The Industrial IoT Blog
IIoT Insights by Henry Costa
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Industrial DataOps. Turning Plant Data Into Trusted Data
Read more: Industrial DataOps. Turning Plant Data Into Trusted DataMost manufacturing teams I’ve worked with have the same quiet problem. They can connect machines. They can collect data. They can even stream it to a data lake. But when someone tries to use it. For dashboards, OEE, anomaly detection,…
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Agentic AI on the Shop Floor: Real vs Hype in 2026
Read more: Agentic AI on the Shop Floor: Real vs Hype in 2026There’s a lot of noise around Agentic AI right now. If you’re in manufacturing, you’ve probably seen the demos. An AI agent that “autonomously optimizes your production line.” Another one that “self-heals equipment failures.” Sounds amazing, right? So let me…
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Industrial Edge Computing: Advantages and Use Cases
Read more: Industrial Edge Computing: Advantages and Use CasesWhat is industrial edge computing and why is it important? Industrial Edge Computing refers to processing and analyzing data close to the place where it is generated, that is, directly at industrial devices or sensors. Unlike traditional cloud-based computing, this technology…
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From Advising to Owning. The Shift Nobody Fully Prepares You For
Read more: From Advising to Owning. The Shift Nobody Fully Prepares You ForI spent about 16 years in consulting. Building practices, leading delivery teams, flying to client sites, presenting architectures, and handing over solutions. Then I moved to industry. Specifically, to a large global pharmaceutical company, leading IIoT architecture from the inside.…
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Software-Defined Automation (SDA) Is Coming. What It Means for Your IIoT Architecture
Read more: Software-Defined Automation (SDA) Is Coming. What It Means for Your IIoT ArchitectureSoftware-Defined Automation (SDA) is one of those terms that sounds like it was invented in a marketing meeting. But this time, there’s real substance behind it. And if you’re building or evolving an IIoT architecture today, you should pay attention.…
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Communicating Edge Contextualization and Unified Namespace to Leadership
Read more: Communicating Edge Contextualization and Unified Namespace to LeadershipThe team had a problem. Not technical this time. They needed to explain Edge Contextualization and Unified Namespace (UNS) to senior leaders who did not care about protocols or data models. The audience knew their factories well. Directors, VPs, plant…
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Real-Time Decisions: Lessons From Mining Operations
Read more: Real-Time Decisions: Lessons From Mining OperationsI never planned to work in mining. It just happened. Early in my career, a project came up at a metals and mining operation in Brazil, and I said yes. That decision gave me some of the most intense, real…
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AI Meets UNS: Practical LLM Uses on Industrial Data
Read more: AI Meets UNS: Practical LLM Uses on Industrial DataA few years ago, if you told me we’d be using large language models on top of plant data, I would’ve said: “Cool demo. Not sure it survives contact with a real site.” Now I’m more convinced. Not because LLMs…
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Industrial AI Explained. Why Data Is the Real Starting Point
Read more: Industrial AI Explained. Why Data Is the Real Starting PointThere’s a lot of noise around AI in manufacturing right now. Every vendor deck, every conference keynote, every LinkedIn post seems to promise that AI will transform your plant. And honestly, most of the time, I just smile and scroll…
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IIoT Total Cost of Ownership: Cloud, Licenses, and the Hidden Costs
Read more: IIoT Total Cost of Ownership: Cloud, Licenses, and the Hidden CostsLet’s talk about the real cost of Industrial IoT. Not the version you see in vendor slide decks, but what actually impacts your budget once you move beyond a pilot and start scaling. If you are working on IIoT initiatives,…
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Five Conversations That Changed How I Approach IIoT Projects
Read more: Five Conversations That Changed How I Approach IIoT ProjectsSome of the biggest changes in how I work didn’t come from reading a whitepaper or going to a conference. They came from conversations. Quick ones, sometimes. A comment over coffee, a pushback during a design review, a frustrated operator…
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AI Enabled by IIoT: Building the Factory of the Future
Read more: AI Enabled by IIoT: Building the Factory of the FutureMost conversations about AI in manufacturing skip the hardest part. They jump straight to dashboards, copilots, and predictions, but forget to ask one simple question. Where does the data come from? I’ve spent years connecting machines, historians, SCADA systems, and…