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INDUSTRY UNPLUGGED
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ISSUE #16
6 October 2026
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Industrial Automation & IIoT Intelligence — Weekly
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6 October 2026 | Issue #16
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◆ FROM THE DESK
Welcome back. It's a big week for the industry — Inductive Automation has mapped out where Ignition is heading, OT security has stepped up a gear, and on Wednesday we sit down with the man who co-invented MQTT. Here's what's worth your attention, plus a look at what's coming up on the show.
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◆ THIS WEEK IN INDUSTRY
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PLATFORMS · ICC 2026
Inductive Automation maps out Ignition 2027
At last month's Ignition Community Conference, Inductive Automation unveiled Ignition 2027 — headlined by Ignition Catalyst (a framework for working with AI inside the platform), a new TimescaleDB-backed Enterprise Historian, and Cyber Resilience Act readiness. The direction of travel is clear: Ignition is positioning less as “SCADA” and more as a foundation for industrial applications and operational data.
Read the announcement →
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OT SECURITY · WHAT TO WATCH
Industrial cybersecurity is now a board-level line item
Manufacturing remains the most-targeted sector for cyber-attacks, and the spend is following: the ICS security market is forecast to climb from roughly US$17.9B in 2026 to US$38.5B by 2031, as CISA sharpens its guidance around zero-trust and IT/OT segmentation. Want a practical crash course? IIoT World is running a free, full-day virtual Industrial Cybersecurity Day this Wednesday 14 October — ransomware defence, segmentation, SCADA/PLC vulnerability management and IEC 62443.
Register free (14 Oct) →
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NODE-RED · AGENTIC AI
FlowFuse is wiring AI agents into Node-RED
Agentic AI is one of the loudest themes in automation right now — and FlowFuse, one of our community supporters, is bringing it to the flow-based world most of our listeners already know. Its Expert Assistant has landed in open-source Node-RED, and the team has been walking through how to put external AI agents to work inside real industrial flows. Worth a look if you're weighing where agents actually earn their keep on the plant floor.
See what's new →
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◆ ON THE PODCAST · THIS WEDNESDAY
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Ep. 60 — Arlen Nipper: From Pipeline SCADA to 15 Million Tags
This Wednesday 7 October, we release one we've been looking forward to. Arlen Nipper — co-inventor of MQTT and President/CTO of Cirrus Link Solutions — joins Phil to trace the line from early pipeline SCADA to today's 15-million-tag deployments, and how MQTT, Sparkplug and the Unified Namespace became the backbone of modern industrial data.
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◆ PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
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SMITHTEK — PRODUCT LAUNCH
SmithTek launches Solaris
Congratulations to WA-based SmithTek on the launch of Solaris — a compact, weatherproof (IP65) RTU/PLC that arrives as a complete solar-powered telemetry station, with controller, solar charge controller, battery and solar panel in a single field-ready enclosure.
Built on their proven Mako platform, it straps to a pole or tank stand in minutes and runs unattended, off-grid — monitoring analogue and digital inputs, controlling outputs, and feeding data through to your SCADA platform. A neat piece of field-first engineering for anyone wrangling remote water, irrigation, wastewater or off-grid assets.
→ Learn more at smithtek.com.au
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◆ COMMUNITY & EVENTS
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Phil is hosting Node-RED Con 2026
If you build with Node-RED — or you're curious how the flow-based approach keeps showing up across IIoT, from home-lab tinkering to plant-floor automation — come along. Phil is hosting this year's conference, and registration is free.
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◆ SUPPORT THE SHOW
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Help keep Unplugged independent and ad-light.
Join the Patreon membership for early access to episodes, behind-the-scenes notes, and a direct line to Phil & Ed — or follow us on LinkedIn to catch every drop.
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◆ SUPPORTED BY OUR COMMUNITY
These companies are part of the Industry Unplugged community — supporting what we do and doing great work in the field.
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Canary Labs
canarylabs.com
Industrial data historian — capturing, storing, and visualising OT data to power smarter manufacturing and process decisions.
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FlowFuse
flowfuse.com
Industrial Node-RED platform — connect, manage, and scale automation from edge to cloud.
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Cirrus Link Solutions
cirrus-link.com
Cirrus Link Solutions develops MQTT and Sparkplug software that helps industrial organizations connect systems, move data in real time, and make operational information available wherever it's needed.
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Unplugged: An IIoT Newsletter
by Industry Unplugged | Phil Seboa | info@unplugged-education.com
Industry Unplugged, Brisbane, Australia
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© 2026 Industry Unplugged. All rights reserved.
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