Manufacturing Connection Engine
The Manufacturing Connection Engine (MCE) is Google Cloud's software for connecting shop-floor equipment, such as sensors and programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and collecting their data for use in the cloud. Google's MCE is often referred to as Litmus, the industrial connectivity platform associated with it.
Factory equipment speaks many different industrial protocols. A connection layer like MCE talks to machines and controllers in those protocols, gathers their readings, and passes the data on in a consistent form for storage and analysis.
MCE is typically paired with the Manufacturing Data Engine (MDE). MCE handles getting data off the machines; MDE processes, contextualizes, and stores that data in Google Cloud.
MCE is not a PLC. The PLC runs the control logic for a machine, while MCE reads data from the PLC and connected sensors so it can be used for monitoring and analytics.