A system for providing local access by means of a local data appliance to data collected from remote monitors and sensors is described. The system includes a plurality of remote monitors and sensors, the remote monitors and sensors reporting data over a wide area communications network, and a data collection center receiving the data from the remote monitors and sensors, the data collection center operable to process the data and generate customer defined reports based on the data. A local data appliance placed in the customer's network operates to receive the data from the data collection center, and to process the customer data, generate reports based on the data and send instructions to the remote monitors and sensors. The appliance resides behind the customer's firewall but is separate from the customers network and data center equipment.