Sparkplug is an industrial IoT communication protocol designed for use in SCADA systems. It provides a standard communication format for industrial devices and applications, making devices from different manufacturers interoperable. The Sparkplug specification was developed by Cirrus Link Solutions and Eclipse Foundation. It is openly available and not proprietary to a single company. So, it has the following benefits for the Sparkplug community:
- Allowing different systems and technologies to work together seamlessly, improving efficiency, reducing costs, and providing more options to consumers.
- Ensuring that products from different vendors can work together without any compatibility issues, increasing consumer choice, and fostering healthy competition among vendors.
- Encouraging innovation by enabling collaboration and sharing ideas and solutions, thus leading to the development of new products, services, and technologies.
- Promoting transparency, increasing trust, and reducing the risk of vendor lock-in or dependence on a single supplier.
- Ensuring that products and services are accessible to a wide range of users, including those with disabilities.
Sparkplug aims to provide a standardized way to use MQTT for industrial applications and promote interoperability between devices and systems from different vendors. As such, the Sparkplug specification has been widely adopted by the industrial IoT community and is supported by many different vendors and organizations.