  The fourth industrial revolution, i.e., Industry 4.0, is evolving all around
the globe. In this article, we introduce the landscape of Industry 4.0 and
beyond empowered by the seamless collaboration of communication technology
(CT), information technology (IT), and operation technology (OT), i.e., CIOT
collaboration. Specifically, CIOT collaboration is regarded as a main
improvement of Industry 4.0 compared to the previous industrial revolutions. We
commence by reviewing the previous three industrial revolutions and we argue
that the key feature of Industry 4.0 is the CIOT collaboration. More
particularly, CT domain supports ubiquitous connectivity of the industrial
elements and further bridges the physical world and the cyber world, which is a
pivotal prerequisite. Then, we present the potential impacts of CIOT
collaboration on typical industrial use cases with the objective of creating a
more intelligent and human-friendly industry. Furthermore, the technical
challenges of paving the way for the CIOT collaboration with an emphasis on the
CT domain are discussed. Finally, we shed light on a roadmap for Industry 4.0
and beyond. The salient steps to be taken in the future CIOT collaboration are
highlighted, which may be expected to expedite the paradigm shift towards the
next industrial revolution.
