DataHub use case
Engineers working in a high-security facility in Europe needed to provide access to subsets of data without breaching network security or allowing unauthorized personnel to enter the site. The goal was to connect facility equipment to two remote SCADA systems so technicians could monitor the machines without physically accessing the site.
At first it looked like a typical OPC application over a network, using DCOM. But in addition to the expected configuration issues with DCOM, the team also found that this particular OPC server was behaving strangely, refusing to re-establish a DCOM connection after a network disconnect. To avoid DCOM issues altogether, they decided to use Cogent DataHub's tunneling feature.
At the secure facility, they connected the DataHub to the OPC server for the process equipment and several other pieces of equipment. Then they set up outbound tunnel connections to OPC DataHubs running on two different machines in the monitoring stations. The two SCADA systems are now physically remote from the machinery they control, but as the tunnel connection is in real time, technicians can access and work with it as if they were on site. Physical separation prevents accidental or malicious contact with equipment, and minimizes plant service visits.