The Industrial IoT Blog
IIoT Insights by Henry Costa
Tag: IIoT
Industrial Internet of Things connects machines, sensors, and systems to collect, share, and use industrial data. It enables real-time visibility, optimization, and smarter operations.
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SAP MII End of Life. What Comes Next for Your Career?
Read more: SAP MII End of Life. What Comes Next for Your Career?When I first started with SAP xMII back in 2005, I never imagined I’d see the day the platform would be sunset. Yet here we are. SAP MII, the tool I built a big part of my career on, is…
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Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0: Evolution or Revolution?
Read more: Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0: Evolution or Revolution?Lately, there’s a lot of talk about Industry 5.0. Some folks say it’s a revolution. Others say it’s just a logical next step after Industry 4.0. I’ve spent the last two decades living through these shifts on plant floors, in…
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Understanding 5G for IIoT. Use Cases, Limits, and Reality
Read more: Understanding 5G for IIoT. Use Cases, Limits, and RealityIf you follow industrial digitalization, you have probably seen 5G mentioned everywhere. Vendor slides, conferences, strategy decks. Sometimes it sounds like the missing link for Industry 4.0. Other times, it sounds like expensive hype. The truth sits somewhere in the…
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The Future of IIoT Applications: Where Industry Meets Innovation
Read more: The Future of IIoT Applications: Where Industry Meets InnovationBack in 2005, when I first worked with SAP xMII, the idea of “smart factories” lived mostly in PowerPoint decks and a few brave pilot lines. Today, machines, data, and people are more connected than ever. But the future of…
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Closing the Loop: Agentic AI and IIoT in Self-Correcting Manufacturing
Read more: Closing the Loop: Agentic AI and IIoT in Self-Correcting ManufacturingIf you work in manufacturing today, you’re probably hearing a lot about “Agentic AI” and self-correcting systems. I’ve spent the last two decades watching factories evolve from islands of automation to fully connected, data-driven environments. We moved from PLCs talking…
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Top 10 OPC UA Servers to Watch in 2026
Read more: Top 10 OPC UA Servers to Watch in 2026Connecting machines is easy on paper. Doing it reliably, securely, and at scale in a real manufacturing environment is not. OPC UA servers sit at the center of that challenge. They are the layer that quietly determines whether your IIoT…
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Top 10 MQTT Brokers to Watch in 2026
Read more: Top 10 MQTT Brokers to Watch in 2026If you spend any time around Industrial IoT, MQTT shows up very quickly. It has become one of the foundational building blocks for IIoT architectures, especially when the goal is to move time-series data from machines to higher-level systems in…
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Top 10 IIoT Platforms to Watch in 2026
Read more: Top 10 IIoT Platforms to Watch in 2026If I could summarize the last two decades of my work in manufacturing, it would be this. I’ve watched factories move from isolated automation islands to increasingly connected, data-driven environments. Along the way, I’ve seen Industrial IoT platforms promise a…
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Why Industry 4.0 Needs Event-Driven Architecture
Read more: Why Industry 4.0 Needs Event-Driven ArchitectureIf you have spent any time in manufacturing IT or OT, you already know the Purdue Model. For decades, it has been the reference for how plants should be designed and secured. I started my own journey back in 2005,…
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IIoT Skills Gap: What Engineers Need to Learn to Stay Relevant
Read more: IIoT Skills Gap: What Engineers Need to Learn to Stay RelevantLet’s talk about the IIoT skills gap in 2025. It’s real. It’s growing. And it is now affecting production, quality, and delivery in very visible ways. If you work in manufacturing. As an engineer, a tech lead, or the person…
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SAP MII End of Life: What Comes Next for IIoT and Shop-Floor Connectivity
Read more: SAP MII End of Life: What Comes Next for IIoT and Shop-Floor ConnectivityIf you’re running SAP MII (Manufacturing Integration & Intelligence) as the backbone for edge connectivity and IIoT use cases, you’ve probably heard by now: the clock is ticking. SAP has officially announced end-of-life for MII, with mainstream support ending in…
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IIoT at Scale: Containerization, Docker, and Kubernetes Explained
Read more: IIoT at Scale: Containerization, Docker, and Kubernetes ExplainedI’ve spent the better part of two decades watching manufacturing tech evolve from isolated systems to today’s cloud-connected, agile factories. Lately, the biggest leap I’ve seen is how containerization (with Docker and Kubernetes) is making it easier to scale IIoT…