A method of configuring an industrial automation system for internet-of-things accessibility, the industrial automation system having a system hierarchy including low-level devices, automation devices and supervision and production control devices, wherein the low-level devices comprise sensors (11, 12) and actuators (13, 14, 15), the automation devices comprise Programmable Logic Controller, PLC, devices, robots and Computer Numerical Control, CNC, machines, and the supervision and production control devices comprise Human Machine Interface, HMI, devices, general-purpose computers and special purpose computers, the method comprising: a) receiving, at a computing device, a first user input indicative of a functional object being a software object representing one or more of said low-level devices, and/or one or more of said automation devices, and/or one or more of said supervising and production control devices in the industrial automation system; b) receiving, at the computing device, a second user input indicative of a cloud object representing a cloud service provider being external to the industrial automation system; c) receiving, at the computing device, a third user input indicative of a user terminal object representing a user terminal device being external to the industrial automation system; and d) causing, by the computing device, the cloud service provider to enable communication between the user terminal device and at least one of the devices (10, 20, 30) in the industrial automation system as represented by the functional object via the cloud service provider, and the method further comprising: e) presenting, at the computing device, a plurality of variables for said at least one of the devices (10, 20, 30) in the industrial automation system as represented by the functional object; f) receiving, at the computing device, a fourth user input indicative of a selected variable among said plurality of variables and further indicative of whether the selected variable is to be made accessible to the user terminal device as: • a unidirectional variable value being readable by the user terminal device, • a unidirectional variable value being settable by the user terminal device, or • a bidirectional variable value being both readable and settable by the user terminal device; and g) causing, by the computing device, said at least one of the devices (10, 20, 30) in the industrial automation system as represented by the functional object to make the selected variable accessible to the user terminal device. a) receiving, at a computing device, a first user input indicative of a functional object being a software object representing one or more of said low-level devices, and/or one or more of said automation devices, and/or one or more of said supervising and production control devices in the industrial automation system; b) receiving, at the computing device, a second user input indicative of a cloud object representing a cloud service provider being external to the industrial automation system; c) receiving, at the computing device, a third user input indicative of a user terminal object representing a user terminal device being external to the industrial automation system; and d) causing, by the computing device, the cloud service provider to enable communication between the user terminal device and at least one of the devices (10, 20, 30) in the industrial automation system as represented by the functional object via the cloud service provider, e) presenting, at the computing device, a plurality of variables for said at least one of the devices (10, 20, 30) in the industrial automation system as represented by the functional object; f) receiving, at the computing device, a fourth user input indicative of a selected variable among said plurality of variables and further indicative of whether the selected variable is to be made accessible to the user terminal device as: • a unidirectional variable value being readable by the user terminal device, • a unidirectional variable value being settable by the user terminal device, or • a bidirectional variable value being both readable and settable by the user terminal device; and • a unidirectional variable value being readable by the user terminal device, • a unidirectional variable value being settable by the user terminal device, or • a bidirectional variable value being both readable and settable by the user terminal device; and g) causing, by the computing device, said at least one of the devices (10, 20, 30) in the industrial automation system as represented by the functional object to make the selected variable accessible to the user terminal device.