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Scada.Ink Cloud: what it is and what needs internet
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Scada.Ink appliances are built to run with no internet connection. Scada.Ink Cloud is a set of optional hosted services, plus the customer portal at https://www.scada.ink/portal where you manage your account, licenses and subscriptions.
What works offline and what needs internet
| Task | Where the internet is needed | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Everything on the appliance: drivers, tags, dashboards, logic, alarms, historian, reports, email via your own SMTP server | Nowhere | — |
| Activating a license key, trials expiring, feature toggles | Nowhere — keys are verified on the appliance | Activating a license key |
| Buying a license, downloading keys | The computer you use for the portal | Licenses in the portal |
| Installing a software update | The computer that downloads the file; the appliance installs it offline | Software updates |
| Smart Assist AI (classification, page designer) | The computer running the browser — requests go from your browser to the cloud | Smart Assist relay |
| Fleet health in the portal | The appliance (outbound HTTPS) | Connecting an appliance |
| Cloud Data Archive | The appliance | Data archive |
| Remote viewing | The appliance | Remote viewing |
| SMS and voice alarm alerts | The appliance | SMS and voice |
Everything the appliance sends goes out over HTTPS (and, for remote viewing, one secure WebSocket) to the cloud address. Nothing listens for incoming connections: no firewall ports need to be opened toward the plant.
How the appliance identifies itself
Every request an appliance makes to the cloud carries its license key. The cloud matches the key's hardware ID to your account. That means:
- an appliance must have a license key (a purchased key, or a live trial key) before it can use any cloud service — an appliance with no key sends nothing;
- archive and remote viewing are switched on per appliance, so the appliance must be registered to your account in the portal;
- SMS, voice and AI usage is billed to the account that registered the appliance, or — if nobody registered it — the account that bought its license or holds its trial.
The appliance uses its purchased key when that key is valid; otherwise the newest unexpired trial key.
Plans
Cloud services are monthly subscriptions, bought on the portal's Plans & Billing page. Prices on the website are subject to change; the plans are:
| Plan | Billed per | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Smart Assist | Account | AI tag classification, suggested tag roles and dashboards, AI page designer; 300 analysis requests and 20 page designs a month |
| Smart Assist Pro | Account | Everything in Smart Assist plus deep observation analysis; 1,500 requests and 100 page designs a month |
| Archive | Appliance | Off-site copy of historian data, 13-month retention, CSV export; 50 million values per appliance per month |
| Archive Long-Term | Appliance | 7-year retention, 250 million values per appliance per month, and restore back to an appliance |
| Remote View | Appliance | Read-only dashboards, custom pages and reports from anywhere; up to 10 named viewers |
| Remote View Plus | Appliance | Unlimited named viewers |
| Alerts | Account | 500 SMS messages and 100 voice-call minutes a month |
| Alerts Pro | Account | 2,500 SMS messages and 500 voice-call minutes a month |
| Cloud Complete | Appliance | Smart Assist, Archive, Remote View and Alerts together |
| Cloud Complete Pro | Appliance | Smart Assist Pro, Archive Long-Term, Remote View Plus and Alerts Pro together |
Fleet health monitoring is free and needs no plan. Per-appliance plans have a quantity (how many appliances they cover); you choose which appliances use them on each appliance's page in the portal.
Note: The license and the cloud plans are separate. The license (one-time) unlocks features on the appliance; a plan (monthly) pays for a hosted service. For example, SMS alerts need both the SMS & Voice Alerts licensed feature and an Alerts plan.