Unified Namespace: Navigating Digital Transformation in IIoT

Digital transformation has revolutionized industrial operations. Today’s leading organizations harness new technology for greater efficiency, innovation, and growth. 

However, digital transformation also presents a challenge: You must avoid data silos and fragmented systems, which hinder seamless communications and data sharing across platforms. Enter the Unified Namespace. 

The goal is to break down all the walls between digital systems. This need for holistic integration led researchers to propose a new definition of digital transformation: 

[Digital transformation (DT)] includes the networking of actors such as businesses and customers across all value-added chain segments, and the application of new technologies. As such, DT requires skills that involve the extraction and exchange of data as well as the analysis and conversion of that data into actionable information. This information should be used to calculate and evaluate options, in order to enable decisions and/or initiate activities…

So how can manufacturers, logistics providers, and other industrial operators successfully convert “data into actionable information” in the era of IIoT? The answer is simple: Build a Unified Namespace (UNS). 

The UNS framework offers a single source of truth for all IIoT data, complete with vital context and interoperability between components. It’s the single best way to overcome the data-integration challenges that come with industrial digital transformation.   

Here’s how UNS is helping industrial operations succeed with digital transformation. 

The Complexity of Modern Data Landscapes

Industrial IT infrastructure tends to move data between hierarchical layers, one at a time. These point-to-point integrations were great at getting data from shop-floor equipment into a SCADA system. They’re less valuable for building a data-driven organization from the ground up. 

That’s because a smart manufacturing facility depends on thousands of IIoT sensors, dozens of applications, and multiple business information platforms: SCADA, MES, ERP, cloud-based systems, and more. 

The traditional ISA 95 functional model moves data from IIoT sensors up this stack in point-to-point connections. Each of these connections requires custom engineering, which takes a lot of time and resources. Multiple data formats require multiple specialists. So does integrating modern applications like AI with legacy systems. 

These challenges lead to system fragmentation, data silos, and inconsistent communication—with hefty price tags attached to every patchwork fix you attempt.  

HiveMQ senior industry solutions advocate Kudzai Manditereza proposes a solution: 

You need a technology that allows you to organize data in a central location based on your organizational structure and events. Data centralization gives every network participant access to information–they will know where and how to find relevant information. 

“Additionally, the technology needs to make the data transparent and available to all who have the authority to access it,” Manditereza says. But if transparent data centralization is the solution—and UNS is the framework—what’s the best protocol for interoperable IIoT?      

“While a few communication technologies may fit the profile, MQTT is by far the most commonly used technology for implementing the UNS,” Manditereza says. Let’s take a closer look at the nuts and bolts of UNS—and discover why MQTT is the best protocol for its implementation.  

Unified Namespace: A Game-Changer for Data-Centric Organizations

Unified Namespace is a strategy of organizing data based on a consistent naming structure. It’s also a central data hub that acts as an information broker across your whole business. Every IIoT device is a node that publishes data to your UNS—which then feeds that data to all your platforms, from the MES to the ERP to cloud analytics. 

In other words, UNS is both a data management framework and a central repository of information, one that’s available to every authorized agent (whether that’s a software platform or an administrator). 

The MQTT protocol is ideal for building a UNS because of its publish-subscribe communication architecture. It allows your centralized data hub to easily collect information from every IIoT sensor in your facility, then make sure that data is available wherever it’s needed. 

Besides, MQTT is the top messaging protocol in IIoT. That means most devices and platforms won’t require custom engineering to work with it.    

Smart manufacturing facilities and other data-driven industrial operations often struggle to bridge the gap between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). Unified Namespace provides a central data hub—complete with real-time availability and a context-rich schema—to achieve effective OT/IT convergence, operation-wide.   

Data Accessibility Across the Ecosystem

An MQTT broker makes data available to any authorized agent. That includes everyone from C-suite executives to shop-floor staff—while giving the system administrator full control over these permissions. 

This multilevel accessibility democratizes operational data, so everyone in your organization can make stronger decisions. Real-time data creates more actionable insights, even as the situation on the assembly line or logistics route continues to change. 

This free-flowing data availability isn’t limited to your own staff or business units. Unified Namespace can reduce complexity and speed up mission-critical tasks by trading data with any number of vendors, too. 

Simplifying Multi-Vendor Integration

The digital systems that make smart industry possible are incredibly advanced, but each one tends to use its own proprietary protocols to communicate. That’s a big reason why data silos are such a challenge for IIoT implementers in the first place. 

With UNS, system compatibility ceases to be a problem. Your UNS makes integration with multiple vendors and software systems simpler than ever before. It’s all thanks to the central data repository, which uses MQTT to receive and push data from all the nodes in your ecosystem—whether they belong to your stack or a third-party provider’s.  

This universal approach to data management solves one of the toughest challenges of digital transformation: scalability. 

Scalability Without Disruption

Building a Unified Namespace with MQTT enhances interoperability virtually without limit. That means your operation can integrate any new technology or add new sites, no matter what comes next. In other words, it helps you future-proof your digital ecosystem. 

Your central data hub can continue operating while you expand or change your IIoT stack, so you can pursue digital transformation without downtime. This combination of benefits allows you to scale your IIoT system across your entire operation—and beyond. 

Getting Started With Unified Namespace

So far, we’ve only scratched the surface of UNS’ potential for IIoT. The bottom line is that UNS empowers limitless IIoT. If you’re struggling to achieve the next stage of digital transformation or smart industry, it could be just the solution you’re looking for.