Exemplified system and method facilitates update/upgrade and validation of controls systems in an uninterrupted manner. An update/upgrade agent operates with a multiple-processor or multi-processor core system to simultaneously and concurrently implement two real-time embedded controllers in which a first controller executes a current firmware or control application installed at the site while a second controller executes an updated controller firmware or control application.

An apparatus is provided. The apparatus including a plurality of network interfaces, including a first network interface and a second network interface. The apparatus also includes a processor with two or more independent processing units, including a first independent processing unit and a second independent processing unit. The apparatus further includes a memory having first instructions and second instructions stored thereon. Execution of the first instructions, cause the first independent processing unit to execute operations associated with a first operating system and communicate, via the first network interface, over a bi-direction communication, with one or more platform computing devices. Execution of the second instructions, cause the second independent processing unit to execute real-time operations associated with a second operating system and communicate, via the second network interface, with one or more computing devices each having one or more sensors thereon.

A system and method for testing a control system is disclosed. The control system includes a field device located in one area and a controller located in a different area. A mobile application running on a mobile computing device is used by a technician to test the control system. Because both the mobile computing device and the controller are coupled to a cloud computing system, the technician may interface with the controller while located at the field device. This remote access to the controller allows a single technician to test the control system by interfacing with the controller and the field device simultaneously. In addition, the mobile application may retrieve data from the cloud computing system to facilitate testing and may transmit test results to the cloud for storage. Others having access to the stored results may view the progress and results of the testing.

A system and method for configuring a cloud-enabled industrial control system is disclosed involving a cloud computing system receiving instrument data, configuring the instrument data to create an instrument index, alerting and automatically correcting, by a cloud service, configuration errors in the instrument index that occurred during the configuration of the instrument data; creating, by at least a rules engine cloud service using the instrument index, a hardware layout for at least a portion of the cloud-enabled industrial control system; and assigning, by the rules engine cloud service, input/output (I/O) points from the instrument index to the hardware layout to create an I/O configuration file for the cloud-enabled industrial control system.