Cloud Integration

You can connect instances of Plant Connectivity with SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud applications to enable information exchange between, on the one hand, production related, locally installed systems or Internet-enabled devices, and on the other hand, business applications in the Digital Manufacturing Cloud.

As a prerequisite, you have to select the PCo Cloud Management component during installation of Plant Connectivity. If you have missed this, run the PCo installer again and select the missing component. If the cloud management component is not installed, you will not see the menu Cloud Integration in the Management Console and the settings for the cloud services.

If the cloud integration is active PCo offers services that can be accessed from SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud applications such as Machine Model or Production Process Designer (PPD) using the SAP Business Technology Platform Connectivity.

The SAP Business Technology Platform offers the Cloud Connector. The Cloud Connector is required for the communication from the Digital Manufacturing Cloud to SAP Plant Connectivity to satisfy the security requirements for Internet communication. Communication from PCo to the cloud is performed directly, that is, without the Cloud Connector.

The cloud application sends a request that the Cloud Connector redirects to the endpoint offered by PCo.

You have to install the Cloud Connector on your on-premise system, for example, on the same server as PCo or on another server if you want to have several PCos administered by one Cloud Connector. (See also: Installation of Cloud Connector)

Communication in the direction Start of the navigation pathCloud Application  Next navigation step Cloud Connector Next navigation step PCo End of the navigation path can be secured by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) and principal propagation.

PCo offers the following services that can be accessed and executed by cloud applications:

  • Configuration services

    Services that provide the following functions:

    • Create, update, and delete source systems, destination systems, and agent instances in PCo

    • Browse for tags and services in a data source

  • Administration services

    PCo offers the following administration services:

    • Start and stop a service provider (triggers the starting and stopping of an agent instance in PCo)

    • Get the runtime status of the agent instance in PCo

    • Read the meta data of all services

    • Create, update, and delete user groups and their roles

    • Create and restore configuration backups

  • Runtime services

    Services that allow access to the shop floor layer:

    • Retrieve tag data

    • Write data to a tag of a data source

    • Execute a service

  • Certificate services

    Services that provide information for certificates:

    • Browse certificate folders

    • Browse certificates

    • Generate self-signed certificates

For more information, see: