1. A system, comprising: a configuration retrieval component configured to discover and retrieve I/O module configuration data associated with a virtualized controller executing on a cloud platform, wherein the I/O module configuration data defines one or more clone I/O points of the virtualized controller, and the virtualized controller executes a control program; a data exchange model configured to retrieve, from cloud-based storage, a generic I/O module profile corresponding to an I/O module represented by the I/O module configuration data, and customize the generic I/O module profile using the I/O module configuration data to yield an available clone I/O point list identifying the one or more clone I/O points of the virtualized controller; and an I/O normalization component configured to convert a communication protocol of the one or more clone I/O points to yield one or more converted I/O points that conform to a standardized communication protocol, wherein the data exchange model is further configured exchange simulation data between the one or more converted I/O points and corresponding one or more simulation I/O points of a cloud-based simulation of an industrial automation system in accordance with the standardized communication protocol and based on execution of the control program on the virtualized controller; the system further comprises an emulation master role component configured to modify the control program executing on the virtualized controller based on configuration input received via a client device to yield a modified control program, and executing the modified control program on a physical industrial controller to cause the physical industrial controller to process input signals received from input devices of the industrial automation system and to control output signals directed to output devices of the industrial automation system.