Industrial data platform: Captia Connect and Captia.ai

What an industrial data platform is

A plant generates data everywhere: PLCs, sensors, machines, meters, SCADA, ERP and MES. The problem is not a lack of data, it is that the data lives in silos. Each system keeps its own, in its own format, in its own history, and nobody can see the whole plant without exporting spreadsheets and stitching them together by hand.

An industrial data platform solves exactly that. It is the software layer that captures data at source, normalises it into a common time series model and makes it available to the whole organisation: visualisation, rules and alerts, workflows, reporting, APIs and artificial intelligence. It is also the foundation of industrial plant monitoring: without that common layer, each system shows its own fragment and nobody sees the whole. It does not replace existing systems: it connects them and adds the common layer they lack.

If you come from specific concepts, we have dedicated guides: what an industrial historian is, how a Unified Namespace (UNS) works, what a data acquisition system consists of and how to set up plant monitoring.

The Captia layered reference architecture

Our architecture splits the problem into two layers with clear responsibilities, joined by secure transport.

The data infrastructure is the territory of Captia Connect. The analytics, industrial models and AI modules that exploit that data are the territory of our industrial artificial intelligence unit.

Size your data platform

Enter how many assets and signals you want to connect and how often. The result is transparent arithmetic over your inputs: data points per day and which capabilities of each layer your scenario would activate.

Supported industrial protocols and technologies

Captia Connect is multi-protocol by design, so it integrates the equipment already on the floor without replacing it:

The edge technology stack uses Docker for deployment, InfluxDB for time series storage and Tailscale for secure connectivity.

Deployment models: on premises, hybrid or cloud

• On premises

  The whole data layer lives at the plant. The usual choice when company policy requires that data never leaves the premises.

• Reference model

  Hybrid

  Acquisition and buffering at the edge, exploitation on the platform. This is the reference model: the plant keeps its autonomy and the organisation gains centralised web access.

• Cloud

  The full platform in the cloud, with the edge as the capture point. It simplifies IT operations when there are no local data residency requirements.

Who this industrial monitoring software is for

For plants and industrial SMEs that already have the systems but not the common layer:

• Factories with PLCs, sensors, meters or SCADA whose data never reaches management.
• Production teams that depend on paper reports or spreadsheets.
• Leadership teams that want to see production, energy, quality and maintenance over the same data.
• Organisations that want to start with industrial analytics and AI but first need reliable, unified data.

How it is deployed: project phases

1. 1

   Diagnosis

   Inventory of data sources (PLCs, sensors, meters, SCADA, ERP, MES), available protocols and the plant network architecture. This defines the scope of the first phase.

2. 2

   Edge deployment

   Captia Connect is installed on the floor and the first signals are connected: acquisition, normalisation, buffering and secure delivery up and running.

3. 3

   Platform go-live

   Captia.ai is configured: web SCADA, dashboards by asset, line, role or plant, users and roles, and the first rules and alerts.

4. 4

   Operationalisation

   Workflows, reporting, APIs and integration with ERP, MES, CRM or SAP, so plant data reaches management without manual steps.

5. 5

   Intelligence

   With a consolidated history, the AI modules are activated: energy optimisation, anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, forecasting, demand prediction, recommendations and optimisation of production and consumption.

Data platform vs MES vs traditional SCADA

The three concepts are often confused. This comparison is conceptual: it describes the role of each type of system, not specific third-party products.

We go deeper into these differences in two dedicated comparisons: MES vs data platform and MES vs SCADA. And if you are weighing a classic historian against a time series database: historian vs time series database.

Frequently asked questions

What is an industrial data platform?

It is the software layer that captures data from plant equipment (PLCs, sensors, machines, meters, SCADA), normalises it into a common model and makes it available to the operation: visualisation, rules, alerts, workflows, reporting and integration with management systems. It replaces a collection of silos (one historian per machine, spreadsheets, systems that do not talk to each other) with a single data layer the whole factory works on.

What is the difference between Captia Connect and Captia.ai?

Captia Connect is the edge layer: it is deployed next to the equipment, acquires data over multiple protocols, normalises it, buffers it locally and sends it securely. Captia.ai is the platform: web SCADA, dashboards, rules, alerts, workflows, reporting, APIs and artificial intelligence modules. Connect solves the data; Captia.ai turns it into operations and intelligence.

Which industrial protocols does Captia Connect support?

MQTT, OPC UA, Modbus TCP, Modbus RTU over RS-485, OpenWebNet, IEC 870-5-102, REST APIs, webhooks and CSV files. This allows PLCs, sensors, meters and existing SCADA systems to be integrated without replacing plant equipment.

What happens if the plant loses its internet connection?

Captia Connect includes local buffering and persistence without connectivity: data keeps being captured and stored at the edge, and is sent once the connection is restored. Acquisition does not depend on cloud availability.

Does a data platform replace my SCADA or my MES?

Not necessarily. The platform integrates with existing systems: it can read from the current SCADA and integrate with ERP and MES. What it adds is the common layer those systems do not provide on their own: a unified data model, web visualisation, cross-cutting rules and alerts, workflows, reporting and AI modules over the full plant history.

How is it deployed and how soon do you see data?

The project starts with a diagnosis of the data sources and the plant network architecture. Captia Connect is then deployed at the edge and the first signals are connected, becoming visible in Captia.ai. From there the scope grows in phases: more signals, rules, alerts, workflows, reporting and ERP or MES integration according to business priority.

How many signals can the platform capture?

It depends on the plant sources and the sampling frequency: reading 50 signals every minute is not the same as reading 500 every second. The volume is sized during the diagnosis, based on the inventory of PLCs, sensors, meters and existing systems. The sizer on this page lets you estimate the daily data points of your scenario with your own numbers.