The Industrial Technology Stack — from factory floor to cloud
A reference map of the OT/IT convergence landscape for solution providers building in the industrial digitization space.
Level 0
Field Devices & Sensors
The physical layer: PLCs, RTUs, sensors, actuators, motors, drives, and instrumentation. These devices generate the raw operational data that feeds everything above.
Key Standards
IEC 61131 (PLC programming) PROFINET EtherNet/IP IO-LinkKey Vendors & Platforms
Siemens Rockwell Automation Schneider Electric Beckhoff Phoenix ContactLevel 1
Control Systems
SCADA, DCS, and HMI systems that supervise and control field devices. The command-and-control layer for individual production lines, cells, and sites.
Key Standards
IEC 61511 ISA-88 IEC 62443Key Vendors & Platforms
Wonderware Ignition (Inductive Automation) FactoryTalk WinCCLevel 2
Site Operations (MES / MOM)
Manufacturing Execution Systems and Manufacturing Operations Management — the bridge between shop-floor control and enterprise planning. Manages work orders, quality, scheduling, and OEE tracking.
Key Standards
ISA-95 IEC 62264 ISO 22400 (OEE)Key Vendors & Platforms
SAP ME Siemens Opcenter Rockwell Plex Dassault DELMIALevel 3
Enterprise Systems (ERP / PLM / QMS)
ERP for business processes, PLM for product data and lifecycle management, QMS for quality management. The IT-side systems that MBE programs must connect to OT data.
Key Standards
ISO 9001 AS9100D ISO 13485 IATF 16949Key Vendors & Platforms
SAP S/4HANA Oracle PTC Windchill Siemens Teamcenter Dassault 3DEXPERIENCELevel 4
Edge Computing Layer
Industrial edge servers, gateways, and ruggedized compute deployed at or near the production floor. Enables local data processing, low-latency AI inference, and OT/IT protocol translation.
Key Standards
IEC 62443 NERC CIP (energy) ISA-99Key Vendors & Platforms
Dell EMC Edge HPE Edgeline Siemens SIMATIC IPC Cisco IE switches ADLINKLevel 5
Industrial IoT & Connectivity
The protocols and platforms that connect OT data to IT systems: OPC UA for semantic interoperability, MQTT for lightweight messaging, MTConnect for CNC data. The convergence plumbing.
Key Standards
OPC UA (IEC 62541) MTConnect (ANSI/MTC1.4) MQTT SparkplugB TSNKey Vendors & Platforms
Kepware Litmus Automation Cogent DataHub Softing matrikon OPCLevel 6
Cloud, AI/ML & Analytics
Cloud platforms hosting data lakes, AI training pipelines, and analytics workloads. Industrial AI use cases: predictive maintenance, visual inspection, yield optimization, and energy management.
Key Standards
ISO 23247 (digital twin) NIST AI RMF CMMC (defense)Key Vendors & Platforms
AWS IoT Azure IoT Hub Google Manufacturing Data Engine NVIDIA EGX DataBricksReady to grow your industrial digitization practice?
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