The Industrial IoT Blog
IIoT Insights by Henry Costa
Tag: MQTT
A lightweight messaging protocol designed for reliable data exchange in industrial and IoT environments. Commonly used to stream real-time data between edge devices, platforms, and applications.
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From Shop Floor to Cloud: How Manufacturing Data Moves
Read more: From Shop Floor to Cloud: How Manufacturing Data MovesI’ve spent years watching data travel from shop floors to dashboards. And honestly, most people skip over the messy middle parts. On paper, the sensor-to-dashboard chain looks clean and simple. In real manufacturing environments, it rarely is. If you’ve ever…
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IIoT Gateway vs Edge Computer vs Industrial Router: What’s the Difference?
Read more: IIoT Gateway vs Edge Computer vs Industrial Router: What’s the Difference?People ask me all the time: what’s the difference between an IIoT Gateway, an Edge Computer, and an Industrial Router? And honestly, I get why it’s confusing. Vendors love to mix these terms, and sometimes the same box gets called…
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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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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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Sparkplug B vs Plain MQTT: Performance Lessons
Read more: Sparkplug B vs Plain MQTT: Performance LessonsIf you work in industrial manufacturing and you’re looking at MQTT, you’ve probably heard about Sparkplug B. You might be wondering: Is it really faster? Does it use less bandwidth? Is it worth the extra complexity? I’ll walk you through…
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Retiring SAP MII: Closing a Chapter and Opening the Next One
Read more: Retiring SAP MII: Closing a Chapter and Opening the Next OneAfter spending almost twenty years working with SAP MII (before that, xMII), it feels strange to say goodbye. It was part of daily life for many of us. It solved tough problems, frustrated teams, and more than once saved a…
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MQTT Quality of Service (QoS) Explained
Read more: MQTT Quality of Service (QoS) ExplainedIf you work in manufacturing or IIoT, you’ve probably heard the term “MQTT Quality of Service” (or just MQTT QoS) thrown around. It sounds technical, but it’s actually a pretty simple idea — it’s about how sure you want to…
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How Big Data, IIoT, and a Unified Namespace Work Together to Unlock Smart Manufacturing
Read more: How Big Data, IIoT, and a Unified Namespace Work Together to Unlock Smart ManufacturingGetting value from smart manufacturing isn’t about chasing the latest tech or buying shiny new machines. It’s about making data flow — from every sensor and PLC to the cloud, and then back to the people who need it. Over…
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What Is IIoT? The Basics You Should Know
Read more: What Is IIoT? The Basics You Should KnowIf you work in manufacturing, you’ve probably heard people throw around “IIoT” (Industrial Internet of Things) like it’s the answer to every plant problem. Sometimes it sounds like magic. It’s not. But it is changing how we run factories, and…
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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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Birth Certificates for Machines: How Sparkplug NBIRTH Messages Work
Read more: Birth Certificates for Machines: How Sparkplug NBIRTH Messages WorkLet’s talk about something I see a lot in real-world industrial IoT projects, but that’s rarely explained in plain English: Sparkplug NBIRTH messages. If you’ve heard the phrase “birth certificate for machines,” that’s what we’re talking about. These NBIRTH messages…
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Inside an IIoT Platform: The Layers That Make It Work
Read more: Inside an IIoT Platform: The Layers That Make It WorkWhen people talk about “IIoT platforms,” it often sounds like some magic box that connects machines and sends data to the cloud. In reality, it’s not a box — it’s more like a layered system, with several moving parts working…