Patent ID: 8321591

Claim:
An industrial automation system that facilitates data exchange, comprising: an interface that receives a request for data related to an industrial process in a factory from a requestor of a type within the industrial automation system; a memory that stores a source locator; and a processor that facilitates execution of the source locator to: determine the type of the requestor from a plurality of types; infer, based on the type of the requestor, a first metadata and a first timestamp that the requestor requires to be associated with the data; determine a first source to provide the data related to the industrial process, the first metadata and the first timestamp to the requestor by consultation of a directory that provides a hierarchical logical view of a plurality of sources that store the data, wherein the plurality of sources store the data with different metadata and timestamps related to different types; and retrieve the data from the first source for the requestor; wherein the source locator employs an artificial intelligence algorithm to infer the first metadata and the first timestamp.