Glossary

Sick of the jargon? Lost in a sea of terms and acronyms? This glossary will help you smash your way through it.

API

Application Programming Interface (API) - A well-defined language to allow different software modules to communicate with each other to share data or commands. (see RESTful API)

The Edge

Edge computing is a computing architecture focused on bringing computing as close to the source of data as possible in order to reduce latency and bandwidth use. In simpler terms, edge computing means running fewer processes in the cloud and moving those processes to local places, such as on a user’s computer, an IoT device, or an edge server.

Endpoint

Endpoints are the start and end of a data flow in an IoT application. These can include sensors, gateways, cloud servers, applications, and databases. In the context of a complex solution, an endpoint may also be defined as the end of a sub-section of that solution.

Gateway

An IoT gateway is a small computing device, normally installed at the edge, for collecting and processing sensor data. It is mostly used where direct communication with a cloud server is undesirable, for instance, when performing local control, a reliable internet connection is unavailable, or when security concerns dictate data should not be published on the internet.

HTTP(s)

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) - This is the most widely used communication protocol used transfer data between computers over the internet.

HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP where all data is encrypted using TLS (transport layer security)

IIoT

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a subset of IoT for industrial rather than consumer or commercial applications.

IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the network of objects or things that are connected together to provide or consume data to you, your business or processes. Things include sensors, actuators, software and other devices that form part of this network.

The term IoT has grown to include systems and devices connected via the internet and via private offline networks.

Microservices

A software architecture where small independent software modules, responsible for a single, specific task, communicate through well-defined APIs to create a more complex system.

Middleware

A piece of software that acts as a bridge between devices, an operating system, or database and applications, especially on a network. It can be described as "software glue"

MQTT

MQTT is an OASIS standard messaging protocol for the Internet of Things (IoT). It is designed as an extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport that is ideal for connecting remote devices with a small code footprint and minimal network bandwidth. MQTT today is used in a wide variety of industries, such as automotive, manufacturing, telecommunications, oil and gas, etc.

MQTT originally stood for Message Queue Telemetry Transport, but this definition has since been dropped.

Recursion

See recursion

RESTful API

A RESTful API is an architectural style for an application program interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to access and use data. That data can be used to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data types, which refers to the reading, updating, creating and deleting of operations concerning resources.

SaaS

Software as a Service - a method of software delivery and licensing in which software is accessed online via a subscription, rather than bought and installed on individual computers.

TLA

Three Letter Acronym - IT teams love acronyms. Sometimes we have to laugh at ourselves!

TLS

Transport Layer Security is a cryptographic protocol typically used with HTTP to secure data transferred between computers or the internet or your private network.