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The adoption and deployment of Industry 4.0 concepts such as cyber-physical systems are driving the requirement to move beyond traditional messaging systems. Building on the IACS architecture pattern by adding more point-to-point integrations is increasing complexity and operating cost. A new architectural pattern that is geared toward data curation and routing is an essential next step in getting to Industry 4.0 cyber-physical systems development. Some of the organizational and technology challenges that are outlined above are relevant to the consumer Internet of Things (IoT). However, the industrial sector is unique in many ways and therefore deserves a dedicated branch of design for Industrial IoT (IIoT). ( Leber, J. (2017). General Electric’s San Ramon Software Center Takes Shape MIT Technology Review [online],(2012) Available: https://www.technologyreview.com/2012/11/28/114725/general-electric-pitches-an-industrial-internet/. Accessed September, 8.)
Meeting the wide range of application and integration diversity in IIoT scenarios is a major challenge that developers face today. (Agarwal, P., & Alam, M. (2020). Investigating IoT Middleware Platforms for Smart Application Development. In Smart Cities—Opportunities and Challenges (pp. 231-244). Springer, Singapore.) There are many middleware options available for general-purpose enterprise application integration that are positioned for IoT and IIoT despite not being designed for those purposes. A better approach that is gaining traction is the use of event streaming platforms that were designed for the big data ecosystem. These platforms are built to take advantage of scale-out designs using either physical or virtualized resources.