The Industrial IoT Blog
IIoT Insights by Henry Costa
Category: Strategic Leadership
Perspectives on leading digital transformation and shaping long-term IIoT strategy.
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This Is Why I’m Still Fascinated by IIoT
Read more: This Is Why I’m Still Fascinated by IIoTIf you ask me why IIoT still fascinates me after all these years, I could list technologies, architectures, or buzzwords. But honestly, it’s not about that. What keeps me hooked are the real, messy, and sometimes frustrating stories behind every…
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What to Keep in Mind When Designing a New IIoT Strategy
Read more: What to Keep in Mind When Designing a New IIoT StrategyIf there’s one thing I’ve learned from two decades in the trenches of manufacturing IT and IIoT, it’s that a good strategy isn’t about chasing the latest technology or ticking off a checklist. It’s about making real improvements—connecting machines, data,…
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Why IIoT Projects Fail (And What I Learned After Being on Both Sides)
Read more: Why IIoT Projects Fail (And What I Learned After Being on Both Sides)If you work in manufacturing long enough—especially in Industrial IoT (IIoT) or Industry 4.0—you’ll see plenty of projects that don’t go as planned. Some stall, others limp along, and a few just quietly fade away. I’ve been on both sides:…
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IIoT Journey: Edge-First, Cloud-Second
Read more: IIoT Journey: Edge-First, Cloud-SecondI want to talk about why, after two decades in Industrial Smart Manufacturing, I’ve become a strong believer in an “Edge-First, Cloud-Second” approach for connecting plants, machines, and people. This isn’t some theory — it’s the result of real projects,…
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How Hard Is It for a Small IIoT Consulting Company to Win Projects in the U.S.?
Read more: How Hard Is It for a Small IIoT Consulting Company to Win Projects in the U.S.?Let me just say it straight: for a small Industrial IoT (IIoT) consulting company, selling projects in the US market is tough. I’ve seen it from both sides — building a practice from scratch and sitting on the buyer’s side…
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The Project That Won Two Awards and Nearly Broke My Team
Read more: The Project That Won Two Awards and Nearly Broke My TeamIf you’ve ever been part of a major digital transformation in manufacturing, you know the feeling: the thrill of building something big, and the stress when the wheels start to come off. This is the story of the SAP MII…
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Building Your First IIoT Smart Manufacturing Practice: A Playbook from Zero to Scale
Read more: Building Your First IIoT Smart Manufacturing Practice: A Playbook from Zero to ScaleI built my first Smart Manufacturing practice in 2006. I had zero direct reports, no budget, and honestly, no real idea what I was doing. Twelve years later, that practice was generating millions in annual revenue across three continents. Then…
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What Vendor Documentation Won’t Tell You About IIoT Integration Complexity
Read more: What Vendor Documentation Won’t Tell You About IIoT Integration ComplexityIf you’ve ever flipped through vendor documentation or attended a software demo, you’d think IIoT is plug-and-play: connect a few devices, map some tags, and watch the dashboards light up. But after two decades living in the trenches — from…
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What I Learned Building a Smart Manufacturing Portfolio for Consulting
Read more: What I Learned Building a Smart Manufacturing Portfolio for ConsultingCreating a Smart Manufacturing or Digital Manufacturing portfolio for a consulting company is one of those things that sounds simple on paper but is anything but in real life. Over the past two decades, I’ve built and led practices from…
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Why Replacing SAP MII is a Priority (and What We’re Learning Along the Way)
Read more: Why Replacing SAP MII is a Priority (and What We’re Learning Along the Way)Let’s talk about SAP MII — why so many of us in manufacturing are moving on, and what it’s really like to make that leap. SAP MII: The Backbone That’s Now Showing Its Age If you’ve spent time in manufacturing…
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From Web Pages to the Shop Floor: My Jump Into Manufacturing
Read more: From Web Pages to the Shop Floor: My Jump Into ManufacturingI still remember the first time I walked into a real factory, not just as a visitor, but as someone expected to connect those noisy machines to SAP. I came from years of web development — building e-commerce and government…