CENTO: digital twin for your enterprise
What is CENTO and how it works
7 min. read
CENTO is an industrial IoT platform that helps digitize your facility, monitor, and control all the industrial processes in one place. It provides clear visibility into energy consumption, equipment performance, and operational efficiency. Real-time alarms provide immediate fault notifications and precisely localize the source of an issue within the system infrastructure. Historical data enables the identification of usage trends and operational patterns, providing actionable insights for optimizing system performance and improving overall energy efficiency. CENTO integrates seamlessly with existing MES, ERP, and SCADA systems, providing full feature access through any web browser while ensuring your data remains secure.
In this article
What is CENTO
How it started
CENTO was created to solve a common problem: too many separate systems that are hard to manage and don’t work well together. Traditionally, factories rely on separate systems for data acquisition, visualization, storage, reporting, alarms, and control – resulting in fragmented and often inefficient operations. These systems are expensive, difficult to set up, and hard to connect. CENTO addresses these issues by unifying all core functions into a single platform — it connects directly to equipment, displays real-time data, stores historical records, issues alerts, generates reports, and integrates seamlessly with existing systems such as SCADA, MES, and ERP. It’s flexible, scalable, and helps companies save time, reduce costs, and make better decisions.
CENTO approach
Different industrial operations face very different challenges depending on their size, location, and industry. That’s why CENTO is built on a philosophy of openness, flexibility, and scalability. Instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all solution, it offers a platform that can adapt to each operation’s specific needs. It’s based on open standards like OPC UA, MQTT, and SQL, runs in any web browser, and brings all your data and processes into one place. The interface is user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for teams to monitor, control, and analyze operations — no matter their technical background. The goal is to support your way of working — not replace it — while giving you the tools to scale, improve efficiency, and make smarter decisions as your business grows.
The long-term goal of CENTO is to expand built-in features and enhance platform tools so integrators can develop new solutions and adapt to future needs. CENTO’s vision is to set the standards for industrial digital transformation — not to follow others, but to define what’s next.
What makes CENTO different
CENTO follows an agile development process based on SCRUM, which means the platform evolves rapidly and predictably. New features are demonstrated every two weeks, ensuring transparency, fast iteration, and direct user feedback — this is extremely rare in industrial software and allows customers to influence the direction of the product in near real time.
Unlike other platforms that need to be stopped to make changes, CENTO lets you update the system, adjust settings, or build new screens while it’s still running. There’s no need for downtime or switching to a separate development environment. This makes it much easier to improve the system continuously — even in facilities that run 24/7.
CENTO is built using a modular, microservice-based architecture. This means the platform consists of separate modules that can be added, updated, or removed independently without affecting the whole system. It’s easy to scale, customize for specific projects, and connect with other systems. CENTO is built on a clear platform philosophy shaped by real industry experience. From the very beginning, we’ve developed the platform based on what system integrators, engineers, and plant operators actually need on the ground — not abstract ideas, but real use cases from the field. Most of our features come directly from this feedback: recurring challenges, common requests, or gaps that slow down production or limit flexibility. At the same time, we’re focused not only on today’s challenges, but also on what’s coming next. We build tools that open up new possibilities, often exceeding what users expect, so teams can stay ahead of the curve.
Why use CENTO if I have SCADA and MES?
MES and SCADA are specialized systems — MES focuses on managing production processes, while SCADA is used for monitoring and controlling equipment in real time. CENTO goes beyond that. It’s a flexible platform that can combine MES, SCADA, and other systems in one place, and also handle large volumes of data. It also has built-in tools to track energy use, find inefficiencies, and cut costs.
Who can use CENTO
CENTO is primarily used by production and energy teams — operators, engineers, and maintenance staff who need real-time control, monitoring, and resource tracking. It helps them manage daily operations more efficiently. At the same time, IT teams support integration and data security, while managers use it for visibility and better decision-making. So while many roles benefit from the platform, its core users are those on the ground, keeping the facility running.
CENTO quickly resolves common challenges such as lack of real-time visibility into site operations, difficulty in tracking energy consumption, and delays in accessing actionable reports. It puts everything in one place, so teams can see the full picture, react faster, and work more efficiently without wasting time switching between systems.
Typically, CENTO client is a medium or large industrial facility or a power generation plant, which handle 5,000+ data tags from equipment and energy systems where main use cases include real-time dispatching and precise energy metering.
Why choose CENTO
Clients choose CENTO because of its open architecture, flexibility, and cost-effective licensing model. It supports cross-platform deployment, modern web-based and user-friendly interfaces, and seamless integration with a wide range of systems using open standards like OPC-UA, MQTT, etc. CENTO offers multitasking capabilities, allowing multiple projects, processes, and user sessions to run simultaneously and independently within a single platform.
How CENTO works
CENTO under the hood
- Modular architecture makes the system flexible and scalable — you can start with the core functionality and easily expand it by adding modules as your needs grow.
- JavaScript and Go are the main programming languages we use: JavaScript powers the user-facing interface with dynamic, responsive elements, while Go is used on the backend for efficient data processing, high performance, and stability.
- OPC UA is the key protocol for secure and standardized communication with industrial equipment. It ensures compatibility with a wide range of PLCs, sensors, and controllers from various manufacturers.
- MQTT is used for lightweight, real-time data transfer from edge devices and remote facilities.
- SQL databases are used to store, organize, and analyze historical and real-time data. This allows for flexible querying, easy integration with reporting tools, and solid support for data-driven decision-making.
- API, allowing easy integration with external systems like ERP, MES, or cloud platforms.
Data handling in CENTO
At the core of CENTO’s work is a qualitative approach to data. We exceed simply receiving and analyzing signals from equipment. We study the underlying patterns and behavior of data over time to detect early signs of potential failure. This allows us to alert operators before issues become critical.
Here’s how we do it:
- Data Collection, Processing, and Storage
- Data Acquisition: Collecting real-time data.
- Data Processing: Filtering/cleaning, grouping, and standardization of collected data.
- Data Storage & Accessibility: Local database on the client’s server or cloud storage. Having access is preferable for troubleshooting, support and system optimization.
- Visualization
- Live Dashboards: Real-time energy consumption (overall/system nodes or individual machines).
- Historical Data: Energy consumption trends over extended periods (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly), including seasonal and shift-based comparisons.
- Equipment Visualization: Graphical representation of equipment and system schematics to display operational status and system performance.
- Monitoring
- Trend Analysis & Anomaly Detection: Identifying trends, patterns, peak/minimum values, and correlations between energy consumption parameters and system failures/ overloads.
- Set Points Definition: Establishing target values for energy consumption parameters, after collecting sufficient data for analysis.
- Flexible Reports
- Report Configuration Saving: Users can configure reports (select parameters, filters, frequency), and the system saves these settings for easy report generation without reconfiguration.
- Multi-Level Report Access: Customizable report settings based on user access levels.
- Flexible Reporting Frequency: Reports can be generated for any time interval (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly).
- Export to MS Excel: Allows users to export report data into an Excel file for further analysis or sharing.
- Alerts & Notifications
- Trigger-Based Alerts: Notifications based on set points or specific events.
- Multiple Notification Types: Email, push notifications, and in-system alerts.
- Multi-Level Notification System: i.e. The Plant/Operations Manager receives alerts on critical failures. The Maintenance Manager sees notifications about equipment malfunctions. The Energy Manager gets alerts on deviations in energy consumption, exceeding set limits and missing efficiency targets, etc.
What data CENTO work with
CENTO collects and processes a wide range of data, including continuously changing process values like current/power, temperature, pressure, and more; discrete signals from sensors and equipment; operator-entered setpoints; control commands; averaged or accumulated values over a given period; planned parameter ranges that define how the process should run; text-based messages and diagnostics from smart devices; and, when needed, power quality data and oscillography records through integration with external systems.
How the operator receives data
Users see everything they need to monitor and run their operations: live charts, dashboards, alarms, real-time and historical data tables, control panels for entering values, equipment status screens, and trend graphs. The interface can be fully customized so operators, engineers, and managers each get the right info for their role, all in one place.