Not so long ago—in the dim and distant days before the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) — an Ethernet port hung off an industrial machine’s programmable logic controller (PLC) was about all the out-of-the-box connectivity that an industrial asset owner/operator could expect of its OEM suppliers. Today a new class of embedded software application —part historian, part analytical engine, part operator interface and part fault-tolerant integration platform — is allowing industrial OEMs to build “IIoT-ready” machines that can much more easily and flexibly be integrated into a plant’s existing automation and information infrastructure.