Communications interface systems and methods for industrial process and manufacturing control. A first infrastructure supports a group of downloadable server protocol applications and a group of downloadable client protocol applications. A second infrastructure supports a group of pluggable hardware interfaces that connect with an underlying communications network. Additionally, a common infrastructure can be configured, which includes a manager and data aggregation layer that connects to and communicates with the group of downloadable server protocol applications and the group of downloadable client protocol applications. The common infrastructure manages and aggregates data between the first infrastructure and the second infrastructure and creates new interface features by plugging in new and/or available components in multiple form factors.