DCC FAQ

The Inuatek Data Collection Cloud (DCC) is a platform agnostic data collection solution that integrates tightly with selected IoT Gateways, particularly Secomea SiteManagers. The DCC has specific focus on giving clear overview of raw-data and the ability of using this for building dashboards by the integrated tools, or to trigger notifications to be sent by email, SMS or displayed in dashboards.

Three points stand out: 1. DCC is designed without reliance on Azure or AWS technologies and can also run on-premises. As a result, it is incredibly portable and cost effective. 2. DCC contains distinct data analytics functions, such as event triggers based on the correlation of different data points and other elements for enriching the acquired data. 3. Finally, its strong interaction with Secomea SiteManager gateways provides various benefits, including fast and instant configuration management, a very high security level, and the possibility to access VNC and Web-visu applications of PLCs and HMIs directly from a user dashboard.

Yes, any MQTT device capable of entering a JSON blob format for the data format is supported for data collection. For some devices, we have made bidirectional support, such as Seneca and SIA Connect, which makes it possible to publish a new setting that the user has entered in a dashboard and which will result in the change to be made on a PLC via, e.g., Modbus, Siemens S7 or similar protocol.

There are in fact several advantages: 1. The native protocol used between the SiteManager and DCC is not only highly secure but extremely compact, which minimizes the total amount of data transmitted. 2. The same protocol allows for real-time changes to the data collection configuration inside the SiteManager, 3. The SiteManager can be used concurrently for Remote tunneling access to the equipment for troubleshooting and programming. 4. The LinkManager Mobile API allows for remote VNC or Web-visu access to a PLC or HMI from a DCC dashboard, 5. The same mechanism allows a dashboard to not only read values but also to write a value to a PLC (currently supported for ModBus).

The standard Inuatek-hosted DCC service runs on Microsoft Azure in the European Union. DCC does not depend on Azure or AWS IoT services and can also be deployed in a private tenant or on-premises. Hosting location, operational responsibilities and security requirements for these deployments are agreed separately with Inuatek.

Typical protocols are Modbus, S7, OPC-UA, EtherNet/IP or plain http/https, since these are natively supported by a Secomea SiteManager that is the typical choice of IoT gateway. See supported gateways and protocols for more information.

Yes, it is included in the standard subscription and available for both Android on Google Play and iPhone on the App Store. Some of the unique features include: • View Next-Gen standard and Fleet dashboards • Receive DCC alerts as mobile push notifications • Open the relevant dashboard directly by tapping a notification • See the affected device and the dashboard period associated with the alert • Use supported remote-access widgets, including VNC and WebVisu • Interact with supported two-way dashboard widgets

DCC is based on subscription per IoT Gateway and the amount of data per hour. This is managed by a license you apply to an IoT Gateway. The price model is designed to allow starting small and with minimum cost, and scales with your needs. Our Enterprise model allows to you buy a bucket of data starting at ½ billion sample points annually, which you can use across all your devices. See pricing and licensing for more information.

Yes. New customers or potential new customers, will receive at least one free 30 days license, that you can apply to any device connecting to the platform. Within the 30 days, you can move the license between devices. Should you need more time, contact us. We can also arrange a demonstration online, where we show you around.

We base our services on B2B and will invoice you based on your VAT number. There are no upfront payments. If we have a local distributor in your region, we will refer to that.

We generally bill a license at delivery, and you a license can be valid for 1-5 years, and be based on auto-expiry or auto-renewal as you prefer. For data pool agreement (Enterprise), you will be invoiced the data pool 12 months, in advance, or in special cases per quarter.

Yes, your plan is based on the number of active licenses available. You can always change licenses from auto-renewal to expiry, making the automatically terminate at the end of the license period. Your licenses are based on the number of sample points per hour, but calculated per day. If you exceed the daily data limit, you will be notified by email, and in the monthly consumption report, so you can alter the sampling interval or buy a license with a higher data limit.

Yes. A unique feature of the solution is that you can apply aggregation of data in the SiteManager IoT Gateway. E.g., by sending an average over a time period, or only sending certain data, when another sample point has a certain value. Adjustment of such aggregation are done in the DCC IoT Admin menu and automatically pushed to the SiteManager and becomes active immediately.

Yes, In the IoT Administration menu, you can follow real time, how much data a given IoT Gateway collects per hour for the last 24 hours, and for the last 7 days. Additionally, the Usage menu will give you a list overview of all your attached IoT Gateways and their consumption.

You simply delete the device but remember that it will also delete the data history. In case you are running a test, you can contact your point of purchase and request a 30-day trial period.

One of Inuatek’s core competencies is the compaction of data over cellular connections. And the collection protocol between the SiteManager gateway and the DCC is designed to be more compact than any other collection protocol incl. MQTT. In addition, there are several ways you can aggregate data in the SiteManager before submitting to the DCC cloud, E.g., by sending an average over a time period, or only sending certain data, when another sample point has a certain value.

For a license like e.g. 1000 "Sample Points" (SP) per hour, a SP is considered a timestamped sensor data reading from the end device independent of type. I.e. a SP can be a boolean, float and even a string. That means you could in principle have multiple information in a single data point, by e.g. bit-masking information out of a Byte value.

A license with e.g. 1000 Sample Points (SP) per hour, is in fact calculated over 24 hours. That means you could have a machine sending 1000 SP per hour for 24 hours per day, or 3000 SP per hour for 8 hours per day. If you exceed the limit 5 times during a calendar month, you will be notified by email, so you can adjust you sampling rate or change to another license with a higher limit. Note that we do not truncate or throttle the data, or in anyway affect the data even if exceeding the limit.

Yes, but only in Denmark. We can provide you with IoT Gateways, such as SiteManagers, Seneca, Teltonika, SIA Connect etc., and we also assist with configuration. For other regions we will refer to the distributors on your preferred device.

DCC supports encrypted connections and two-factor authentication for user logins. The standard Inuatek-hosted service runs on Microsoft Azure in the European Union. Azure infrastructure certifications apply to the relevant Microsoft services; they do not by themselves certify DCC or a customer deployment. See Microsoft Azure compliance documentation. For requirements involving NIS2 or IEC 62443, contact Inuatek to review the deployment scope, available security documentation and responsibilities.

DCC account information includes names, company email addresses and optional phone numbers. The standard Inuatek-hosted service stores customer data in Microsoft Azure data centres in the European Union. For private-tenant or on-premises deployments, data location and operational responsibilities are agreed separately. See our privacy policy for how Inuatek handles personal information, and contact us to review deployment-specific data protection requirements.

Simply enter your email and select forgot password, and you will be requested to define a new password

You can have one account associated with one email. This account can, however, have multiple roles, like administrator, dashboard designer etc. Otherwise you can, as administrator create as many accounts for your users as you like.

Yes, as an example you can elevate a dashboard user to dashboard designer or even administrator, and vice versa.

Support is provided via email based on a first come, first service principle with minimum 6 hours response time. Our Premium Support agreement gives you further privileges, incl. a hotline for our 2nd level support staff. If dealing via our distribution partners, the support is directly with them as 1st level support.

We have regular support hours between 9-16 during normal weekdays. Systems are monitored and maintained outside working hours.

The hosting center is architected and maintained to ensure an uptime of +99,6%, and historically the uptime has been higher for the last 4 years.

Generally, support is available by email or through our contact form, but with an Inuatek Premium Support agreement, you have a direct hotline number during working hours. If your point of purchase is an Inuatek distribution partner, you may have extended support with a standard agreement.

We are always interested in your opinion that can improve the product. In fact, most features in the product are based on customer feedback. Additionally, Inuatek offers to build custom features on top of the DCC for specific purposes, which can be related to data analysis, machine learning etc. Use our contact form to post your suggestions.

We retain all data for devices with a valid license for 5 years, and for devices without a license or an expired license, you data is kept for 3 months. If you have your own DCC instance under the Enterprise agreement, you can retain data unlimited.

It is in fact free if you upgrade to the Extended package, or you have an Enterprise subscription. If you do not want to retain the data, but just display real time in a dashboard, you can mark the datapoints for streaming. You will not be charged for this data. You only pay for data stored in the DCC database.

Yes, this I quite easy to define a trigger for a specific event, such as a value chance, a specific threshold or even conditional based on other data points. The notification can then be sent as email, SMS or be used to trigger a visual element on a dashboard.

Yes. It is a typical scenario that to check one sample point, and that has a value, then check another sample value, which combined represent the condition for triggering a notification.

The Data Refinement module is capable of writing results of calculations into the data storage for the device. This could for instance be the resulting OEE KPI for a batch.

Yes. This is one of the use cases that can be applied. But often modern machinery does not follow the traditional OEE calculation methodology, so we typically look at individual cases, and determine what information would create most value to you, and then we adapt to that.

The Secomea and IXON IoT Gateways natively offer VPN tunnelling support, which can be used concurrently with data collection. In the DCC you can define a widget that allows you to embed a VNC or Web-visu connection towards PLCs and HMIs, utilizing the Secomea and IXON APIs.

Yes, it is possible from a DCC dashboard to write a value back into a PLC from a Dashboard using the SiteManager LinkManager API. For instance, to clear an alarm, stop/start functions or change a threshold. Currently this is only supported by Modbus. For Seneca and SIA Connect devices it is also possible to write a value that is translated into the desired field protocol in the MQTT device.

Yes, the Nortbound API allows for other applications such as your MES or ERP system to access the data. Another method is to use the Report module to email a scheduled report in form of a CSV file. If using Azure Power BI, it is quite easy to use the DCC's ability to push CSV files to an Azure blob, and then make drill down from Power BI

Yes, you can use Power BI to access static data in the DCC

See the getting started documentation for details.

Yes. The easiest way to do this is to perform a “Replace SiteManager” operation on the GateManager. This will result in all settings and certificates to be transferred to the new SiteManager, and this will be accepted as direct replacement on the DCC.

Yes. DCC allows for complete private labelling, so your customers will experience it as logging into your own portal. Contact us for more information and possibilities for adapting URLs, logo colors etc.

Yes. Although the shared DCC cloud service is designed for strict customer separation, it is also designed for deployment as a unique instance. Three options exist: 1) A private instance hosted in the Inuatek Azure tenant, 2) A private instance hosted in your own AWS or Azure tenant, og 3) A private instance installed in your server infrastructure based on Docker.