Cogent DataHub® Premise & Cloud Integration of OPC, Databases, MQTT, Historians, Modbus, Excel & More 

Power, Choice & Room to Grow, But Flexibility to Only Pay for What You Need

• Solutions for as little as $1400-3000 and get results and benefits in hours or days vs how long for custom software solutions?
• Designed for speed by developers that are passionate about performance. 
• Applications in the field with over 2,000,000 tags in a single DataHub instance
• Tested to be able to move up to 100,000 data changes per second at minimal added latency. 
• Licensing based on what features you need
• Competitively priced DataHub solution packs combine common features, and then you can add other features when you want to expand how you use the tool. 

Use the tabs at the left to explore the capabilities of DataHub in more depth and if you have questions, click the chat button at the bottom of this page, or contact us.

Bringing Together Different Protocols and Systems 

The OPC standards have been a key part of data integration in the Industrial Automation space since 1995 but when you say "my software uses OPC" there's more to it than that because of the many problems OPC solves. Add IoT solutions involving MQTT, Azure, Amazon, Google, JSON data, SparkplugB, and others, and your business' thirst for answers from your data.

The DataHub OPC Gateway and IoT Gateway Packs make it easy to integrate different OPC and IoT Standards 

Smart MQTT Sparkplug Integration with OPC Sources/Destinations & More

DataHub provides smart MQTT client &  broker functionality with Sparkplug support that is tightly and automatically integrated with OPC interfaces so that once you bring data into DataHub, from any source, it can be used with MQTT.

The smart capabilities overcome the many important details involved in using MQTT in industrial control and SCADA applications, especially in larger systems with multiple SCADA nodes, device types and more.  Sparkplug support automatically creates DataHub tags from Sparkplug topics and the data they provide, without any complicated parsing required. 

With V11, Sparkplug, SparkplugB, and Sparkplug 3 are supported, along with adding MQTT V5 support!

Other Resources

Learn how DataHub's MQTT Solution Improves Security 

Free DataHub Transforming MQTT to OPC and OPC to MQTT Virtual Training

Bring Streaming Event Data Into DataHub

Event stream services support real-time ingestion, distribution, and processing of events or messages from various sources to multiple consumers, facilitating data integration, event-driven architecture, and real-time analytics. Starting with DataHub V11 and higher, Event Streams from Apache Kafka and Azure Event Hubs are available as a data sources.

Integrating OPC natively with other standards

Where some solutions require you to buy multiple standalone products and connect them together yourself, or do extra steps to make data available to other standards like MQTT, once you connect DataHub to an OPC data source, the data is just that, data, and it's automatically available to the full DataHub feature set. 

• OPC Data Access (DA) Classic Client & Server
• OPC Alarm & Events (A&E) Classic Client & Server
• OPC Historical Data Access (HDA) Classic Client in External Historian options (New in V11!)
  • Convert OPC HDA Classic to OPC UA HDA
• OPC UA
  • Client & Server
  • Alarm & Conditions Client & Server
  • OPC UA connection wizard 
  • OPC UA Certificate Manager
  • OPC UA Discovery Server included 

Bringing Data Together Your Way

DataHub helps you gather data from multiple sources and present it to client programs as a single, unified data set, in a structure that you define as you build your connections.  A single connection to the DataHub gives you access to data from all connected OPC, MQTT, Excel, Modbus, DDE and TCP sources, but also data from Historians and ODBC databases and data entered through web interfaces

Aggregating data brings several benefits

• Reduce load on data sources when multiple clients need the same data 
• Protect control networks and data sources by controlling data collection rates in the DataHub vs from the clients (Case study)
• Some client applications require licenses for each data source you connect to - make DataHub that one data source and reduce your licensing costs for other applications. 
• Combine data from different sources into namespaces/folders that group data by system, site, etc vs source

Assuring Data Availability at Multiple Levels

• Data Source Redundancy for OPC UA, DA, A&E, UA A&C, MQTT and More
• Native OPC UA data source redundancy that preserves hierarchy and namespace, a DataHub exclusive!
• Variety of architectures supported from simple to complex, including proxy and DMZ friendly secure data tunneling redundancy 
• Redundant Data Hub Instances in a high-availability pair supported
• Multi-client redundant architectures supported 
• Flexible trigger conditions

Example Architecture below for redundant OPC Data Sources. Many other architectures possible, more than we can show, so contact us to discuss your needs. 

Get Data Where You Need It, Securely

DataHub tunneling moves any data that you can get into the product, between sites, locations, even without opening firewall ports on control and business networks, working with proxies and DMZs. 

• Connect OPC clients & servers over networks, without DCOM
• Move any data over the tunnel, not just OPC 
• Control whether tunnel endpoints are read-only or read-write
• Define level of security required for each tunnel connection
• Data Diode Mode (New in V11!) enhances security and supports working with hardware data diodes supporting TCP emulation
• Tunnel just the data, not OPC commands, for high performance and resilience
• Automatically resume connectivity when networks come back, unlike DCOM! 
• Know the network is down through data quality indicators 
• Single user configurable TCP port connections, encrypted and password protected 
• Tunnel OPC, MQTT, Modbus, Excel, Database data and more 

Other Resources

Data Bridging - Connecting Different Systems, Standards, Technologies

Because all data becomes "just data" once in DataHub, in the namespaces/hierarchy that you setup, you can then use DataHub's Bridging feature to move data between any systems. 

• Create connections between any DataHub points, not just OPC between OPC servers
• Integrate data between different PLC/control hardware 
• Bridge and tunnel using the DataHub tunneling feature, to connect systems across networks, without using DCOM
• Bridge between multiple data sources
• Point-and-click user interface
• Linear & Scriptable transformations
• Multi-threaded, so any one external system that goes offline doesn't necessarily slow down bridges between active systems
• By adding the Modbus TCP option to your DataHub license, you can directly connect to Modbus Ethernet (TCP) data sources and bridge them to OPC UA and other destinations. 

Integrate with Databases and Historians

Just like OPC data, data from databases and historians is data that can be used in the DataHub. Tunneled, scripted, bridged, and more. Store & forward capabilities built-in. DataHub can also write to a wide variety of Historians both premise and cloud hosted as shown below. 

Databases

Read or write data from any ODBC capable and compliant database, including but not limited to

• Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Express
• MySQL
• Oracle

Historians (DataHub V10 & V11+) - native connections to read and write to

• Amazon Kinesis
• Apache Kafka (V11+)
• AVEVA Insight
• AVEVA Historian
• AVEVA PI System (formerly OSISoft PI)
• Azure Event Hubs (V11+)
• InfluxDB OSS, Enterprise, and Cloud V1 & V2
• OPC Classic HDA compatible historians with an HDA Server interface (V11+)
• ODBC (V11+)
• Historians supporting REST client connections

Generate Alarms, Notify Users, or Integrate via OPC A&E or OPC UA A&C

Email/SMS notifications

• Send emails with embedded data & reports
• Send SMS messages via Email/SMS gateways or email via cellular provider
• Trigger off of any data you can get into DataHub

Alarms & Notifications (v10+)

• Alarm Generation (V10+)
• Alarm Lifecycle Management
• Aggregation
• Collection Redundancy
• Secure Alarm Tunneling

Unsure Which Feature you Need?  Learn how to choose between DataHub Email/SMS and Alarms/Notifications features

Notifications & Integration with OPC A&E and UA A&C

• OPC A&E Client and Server
• OPC UA Alarms & Conditions Client and Server

Cogent DataHub Service for Azure

Securely integrating production data with Azure has never been easier than with the Cogent DataHub Service for Azure. Although you've always been able to license a DataHub instance and run it in an Azure Virtual Server instance, it's likely that is not very cost effective.  The Microsoft Azure Managed Service complements and works with your premise hosted DataHub instances and in a pricing model that is consistent with other Azure applications. An optimized version of DataHub can be used as a service in your Azure account to receive data from local/premise hosted DataHub instances for IT/OT integration, centralized historians, cloud historian and SCADA integration, analytics, AI and more.  Integrate with the over 3,000 Azure partner apps.

Secure Data Relay in the Cloud 

The Cogent DataHub Service for Azure provides a secure cloud relay or proxy for streaming your data that doesn't require any open inbound firewall ports on either side of the connection for Secure IT to OT or Plant or Interplant Networking or Remote Monitoring

Connecting Modbus TCP Devices

Modbus, the well known, pervasive communications protocol found in thousands of control devices, can be directly integrated into DataHub.

The DataHub Modbus TCP feature is available with an OPC DA or UA server interface, or can be added on to any other DataHub product pack.

Other applications include Modbus to MQTT conversion, Modbus datalogging, Secure encrypted Modbus data tunneling, Modbus to Excel integration and more. 

Securely Move Excel Data Anywhere

Microsoft Excel is known by everyone as a tool for data analysis, and nearly everyone has it on their work computer. 

But getting data from your control system into Excel in something other than a CSV export file isn't fun. Sure you can use DDE, and DataHub can use DDE to connect any data to Excel.  DDE is a legacy technology which is why we came up with a better way.

The DataHub Vine Plug-In is a native Excel add-in that brings real-time and bi-directional data sharing to your spreadsheets. 

• Connect any worksheet to DataHub and see live updates
• Data refreshed when spreadsheet opened next
• Share Excel analysis results back to DataHub and on to your control systems
• Integrate Excel with OPC & Modbus 
• Send Email notifications from DataHub based on changes in the Excel worksheet

Free Configuration & Monitoring Tools & Extensive Security

DataHub configuration tools are included free with every DataHub Solutions Pack and are built into the application.

• Local configuration
• Secure Remote Configuration 
• Configuration Import
• Data Monitoring
• Event Monitoring/Logging
• Connection Viewer & Diagnostics 

Security is built into all DataHub systems and provides the means to control who connects to interfaces, who can configure the DataHub, and more. 

DataHub's secure data tunneling capability that is firewall, DMZ, & proxy friendly and supports configurations that can even move any data you can get into DataHub without open firewall ports is a key differentiating strength. 

With V11 and higher, you can integrate with ActiveDirectory via LDAP to delegate authentication to your domain.  MFA is added for user login for configuration or Webview. Filtering of data sources by IP, IP range, and protocol are also added and last but not least, V11 also adds Data Diode mode in the DataHub secure tunneling capability.

Integrating System Health with Control Systems

You depend on your servers and computers to manage, monitor, and control your process, but are you keeping an eye on their health? 

The DataHub System Monitor Pack

• Reads any Windows performance counter on the same system that DataHub is running on 
• Includes the Datahub Quick Trend to view values over time
• Can restart processes that stop running, using the built-in, included, DataHub Scripting engine
• Can be integrated with the rest of your systems by adding OPC server, MQTT, or other interfaces as DataHub add-ons
• Can send alerts with the optional Email/SMS feature
• Can integrate multiple systems and aggregate data by using DataHub tunneling

Data Visualization

DataHub WebView provides the ability to launch an application from DataHub on other systems and get a rich user experience for delivering real-time data displays.  Reasons to consider DataHub WebView for your visualization:

• Unlimited client and data connections*
• Desktop quality graphics with the convenience of application deployment from a browser login
  
• No development software required! Build screens anywhere provided user has been granted rights
• Robust security especially with new V11 features 
• Low latency - real-time data, not dependent on any underlying database 
• And many more reasons

WebView is available for purchase with a core set of features or can be added to any existing DataHub license. 

DataHub Features List

The capabilities and features of DataHub are wide and varied, so here's a reference list to take you to more details on everything, including features that weren't covered on other tabs. 

Have questions? Click the Chat button in the lower right corner or Request a Virtual Consultation Meeting

• Aggregation
• Alarms and Notifications (V10+)
• API, Non-Windows OS Integration & Extensibility
• Camera (USB & IP) support including tunneling
• Configuration, Monitoring & Troubleshooting Tools & Configuration Import 
• Email/SMS
• Excel Plug-In (VINE)
• Data Logging
• DDE 
• High Availability
• Historian Integration
• OPC DA Client/Server
• OPC UA Client/Server
• OPC UA Alarms & Conditions Client/Server
• OPC Alarm & Events Client/Server
• Modbus TCP Client 
• MQTT Client
• MQTT Broker
• Quick Trend
• Redundancy
• Remote Configuration
• Scripting 
• Security
• Skkynet DataHub on Azure Service
• Store & Forward (V10+ for addition of cloud & external historian)
• System Monitor
• Tunneling
• Utilities for Monitoring, Optimization & Troubleshooting

Learn by watching and doing

The best way to learn something is to do it and have someone else whose done it that you can watch. 

To support that, we offer a free fully functioning trial of DataHub but also an extensive library of videos with a combination of on-demand training, short how-to's, and deeper dives 

DataHub works on these operating systems

Cogent DataHub is available as a 32-bit or 64-bit application. The 64-bit version download is available upon request.

• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2008, 2008R2
• Windows 11
• Windows 10
• Windows 8.1 and 8.1 Embedded
• Windows 7 (excluding Home Edition)

Access the Detailed Documentation & Resources

In addition to our video library, the DataHub documentation is installed with the product and is available in our knowledgebase

Documentation (PDF) (HTML/Online)

Release Notes History

Technical Blog

Jump Starts for DataHub Scripting

The powerful DataHub scripting engine lets you accomplish a wide range of very unique results for your applications. Why write custom code when you can use off-the-shelf software and the built in scripting engine for that final percentage of the requirements. 

Check out the case study for an inspiring solution one user implemented.