The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for providing data of a
data source, in particular of an industrial
automation device (AA), to an
external application program (AW), wherein the
external application program (AW) is arranged outside a first data network of the
data source, in particular runs in a
data cloud, and wherein
raw data of the
data source are processed by a gateway component (GK), in particular an industrial
edge device, and the processed data are provided to the
external application program (AW). Here, a work order is first transmitted to the gateway component, wherein the work order comprises at least a specification about the identity and / or the role of a user of the external application program, a specification about
raw data of the data source to be processed, a specification of an
algorithm for
processing, abstracting and / or anonymizing the
raw data and a frequency or a rate of
data processing, according to which the raw data are detected and processed according to the work order, and the processed, virtualized and / or anonymized data are subsequently provided to the external application program or to a target defined in the work order. Thereby, an automated controlled access for the external application program to the data is implemented, which in turn enables the use of the data without the external application program having to access the underlying raw data. Here, the extent of the
data access is automatically negotiated and implemented between the participating components (data source, gateway component) taking into account requirements and rules.