For industrial equipment manufacturers, the market demand to integrate and connect devices within the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is growing by the day.
 
This paper seeks to outline a few of the key architectural considerations required for the successful operation of smart devices within an IIoT infrastructure with a focus on the software that runs on the device. A few of the more common device software challenges will be highlighted, and a promising new framework that addresses some of the key device software gaps will be presented.