1. An industrial automation system, comprising: a plurality of embedded historians that collect data associated with the industrial automation system, the plurality of embedded historians are distributed among a plurality of tiers of an organizational hierarchy data model; and at least one processor that executes at least an abstraction component stored on at least one non-transitory computer readable medium, wherein the abstraction component normalizes communications between the embedded historians and one or more industrial units within the industrial automation system by employing a plurality of protocols.