiteWise Alarms — rule-based alarm definitions and state management
• Integration with AWS services — Lambda, S3, QuickSight, SageMaker, and the broader AWS ecosystem

SiteWise is designed for organizations already invested in the AWS ecosystem. It's a building block — powerful but requiring assembly. You don't get a predictive maintenance solution out of the box; you get the infrastructure to build one.

What Is MachineCDN?

MachineCDN is a complete manufacturing intelligence platform that handles everything from PLC connectivity to AI-powered predictions in a single, integrated product.

Rather than providing components that must be assembled, MachineCDN delivers:

• Direct PLC connectivity via Ethernet/IP and Modbus protocols
• Cellular edge devices that bypass plant IT networks entirely
• Real-time dashboards purpose-built for manufacturing operations
• AI-powered predictive maintenance with pre-trained models
• OEE monitoring with automatic calculations
• Alarm management with threshold alerting
• Fleet management across multiple locations
• Materials and inventory tracking
• Downtime analysis with root cause categorization
• Energy consumption monitoring

MachineCDN is a product, not a platform you build on. The distinction matters.

Deployment Reality Check

AWS IoT SiteWise Deployment

Deploying SiteWise in a manufacturing environment involves multiple steps and AWS services:

Step 1: Edge Gateway Setup You need to provision a SiteWise Edge gateway — typically running on AWS Greengrass on an on-premises server. This requires:

• A Linux server or industrial PC in each facility
• AWS Greengrass Core software installation and configuration
• Network connectivity between the gateway and both the plant network and AWS cloud
• OPC-UA server configuration on your PLCs or through an OPC-UA wrapper

Step 2: OPC-UA Configuration SiteWise Edge communicates via OPC-UA. If your PLCs speak Modbus or Ethernet/IP (which most do), you'll need:

• An OPC-UA server or protocol converter (additional software/hardware)
• OPC-UA tag configuration for every data point
• Security certificate management for OPC-UA connections

Step 3: Asset Model Definition In the AWS console, you must define:

• Asset models with properties, metrics, and transforms
• Asset hierarchies (site → area → line → machine)
• Computed metrics (OEE calculations, aggregations)
• Each asset's property-to-data-stream mappings

Step 4: Dashboard Creation SiteWise Monitor provides dashboard creation, but you'll be building from scratch for each view — asset overviews, alarm summaries, trend charts.

Step 5: Advanced Analytics For predictive maintenance or anomaly detection, you need to integrate additional AWS services:

• Amazon Lookout for Equipment — for ML-based anomaly detection
• Amazon SageMaker — for custom predictive models
• AWS Lambda — for custom data processing logic
• Amazon S3 — for data storage and model training data

Realistic timeline: 2-6 months for a pilot deployment with 10-50 machines, depending on the complexity of your existing infrastructure and internal AWS expertise.

MachineCDN Deployment

MachineCDN deployment is hardware-focused rather than software-configured:

1. Connect edge device — plug the cellular router into the PLC's Ethernet port (3 minutes)
2. Device auto-registers in the MachineCDN dashboard
3. Configure tags — select which PLC data points to monitor
4. Set thresholds — define alarm conditions
5. Done — dashboards, OEE, alerts, and AI predictions are live

No additional servers, no protocol converters, no AWS console configuration, no data science pipeline. The edge device communicates directly with PLCs via native industrial protocols and sends data over cellular — entirely independent of plant IT infrastructure.

Realistic timeline: 1-2 days for a 10-50 machine deployment.

Pricing: The Hidden Costs of AWS IoT SiteWise

AWS IoT SiteWise Pricing

AWS IoT SiteWise uses consumption-based pricing that can be difficult to predict:

• Messaging: $1.00 per million messages ingested
• Data processing (transforms/metrics): $0.20 per 10,000 compute units
• Data storage: $0.029 per GB-month (hot tier)
• SiteWise Monitor: $7.20 per user per month
• SiteWise Edge: Additional licensing for edge processing

For a 50-machine factory sending data every 10 seconds across 20 tags per machine:

• Messages per month: ~260 million (50 machines × 20 tags × 6/min × 60 × 24 × 30)
• Messaging cost: ~$260/month
• Add computed metrics, storage, dashboards: Total easily reaches $500-1,500/month for SiteWise alone

But that's just the SiteWise component. For a complete solution comparable to MachineCDN, add:

Additional AWS Service	Estimated Monthly Cost
Greengrass Edge (per gateway)	$0.16/device + compute
Lookout for Equipment (ML)	$0.40-2.00/inference
SageMaker (training)	Variable ($100-500+)
S3 (data storage)	$23/TB
CloudWatch (monitoring)	$3/dashboard + metrics
Lambda (processing)	Variable
OPC-UA software license	$2,000-10,000/year
On-premises server	$3,000-8,000 (capex)

Total realistic cost for a 50-machine factory: $2,000-5,000/month including all AWS services, OPC-UA licensing, and infrastructure — plus the labor to manage it all.

MachineCDN Pricing

MachineCDN offers all-inclusive, device-based pricing:

• All features included: monitoring, predictive maintenance, OEE, alerting, fleet management
• No per-message charges, no compute unit fees, no additional services required
• Edge hardware included in the solution (no separate server purchases)
• No OPC-UA licensing required — native protocol support

For the same 50-machine factory, MachineCDN's total cost including hardware and software is significantly lower, with zero hidden fees for the analytics and AI that SiteWise charges extra for.

Protocol Support and Data Acquisition

AWS IoT SiteWise

SiteWise Edge supports OPC-UA as its primary industrial protocol. This is a deliberate architectural choice — OPC-UA is the emerging standard for industrial data exchange.

However, the reality on most factory floors is that OPC-UA adoption remains limited. According to a 2025 IoT Analytics survey, only 35% of manufacturing facilities have OPC-UA servers deployed. The majority of PLCs in production environments communicate via:

• Ethernet/IP (Rockwell/Allen-Bradley ecosystem)
• Modbus TCP/RTU (universal industrial protocol)
• PROFINET (Siemens ecosystem)
• EtherCAT (motion control)

If your equipment doesn't have an OPC-UA server, you'll need additional software (such as Kepware or Matrikon) to translate protocols — adding cost, complexity, and another point of failure.

MachineCDN

MachineCDN connects directly to PLCs using their native protocols:

• Ethernet/IP — the protocol Rockwell/Allen-Bradley PLCs speak natively
• Modbus TCP — supported by virtually every industrial controller
• Modbus RTU — for legacy serial-connected equipment

No protocol translation required. No OPC-UA server to license and maintain. The edge device reads PLC tags directly, which means fewer components in the data path and fewer things that can break.

Security Architecture

AWS IoT SiteWise

SiteWise follows AWS's standard cloud security model:

• Data encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest (AES-256)
• IAM policies for access control
• VPC isolation for edge gateways
• CloudTrail audit logging

The edge gateway requires network connectivity to both the plant's OT network (for PLC data) and the internet (for AWS communication). This dual-homed architecture means the gateway touches the plant network, which introduces cybersecurity considerations that OT security teams must evaluate.

MachineCDN

MachineCDN's cellular architecture provides network isolation by design:

• Edge devices use dedicated cellular connections — never connected to the plant's IT or OT network
• Zero attack surface on the manufacturing network
• No firewall rules, no VPN configuration, no network segmentation required
• Data encrypted end-to-end over cellular

For manufacturing operations where cybersecurity compliance is critical (NIST CSF, IEC 62443), MachineCDN's air-gapped approach often simplifies the compliance conversation entirely.

Scaling and Multi-Site Operations

AWS IoT SiteWise

Scaling SiteWise across multiple sites means:

• Deploying Greengrass gateways at each location
• Configuring OPC-UA connections at each site
• Managing asset models and hierarchies across regions
• Monitoring AWS costs that scale with data volume

AWS's global infrastructure is an advantage for large-scale deployments, but each site requires meaningful local infrastructure and configuration.

MachineCDN

MachineCDN's cellular approach makes multi-site deployment straightforward:

• Ship a box, plug it in — no local IT infrastructure required at each site
• Centralized fleet management dashboard shows all locations and zones
• Consistent experience regardless of local IT capability
• Cellular coverage is the only requirement — no minimum bandwidth or network infrastructure

For manufacturers with dozens of locations, especially in areas with limited IT support, MachineCDN's approach dramatically reduces the burden of scaling.

Who Should Choose AWS IoT SiteWise?

AWS IoT SiteWise makes sense when:

• You're deeply invested in AWS and want everything in one cloud ecosystem
• Your PLCs already have OPC-UA servers deployed and configured
• You have internal AWS expertise (solution architects, DevOps engineers)
• You need custom analytics that integrate with SageMaker, Redshift, or other AWS services
• Your budget includes implementation labor — you'll need it
• You want maximum flexibility to build exactly the solution you envision

Who Should Choose MachineCDN?

MachineCDN is the right choice when:

• You need results fast — your downtime costs can't wait for a 6-month implementation
• You don't have AWS expertise on staff (or don't want to build it for one project)
• Your PLCs speak Modbus or Ethernet/IP — which most do
• IT is a bottleneck — cellular connectivity eliminates network dependencies
• You want predictive maintenance included — not as a separate AI service to configure
• You prefer predictable costs — not consumption-based pricing that fluctuates monthly

Head-to-Head Summary

Dimension	AWS IoT SiteWise	MachineCDN
Type	Cloud service (building block)	Complete product
PLC Protocol	OPC-UA (via edge gateway)	Ethernet/IP, Modbus (native)
Deployment	2-6 months	1-2 days
IT Requirements	Significant (servers, network, AWS)	None (cellular)
AI/ML	Separate services (Lookout, SageMaker)	Built-in
Pricing Model	Per-message + per-compute + extras	Device-based, all-inclusive
Expertise Needed	AWS architects + data engineers	Manufacturing engineers
Multi-Site	Requires per-site infrastructure	Ship and plug in
Best For	AWS-native enterprises	Manufacturing operations teams

The Verdict

AWS IoT SiteWise is a powerful building block for organizations that want to construct a custom IIoT solution within the AWS ecosystem. It provides flexibility, scalability, and integration with the broadest cloud services portfolio available.

MachineCDN is a complete answer to the question most manufacturing teams are actually asking: "How do I monitor my machines, predict failures, and reduce downtime — starting this week?"

If you have AWS solution architects and a six-month runway, SiteWise gives you maximum flexibility. If you have manufacturing engineers and unplanned downtime costing you today, MachineCDN delivers value faster.

Related Reading:

• MachineCDN vs C3 AI: Which Industrial AI Platform?
• MachineCDN vs Siemens MindSphere: IIoT Platform Comparison
• Edge Computing in Manufacturing: Why Processing Data at the Source Changes Everything
• How to Connect PLCs to the Cloud
• Best IIoT Platform 2026

Want to see MachineCDN in action on your equipment? Book a demo — we'll connect your first PLC in under 5 minutes.