Book excerpt: The Industrial Information Technology Handbook focuses on existing and emerging industrial applications of IT, and on evolving trends that are driven by the needs of companies and by industry-led consortia and organizations. Emphasizing fast growing areas that have major impacts on industrial automation and enterprise integration, the Handbook covers topics such as industrial communication technology, sensors, and embedded systems. The book is organized into two parts. Part 1 presents material covering new and quickly evolving aspects of IT. Part 2 introduces cutting-edge areas of industrial IT. The Handbook presents material in the form of tutorials, surveys, and technology overviews, combining fundamentals and advanced issues, with articles grouped into sections for a cohesive and comprehensive presentation. The text contains 112 contributed reports by industry experts from government, companies at the forefront of development, and some of the most renowned academic and research institutions worldwide. Several of the reports on recent developments, actual deployments, and trends cover subject matter presented to the public for the first time.