A data collection system for distributing data from at least one target asset to at least one software application, comprising a machine platform and a data routing system. The machine platform stores data associated with the at least one target asset. The data routing system collects data from the machine platform. The data routing system operates in a pass through mode and a data processing mode. In the pass through mode, data is passed from the at least one target asset to the at least one software application without modification. In the data processing mode, the data routing system generates modified data based on the data stored by the machine platform and sends the modified data to the at least one software application.

A control circuit for use with a network and a distributed control system. The control circuit incudes a switch module, a communication interface module coupled to the switch module and configured to convert data sampled from industrial field into a format suitable for being transmitted to the switch module via the network, and a controller module coupled to the switch module and configured to receive the converted data from the switch module and process the converted data. The switch module is configured to enable a communication between the communication interface module and external devices outside the control circuit and a communication between the controller module and the external devices.