Guides

Vendor-neutral explainers built from our directory data. No sponsored content.

• The Unified Namespace (UNS) stack, explained with real tools

  What a Unified Namespace is, its layers (connectivity, broker, contextualization, SCADA, historian, analytics) and which tools in the directory fill each layer.

• Choosing a process historian: a practical checklist

  How to compare process historians (AVEVA PI, Canary, Proficy, FactoryTalk Historian, InfluxDB and more): the questions that matter and what each is listed as integrating with.

• Getting PLC data out: OPC UA servers, gateways and MQTT

  Options for getting data out of Siemens, Rockwell and other PLCs: OPC servers, gateways, edge platforms and MQTT brokers, with the tools listed in the directory.

• MQTT Sparkplug B explained: what it adds to plain MQTT

  What the Sparkplug B specification defines on top of MQTT (topic namespace, payload encoding, birth/death certificates, state awareness) and which tools in the directory publish, broker or consume it.

• MES vs ERP vs SCADA: who does what in a factory

  Plain-language differences between ERP, MES and SCADA (the ISA-95 levels), where they overlap, how they connect, and the tools in the directory for each layer.

• Choosing an IIoT edge platform: a practical checklist

  How to evaluate industrial edge platforms (Litmus Edge, Siemens Industrial Edge, Ignition Edge, Node-RED/FlowFuse, AVEVA Edge and more): drivers, apps, fleet management and where data goes.