What’s Coming in Industrial DataOps

An IDC report says there will be over 55.7 billion connected IoT devices by 2025, generating nearly 80 zettabytes of data annually. From pharmaceuticals and manufacturing to energy and automotive, industrial enterprises are racing to modernize their operations through data-driven decisions and real-time automation. This shift isn’t just technical, it’s transformational. 

“Just like every company became a computer company in the ‘80s and an internet company in the ‘90s, we believe every company is becoming an IoT company.” — Dominik Obermaier, CTO and Co-founder, HiveMQ

In Industrial DataOps #12 with HiveMQ, an episode of the IT/OT Insider podcast, Dominik expanded on this idea, not just as a future trend but as a shift that’s already underway across manufacturing, pharma, logistics, and energy. He pointed out that while digital transformation initiatives are abundant, many fail to deliver because of a fundamental gap: reliable, secure, and scalable data movement. It's not about dashboards, digital twins, or edge computing—at least not at first. The core issue is getting real-time operational data from machines, sensors, and control systems into enterprise applications where it can actually drive value.

The conversation dove deep into Industrial DataOps as the missing bridge between OT and IT. Here’s why: traditional DataOps practices were built for data at rest and are ill-suited for the realities of industrial environments, where data in motion is critical. Latency, reliability, and interoperability become make-or-break concerns. 

In short, Industrial DataOps is about data in motion, streaming from machines, sensors, and edge devices into business systems, in real-time. Dominik makes it clear that the biggest challenge is to get data from point A to point B in real time and make it consumable by people and systems across the enterprise.

As Dominik explained during the podcast, MQTT and Unified Namespace (UNS) are playing a pivotal role in addressing fragmented data architectures and enabling a more unified approach.

"Some people claim a data lake is a UNS. Others say it’s OPC UA. It’s not. UNS is about having a shared, real-time data structure that’s accessible across the enterprise."

With MQTT as the backbone and UNS as the organizing principle, enterprises can unify their real-time data into a common model that is both scalable and future-ready.

We see more and more companies shifting from pilot projects to enterprise-wide IoT architectures. But success hinges on getting Industrial DataOps right.

HiveMQ's Vision: IoT Data Streaming for the Enterprise

At HiveMQ, our mission is rooted in a belief that every company will become an IoT company. And for that to happen, they need a robust data backbone—a foundation for real-time, bidirectional, secure, and scalable data flow between physical assets and digital platforms.

Through an MQTT-powered IoT Data Streaming platform, HiveMQ enables enterprises to move data reliably from edge to the cloud operational technology (OT) to IT systems, cloud platforms, analytics tools, and beyond.

But with the rise of Industrial DataOps, visibility and control over this data movement has become just as critical as the data exchange itself.

HiveMQ Pulse for Real-Time Industrial DataOps

HiveMQ Pulse is a next-generation platform designed to solve the challenges of real-time industrial data. It provides a fully managed, governed, and contextualized Unified Namespace (UNS) that enables organizations to:

• Map assets and processes into a structured, queryable data model

• Apply business logic and AI/ML models directly at the edge for faster decision-making

• Preserve historical context while maintaining real-time responsiveness

While others call it Industrial DataOps, we call it Distributed Data Intelligence—because the problem isn’t just about managing industrial data. It’s about managing distributed, high-velocity data across complex systems and turning it into insights where they have the greatest impact.

Conclusion: The Future Belongs to IoT-Native Enterprises

The rise of Industrial DataOps is reshaping how companies think about infrastructure, automation, and value creation. Companies that embrace IoT as a core competency—not just a side project—are the ones that will lead in efficiency, resilience, and innovation.

With HiveMQ and HiveMQ Pulse, we’re helping forward-thinking enterprises build the real-time data backbone they need to compete and win in this new era.