# Introduction Cybus Connectware is a software ecosystem allowing internet-technology based applications to access industrial hardware in a secure and standardized way. The industry hardware is connected at a controller level, which typically results in interfacing existing industrial communication protocols (such as OPC UA, ModBus, BacNet, etc.). The various industry protocol addressing schemes describing the connected hardware’s parameters are mapped into configurable, hierarchical names reflecting individually accessible topics on a web-exposed message broker (using MQTT technology). Data access is secured by a fine grained (per data-endpoint) authentication and authorization system, i.e. Connectware controls who is allowed to access what parameter in which way. Finally, an entire set of industry protocols, parameter mappings, corresponding authentication and authorization schemes and optionally plugin-like applications for local pre- or postprocessing can be bundled in a so called *Service*. Once created, services can be deployed to the host running Connectware in the same simple fashion as Apps can be installed on Smartphones. Connectware ships with an intuitive browser-based interface for administering and configuring the entire Cybus ecosystem. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.cybus.io/1-7-3/getting-started/readme.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.