1. An industrial automation system, comprising: a hierarchical data model with nodes that represent units associated with the industrial automation system; a plurality of embedded historians that collect data associated with the industrial automation system, at least one of the embedded historians directly interfaces with at least one controller of the industrial automation system; a download engine that downloads the data from the at least one of the embedded historians to a central plant historian upon the satisfaction of the predetermined criteria; and a publish and subscribe component that identifies the at least one of the embedded historians to the download engine upon satisfaction of the predetermined criteria.