Software and hardware integration, so equipment talks to your systems

Usually, yes. Older equipment often exposes serial output, a file drop or a vendor interface that can be read even when there is no modern API. The survey stage exists to establish this before anything is promised.

Read-only integration does not affect operation and can normally be introduced without downtime. Anything that writes to or controls equipment is a different matter and is planned with your engineering and safety people, not around them.

Data is buffered locally and forwarded when the connection returns. On a production floor, intermittent connectivity is the normal condition, so a pipeline that assumes a perfect network will lose data.

That is usually the requirement. Different makes and generations produce different formats, and normalising those into one consistent record is most of the value in the work.

Rarely. The point of integration is to get more out of what you already own. If a specific device genuinely cannot be read, we will tell you rather than build an elaborate workaround.

Connecting operational equipment to business networks changes your exposure, so segmentation, authentication and least-privilege access are part of the design rather than an afterthought.