The Industrial IoT Blog
IIoT Insights by Henry Costa
Tag: Plant Connectivity
The ability to securely connect machines, sensors, and systems on the shop floor to digital platforms. It enables reliable data flow from OT to IT for monitoring, analytics, and optimization.
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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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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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Equipment Connectivity: The Unglamorous Work That Makes Everything Possible
Read more: Equipment Connectivity: The Unglamorous Work That Makes Everything PossibleIf you’ve ever walked into a modern factory and seen dashboards glowing with real-time data, robots humming along, or operators using tablets to check production status, you’ve seen the shiny side of smart manufacturing. But behind all that magic, there’s…
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Managing Up, Down, and Sideways: The Hidden Skill of IIoT Architects
Read more: Managing Up, Down, and Sideways: The Hidden Skill of IIoT ArchitectsIf there’s one thing I wish more people understood about IIoT architecture, it’s this: the tech is hard, yes — but managing people up, down, and sideways is the real superpower. You can have the cleanest architecture, the best platform,…
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Foundations: Key Differences Between IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT)
Read more: Foundations: Key Differences Between IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT)I get asked a lot about the difference between IoT and IIoT, especially from folks who are new to manufacturing or are coming from IT. It’s a fair question. On the surface, both involve connecting “things” to the internet, collecting…
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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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TPG to Acquire Kepware and ThingWorx from PTC
Read more: TPG to Acquire Kepware and ThingWorx from PTCSo, here’s a real story from the shop floor to the boardroom: PTC is selling its industrial connectivity and IoT businesses—Kepware and ThingWorx—to TPG, a global private equity firm. This isn’t just another deal in the headlines. For those of…
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Lessons From 50+ SAP Digital Manufacturing Projects
Read more: Lessons From 50+ SAP Digital Manufacturing ProjectsIf you spend enough time in manufacturing, you realize the shop floor is the real test for any digital solution. Since 2005, I’ve worked on more than 50 SAP Digital Manufacturing (MII/OEE/PCo) implementations across more than 10 industries, from the…
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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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Current Trends in IIoT Applications – Insights from 2025
Read more: Current Trends in IIoT Applications – Insights from 2025Let’s talk about what’s actually changing on the factory floor with IIoT right now—not what slide decks and vendor pitches promise, but what’s really happening when teams connect machines, data, and people across different plants and industries. Some of these…
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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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Moving SAP OEE to a Modern IIoT Platform
Read more: Moving SAP OEE to a Modern IIoT PlatformI’ve been working with automated OEE systems for several years. Starting from early SAP MII implementations, I’ve built and supported solutions that collect real-time data from PLCs, calculate availability, performance and quality, and provide operators with live dashboards. These systems…