A broad category of technologies used to monitor, control, and automate industrial equipment, assets, and processes. HMI, SCADA, PLCs, DCSs, and related control technologies can all be part of an industrial control system.

Software that gives operators a visual way to monitor, control, and interact with industrial equipment and processes. In AVEVA’s view, a modern HMI should do more than display data; it should help operators understand real-time conditions and respond effectively.

A system architecture used to monitor and control industrial processes across local or geographically distributed operations. Modern SCADA connects real-time data, alarms, visualization, and control capabilities so operations teams can manage assets, identify problems, and act quickly.

A control system typically used to manage complex, continuous industrial processes across a plant or production environment. Compared with SCADA, a DCS is usually more tightly focused on process control within a defined facility or process unit.

The ability to understand what is happening in an operation, recognize abnormal conditions, and determine what action to take. AVEVA’s approach emphasizes contextual information that helps operators move beyond raw data toward faster, more confident decisions.

A reusable software representation of an industrial asset, device, process area, or function. Objects help engineering teams organize related data, graphics, logic, and behavior so applications can be built and maintained more consistently.

A digital structure that represents industrial assets and their relationships to data, alarms, graphics, work orders, history, and other operational context. An asset model helps people understand operations in relation to real equipment and processes, not just isolated data points.

A reusable engineering pattern used to create consistent industrial objects, graphics, applications, or configurations. Templates help teams standardize deployments, reduce repetitive work, and apply changes efficiently across similar assets or sites.

A reusable data structure created by engineers to represent a common asset, device, or process pattern. UDTs help standardize how related data and behavior are organized so similar equipment can be configured and reused consistently.

A named data point that represents a specific value from equipment, instrumentation, or software. Tags are often used to identify measurements, states, alarms, commands, or other operational signals in HMI and SCADA systems.

An organized naming structure used to identify and arrange industrial data so systems and users can find the right information consistently. A well-designed namespace helps reduce confusion when data comes from many devices, applications, and sites.

A shared industrial data architecture that organizes real-time information from many systems into a consistent structure. A unified namespace helps operations, engineering, analytics, and enterprise systems work from a common view of industrial data.

A rugged industrial controller used to automate machines, equipment, and process steps. PLCs execute control logic close to the equipment and provide data that can be visualized, monitored, or analyzed by higher-level systems.

An industrial communication standard used to exchange data securely and consistently across devices, control systems, and software applications. OPC UA helps reduce vendor-specific integration barriers by providing a common way to structure and share industrial information.

A lightweight messaging protocol used to publish and subscribe to data between devices, applications, and systems. In industrial environments, MQTT is often used to support scalable IIoT and edge-to-enterprise data movement.

The use of connected industrial devices, sensors, software, and communications technologies to collect and share operational data. IIoT expands the amount of information available for monitoring, analysis, optimization, and decision-making.

Computing that happens close to industrial equipment, devices, or data sources. Edge computing can reduce latency, support local decision-making, and keep critical operations running even when connectivity to higher-level systems is limited.

A computing model that delivers software, storage, processing, and other services over a network rather than relying entirely on local infrastructure. Cloud technologies help industrial organizations expand access to data, applications, analytics, and collaboration while reducing the need to manage physical infrastructure.

An architecture that combines on-premises industrial systems with cloud-based services. In industrial operations, hybrid cloud can help organizations balance local control, security, scalability, collaboration, analytics, and enterprise access.

A software delivery model in which applications are hosted and managed by a service provider and accessed over a network. SaaS allows organizations to deploy capabilities more quickly while reducing the effort required to install, maintain, and update software.

A specialized database designed to collect, store, and retrieve time-series industrial data. Historians help operations teams analyze performance, investigate issues, support reporting, and understand what happened over time.

A historian optimized for high-volume industrial process data from equipment, controllers, sensors, alarms, and events. A process historian is designed for operational environments where fast collection, reliable storage, and efficient retrieval of time-stamped data are essential.

Data recorded in sequence over time, usually with a timestamp for each value. Industrial teams use time-series data to analyze trends, compare operating conditions, investigate events, and understand process behavior.

A notification that indicates a process condition, equipment state, or system behavior requires operator attention. In modern HMI/SCADA environments, alarms should help operators recognize abnormal conditions and respond before operations are affected.

A time-stamped record of something that occurred in an industrial system. Events may include state changes, operator actions, system messages, alarms, acknowledgments, or other activities useful for analysis and reporting.