Philip Ackermann
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Cedalo
About the author
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Cedalo
Philip Ackermann is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Cedalo, bringing over 20 years of software development experience to the team. During his 11 years at the Fraunhofer Institute, specializing in Web Compliance and IoT technologies, he focused on software engineering, software architecture, and product development.
In addition to that, Philip is a published author, having written five books on software development, covering topics such as Java, JavaScript, Node.js, and Fullstack web development. Two of these books have been translated into English, broadening their global impact and enriching the international software development community
Articles by Philip Ackermann
CAN Bus Explained: Protocol Mechanics, Error Diagnosis, and IIoT Integration
A practitioner's guide to the CAN bus: frame anatomy, priority-based arbitration, differential signaling, DBC/J1939/CANopen decoding, and a structured approach to diagnosing errors, plus how to bridge CAN network data to cloud, SCADA, and analytics through MQTT.
Connected devicesIIoT vs. IoT: Architectural Requirements for Industrial Data Streams
IIoT and IoT sound similar but demand very different architectures. This guide explains where they diverge on availability, latency, environment, and integration, and how MQTT clustering, high availability, Sparkplug B, a Unified Namespace, and enterprise security turn simple connectivity into a resilient backbone for industrial production.
Industry 4.0MQTT Explorer: How to Connect, Subscribe, and Debug MQTT Traffic
MQTT Explorer is a widely used open-source GUI client for inspecting MQTT topic trees, publishing messages, and debugging broker activity. This guide covers installation, connection setup, TLS, wildcards, retained messages, Sparkplug B, and where an integrated platform picks up when a standalone desktop client reaches its limits.
MQTT toolsWhat Is a TSDB? Time Series Databases Explained for Engineers
A time series database (TSDB) stores data points indexed by timestamp and optimizes write throughput and range queries for high-frequency sensor and monitoring data. This guide covers TSDB architecture, compares InfluxDB and TimescaleDB, and shows how MQTT and a TSDB combine into a complete IIoT data path.
MQTT IntegrationsAIoT: Artificial Intelligence of Things Explained
AIoT combines AI with IoT sensor networks so connected devices can analyze data and act on it in real time. This guide explains what AIoT means, how it differs from IoT and Edge AI, where it creates value in industry, what ROI to expect, and which EU rules (AI Act, CRA, NIS2) shape a rollout.
Industry 4.0Manufacturing Execution System: Definition, Functions, and Role in Modern Manufacturing
A manufacturing execution system (MES) plans, controls, and documents shop floor production in real time, sitting between ERP and SCADA/PLC in the ISA-95 model. This guide explains what an MES does, how it differs from ERP and SCADA, on-premises vs. cloud deployment, how to choose among MES vendors, and why the underlying MQTT-based data layer decides how well an MES performs.
Industry 4.0Modbus Protocol: RTU, TCP/IP, ASCII, and IIoT Explained
The Modbus protocol connects industrial devices such as PLCs, meters, drives, and gateways through a compact, vendor-neutral request-response model. This guide explains how Modbus communication works, how RTU, TCP/IP, and ASCII differ, and how function codes and registers map device data. It also covers how to choose the right variant, how to secure Modbus in OT networks, and how a Modbus-to-MQTT gateway feeds SCADA, Unified Namespace, and IIoT architectures.
ProtocolsMQTT Gateway: How to Connect Devices, Protocols, and Broker Infrastructure
An MQTT gateway translates device, machine, and field-protocol data into MQTT messages and publishes them to a broker. This guide explains what an MQTT gateway does, how it differs from a broker, bridge, and client, how to structure topics and payloads, what security a gateway needs, and when the broker layer becomes the bottleneck behind large gateway deployments.
MQTT basicsBACnet Protocol: Technical Guide for Building Automation
The BACnet protocol is the global standard (ANSI/ASHRAE 135, ISO 16484-5) for building automation and control networks. This guide explains how BACnet works through objects, properties, and services, compares the BACnet/IP, BACnet MS/TP, and BACnet/SC variants, and covers security risks and troubleshooting. It also shows how a BACnet-to-MQTT gateway distributes building data into IIoT architectures, a Unified Namespace, and cloud systems for OT/IT integration.
ProtocolsWhat Is MQTT-SN? Protocol, Architecture and Use Cases Explained
MQTT-SN (MQTT for Sensor Networks) adapts MQTT's publish/subscribe model for constrained devices that lack a full TCP/IP stack, running over datagram transports such as UDP. This guide explains what MQTT-SN is, how it differs from MQTT, its client-gateway-broker architecture, why it runs on UDP, the role of aggregating and transparent gateways, and how to deploy it securely in hybrid MQTT and MQTT-SN sensor networks.
ProtocolsMQTT vs. RabbitMQ: How to Choose the Right Broker
MQTT is a lightweight publish-subscribe protocol; RabbitMQ is a multi-protocol message broker with an MQTT plugin. This guide separates the protocol question from the broker question and compares architecture, latency, routing, QoS, persistence, scalability, and security, with a decision matrix for constrained devices, Industrial IoT, enterprise messaging, and hybrid environments.
ComparisonOPC UA: The Standard Powering Industry 4.0
OPC UA is a vendor-independent communication standard that gives industrial machine data a shared meaning and builds security into the protocol itself. This guide explains what OPC UA does, how it secures machine-to-machine communication, how it enables interoperability across vendors, and how it maps to NIS2, the Cyber Resilience Act, and the Data Act. It also covers OPC UA vs. MQTT and how the two protocols work together in a modern Industry 4.0 stack.
ProtocolsMessage Broker: How Does It Work and When Does It Pay Off?
A message broker is a middleware component that decouples data producers from consumers by handling routing, persistence, and delivery between distributed systems. This guide explains what a message broker is, how the Publish/Subscribe and Point-to-Point patterns work, and how MQTT, AMQP, and Kafka differ in practice. It covers real-world use cases across IIoT, microservices, logistics, and energy, and helps you decide when a broker pays off for your architecture.
MQTT basicsMQTT Client: How to Choose, Configure, and Operate the Right Tool for Your Environment
Most MQTT client problems come from configuration, not the protocol: misconfigured TLS, wrong QoS assumptions, and clients that pass testing but collapse under production load. This guide explains what an MQTT client does, how the four client categories map to development and deployment phases, and how to configure client ID, sessions, Keep-Alive, QoS, TLS, and authentication correctly. It also covers the most common client failures, what changes when clients move into production, and how the broker layer decides whether your setup holds at scale.
MQTT basicsOT Security: A Practical Guide to Protecting Industrial Systems
OT security protects the availability and safety of industrial control systems, SCADA, and IIoT devices, not just data confidentiality. This guide explains how OT security differs from IT security, a five-step priority model from asset visibility to incident response, and how to secure MQTT and IIoT data flows with TLS/mTLS, authentication, monitoring, and high availability.
MQTT securityNIS2: What OT and IIoT Teams Need to Know About Compliance
NIS2 can make broker security, access control, and monitoring part of your legal obligations rather than internal best practices. This guide explains what the NIS2 directive requires, who is in scope, how Article 21 maps to concrete MQTT security measures, the reporting deadlines and fines, and how to build a compliance roadmap for your MQTT and IIoT infrastructure.
MQTT securityAMQP vs. MQTT: Technical Comparison for Enterprise Messaging and IIoT
AMQP and MQTT solve different problems: MQTT delivers lightweight publish/subscribe for IIoT and edge telemetry, while AMQP adds transactional integrity and durable queuing for enterprise backends. This comparison covers messaging models, routing, overhead, reliability, and scalability, and shows how a hybrid MQTT-AMQP architecture combines both.
ProtocolsMQTT vs. CoAP: Which Protocol Fits Your IoT Architecture?
MQTT and CoAP both target constrained IoT environments but make different architectural choices: MQTT uses TCP and a broker-based pub/sub model, CoAP uses UDP and REST-style request/response. This guide breaks down transport, messaging, overhead, security, and scalability, and gives a decision framework for choosing (or combining) the two.
ProtocolsAMQP Guide: Architecture and Implementation of the Enterprise Messaging Standard
AMQP is a standardized, binary messaging protocol for reliable, transactional data exchange across distributed enterprise systems. This guide explains the broker model (exchanges, queues, bindings), the four exchange types, message lifecycle, reliability and flow control, the difference between AMQP 0-9-1 and 1.0, and how AMQP fits alongside MQTT in industrial architectures.
ProtocolsWhat Is CoAP? The Lightweight IoT Protocol for Constrained Devices
CoAP compresses the HTTP request/response model into a 4-byte header that runs over UDP, targeting microcontrollers and constrained networks. This guide covers how CoAP works, its message types and Observe extension, where it fits in IoT architectures, CoAP vs. MQTT vs. HTTP, limitations at scale, and a step-by-step CoAP-to-MQTT integration path.
ProtocolsDataOps: A Practical Framework for Governed Industrial Data Workflows
DataOps applies the automation, testing, and collaboration principles of DevOps to data pipelines. This guide covers the methodology, a five-stage workflow, the platform capabilities that matter, what the EU Data Act and Data Governance Act mean for your pipelines, and how DataOps applies to OT/IT integration.
Industry 4.0Internet of Things (IoT) Protocols: How to Choose the Right Protocol for Secure IoT Architectures
IoT protocols define how devices, gateways, brokers, and cloud systems exchange data. This guide compares MQTT, CoAP, AMQP, HTTP, OPC UA, DDS, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, and Bluetooth Low Energy, shows how to choose by use case, and covers the security and compliance requirements (CRA, NIS2, MDR) that shape protocol decisions in 2026.
ProtocolsSBOM: What a Software Bill of Materials Contains and How to Use It
An SBOM is a structured inventory of the software components and dependencies in your build. This guide explains what it contains, how CycloneDX and SPDX compare, how to generate one with Syft, validate it, turn it into a vulnerability report with VEX, and wire it into CI/CD, including the MQTT and edge layer.
MQTT securityWhat Is MQTTS? Secure MQTT over TLS for Industrial IoT in 2026
MQTTS is an MQTT connection wrapped in TLS, typically on port 8883 with the mqtts:// URI prefix. This guide explains how MQTTS works, when to use ports 8883, 443 or 1883, server-only versus mutual TLS, how to configure it in Mosquitto and paho, and why it has become the practical security baseline under NIS2, the EU Data Act and the Cyber Resilience Act.
MQTT securitySmart Factory: Definition, Technology and Compliance Requirements
A smart factory links machines, sensors, and IT systems through one shared data layer, turning production data into automated decisions in real time. This guide explains what a smart factory is, the technologies behind it (MQTT, Unified Namespace, edge and AI), the EU compliance rules to design around (NIS2, AI Act, Data Act), and how to scale from a test run to full operations.
Industry 4.0MQTT Security: A Practical Guide to TLS, Access Control, and Secure Operations
MQTT security problems rarely originate from the protocol itself. They arise when brokers run with weak identity, missing authorization, and little visibility into who publishes and subscribes to which data. This guide covers the four pillars of MQTT security - transport, identity, authorization, and governance - and how to operate them in production.
MQTT securityReal-Time Data Streaming: How Modern Systems Move Data With Near-Zero Delay
Real-time data streaming delivers continuous information with minimal delay. This guide explains how low-latency pipelines work, how streaming compares to batch processing, which technologies and reference architectures power modern setups, and the best practices teams use to keep IIoT and edge-to-cloud flows stable.
Industry 4.0MQTT Broker Clustering at Scale — Cedalo MQTT Platform 3.2
Cedalo MQTT Platform 3.2 introduces High Performance Clustering for large MQTT deployments, real-time Broker Logs streaming, an Onboarding Wizard, and adds two new first-party plugins — a Databricks Bridge for streaming MQTT telemetry into Databricks lakehouses and the Sparkplug Decode plugin for transparent Sparkplug B payload decoding at the broker.
Product releaseIntroducing Eclipse Mosquitto 2.1
Eclipse Mosquitto 2.1 brings unprecedented visibility, performance, and extensibility — including a built-in Web UI, smarter plugin system, and modernized security.
Product releaseCedalo MQTT Platform Free Tier
The new Cedalo MQTT Platform Free Tier provides open-source Mosquitto users with access to professional operational tools — including a Pub/Sub client, dynamic security management, broker dashboards, and more.
Product releaseCedalo MQTT Platform Release 3.1
Cedalo MQTT Platform 3.1 introduces powerful integrations with InfluxDB and Azure Event Hubs, dynamic bridge configuration via MQTT Control API, and UI-based bridge management. It enables connectivity for open-source Mosquitto brokers, HTTP client authentication, and includes a Policy Engine for data validation rules, enhancing MQTT infrastructure control and governance.
Product releaseCedalo MQTT Platform 3.0 - Enterprise Edition
The Cedalo MQTT Platform 3.0 release integrates Pro Mosquitto broker functionality with the Management Center for Mosquitto, enhancing usability and empowering enterprises with robust multi-broker management.
Product releaseCedalo MQTT Platform Release 3.0
The Cedalo MQTT Platform 3.0 release integrates Pro Mosquitto broker functionality with the Management Center for Mosquitto, enhancing usability and empowering enterprises with robust multi-broker management.
Product releaseIntroducing Pro Mosquitto 2.9
The Pro Mosquitto™ 2.9 release offers six new database integrations, MQTT Client Authentication via OAuth 2.0 / JWT, and more.
Product releaseIntroducing Pro Mosquitto 2.8
Check out Pro Mosquitto 2.8! The latest release offers several new integrations, OpenShift deployment support, persistent queueing, and more.
Product releaseIntroducing Pro Mosquitto 2.7
Pro Mosquitto 2.7 here! It includes MongoDB and Kafka bridges, Kubernetes deployment support, a new Audit Trail logging feature, and more.
Pro Mosquitto ReleaseIntroducing Pro Mosquitto 2.6
Pro Mosquitto 2.6 is now available! It offers enhanced security features, improved MQTT clients inspection capabilities and more.
Pro Mosquitto ReleaseGrand Release: Pro Mosquitto 2.5
Check out Pro Mosquitto 2.5 release, which offers enhanced security, improved monitoring functionality, HA, and more.
Pro Mosquitto Release