How to Connect PLCs to the Cloud: A Practical Guide for Manufacturing Engineers
Your PLCs are already collecting everything you need — temperature, pressure, cycle counts, motor current, alarm states. The problem is that data lives in a controller on the factory floor, visible only to whoever's standing in front of the HMI. Connecting your PLCs to the cloud unlocks real-time visibility, predictive maintenance, and fleet-wide analytics across every plant.
This guide covers the practical reality of doing it — not the whiteboard architecture, but the actual engineering decisions, protocol considerations, and pitfalls you'll hit along the way.