The strengths of this setup are the following:

• We have a direct connection to the PLC and the DCS, which provide the best data-acquisition mechanisms and the most accurate time-series databases, as we saw in the previous sections.
• One device implements both the data collection and the data transfer with no dependencies on other devices or applications. This means that there is just one point of failure and potentially better availability and reliability.
• There are just two interfaces with the external systems. The first is toward the controllers, the PLC, or the DCS, and is steady and reliable by design. The second is toward to the cloud, which is also reliable due to the data-buffering capabilities and the store-and-forward mechanism implemented by the edge device.