Technical articles for industrial IT and OT teams
74 articles on OEE, Modbus, OPC UA and MQTT, OT security, industrial data, edge computing and IT/OT project planning.
74 articles
Build an OT asset inventory without disrupting production
Start with existing evidence, reconcile device ownership and make unknown assets actionable.
A PLC backup is not complete until recovery is tested
Plan a restore drill that checks project files, licenses, hardware dependencies and operational acceptance.
Check sensor data quality before building analytics
Use simple checks for completeness, range, timing and context before trusting a trend or training a model.
Make vendor remote access a controlled work session
Document the purpose, approved route, time window and closeout evidence for a maintenance connection.
Firmware Update Management for Industrial Devices: Policy Over Panic
Unpatched devices are a risk; botched updates are a production outage. A process for firmware that balances both.
Ransomware and OT: Why Traditional Endpoint Protection Is Not Enough
The playbook that protects office PCs does not transfer to controllers. What ransomware actually does to OT and where the defenses belong.
Logging and Audit Trails for OT Systems: What to Collect and Where to Keep It
OT logging is hard because devices log poorly and clocks drift. A practical baseline that satisfies both engineers and auditors.
SCADA Redundancy and Failover: Designing for Availability, Not Magic
Redundant SCADA systems fail in interesting ways. What the standard topologies are and how to test the one you buy.
MQTT QoS Levels Explained for Industrial Messaging
QoS 0, 1, and 2 are often misread as reliability tiers. What they actually guarantee - and how to choose per message class.
Managed vs Unmanaged Industrial Ethernet Switches: Choose by Risk, Not Price
Unmanaged switches are cheaper; managed switches are controllable. When the difference matters - and when it doesn't.
OPC UA Companion Specifications: What They Are and When They Help
Generic OPC UA models get you interoperability; companion specs get you semantics. A field guide to the standard ecosystem.
Wireless Sensor Networks in Harsh Industrial Environments
Heat, metal, vibration, and interference make factory wireless hard. How to design wireless sensor networks that survive real plants.
MES vs ERP vs SCADA: Understanding the Manufacturing Software Stack
The three-letter acronyms blur together, but each layer answers a different question. A clear map of where data originates and flows.
Cybersecurity Hardening for PLCs: Steps That Work Without Breaking Production
Hardening a controller is different from hardening a server. Practical, low-risk measures for PLCs and their networks.
Historian vs Data Lake: Where Should Industrial Data Actually Live?
Historians are optimized for fast time-series; data lakes for flexible analytics. The two are complementary - if you design the boundary.
Data Quality in Manufacturing: Why Garbage Time-Series Breaks Analytics
The analytics model is only as good as the data pipeline that feeds it. The most common data quality failures and how to catch them early.
OT Asset Inventory: The Unglamorous First Step to Industrial Security
You cannot protect what you cannot see. How to build and keep an asset inventory that security and maintenance can both use.
IIoT Connectivity Options: Cellular, Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN, and Wired
There is no best wireless technology - only the right one for the distance, data rate, and power budget. A selection guide.
Ethernet vs Fieldbus: When Industrial Ethernet Wins and When It Doesn't
Fieldbus is not obsolete, and Ethernet is not automatically better. The engineering criteria that settle the debate.
USB and Removable Media in Industrial Environments: Real Risk, Practical Policy
Removable media bypasses every network control you can build. How to manage USB use in OT with a clean station, port control and an audit trail, without crippling workflows.
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