Digital Twins and the Problem of Distributed Data Storage

The article demonstrates the fundamental possibility to solve the problem of digital twins data storage and processing in a distributed digital industrial platform. This problem originates from the fact that a digital twin in the digital economy and Industry 4.0 should be, on the one hand, quickly accessible and on the other hand, properly protected from intentional or unintentional distortions. In the article, we review the variants of digital twin data storage in the conditions of Industry 4.0, and provide the requirements to the data of digital twins. Besides, the requirements for digital twins' data storage systems in the conditions of Industry 4.0 are formulated. Such requirements, in particular, include distributed storage, strong consistency between digital twins' data and the real object, high speed of data processing. The review of modern database management systems belonging to the class of NewSQL solutions is made. The article shows that these solutions can be applied to solve the problem of digital twins distributed data storage in industry 4.0. The direction of further research is defined.