Glossary

This glossary lists a variety of technical terms and concepts used in the Cloud of Things products and documentation and provides explanations for its usage in the context of Cloud of Things.

Administration application

The Administration application is one of the default applications of Cloud of Things. The Administration application enables administrators to manage their tenants, users, roles and applications. It also allows them to configure various settings for their accounts.

For details see Administration in the User guide.

Agent

Agents are software components which translate the device-specific interface protocol into a single reference protocol and enable secure bi-directional communication in various network architectures.

Alarm

An alarm represents an event that requires an intervention. The user or operator of the system must take action to resolve the alarm (like a power outage).

Analytics Builder

Analytics Builder is part of the Cloud of Things Advanced Rules application. It allows you to build analytic models that transform or analyze streaming data in order to generate new data or output events. The models are capable of processing data in real time.

See also EPL Apps.

For details see Overview > Analytics Builder in the Advanced Rules guide.

Application

The Cloud of Things User Interface (UI) is based on applications. By default, the Cloud of Things UI consists of three main default applications: Administration, Cockpit and Device management.

Cloud of Things is designed to accommodate arbitrary vertical IoT applications in addition to its generic functionality. These applications can have two forms:

For details see Developing applications.

Application switcher

The application switcher is a UI component which shows all Cloud of Things applications the user has access to and allows switching between these applications.

Asset

Assets represent business objects in general like buildings, machines, production units or cars. In Cloud of Things, assets are organized in hierarchies which are composed of two types of objects:

For details see Cockpit > Managing assets in the User guide.

Blocks

Used in the context of Analytics Builder.

Blocks are the basic processing units of the model. Each block has some predefined functionality and processes data accordingly. A block can have a set of parameters and a set of input ports and output ports.

Cockpit application

The Cockpit application is one of the default applications of Cloud of Things. It provides options to manage and monitor IoT assets and data from a business perspective, like managing assets, visualizing data, working with dashboards and managing reports.

For details see Cockpit in the User guide.

Cloud of Things

Cloud of Things is the foundation of the Cloud of Things platform. It comprises all major components such as the default applications (Administration, Cockpit and Device management), the Cloud of Things operational store, microservices, REST API, MQTT API, and smart rules.

Cloud of Things DataHub

Cloud of Things Datahub is a Cloud of Things application for offloading data from the operational store of Cloud of Things to a data lake and querying the data lake contents.

For details see the DataHub guide.

Cloud of Things Private

Cloud of Things Edge is the onsite solution of Cloud of Things intended to run as a local software application on industrial PC’s or local servers.

For details see the Cloud of Things Edge guide.

Cloud of Things operational store

Internal datastore of Cloud of Things where all data (such as alarms, events, inventory, and measurements) are stored in so-called base collections.

Cloud of Things Sensor App

The Cloud of Things Sensor App is a free smartphone application available for iOS and Android smartphones. The app is designed to collect measurements from your smartphone, nearby Bluetooth device sensors, and vehicle On-board Debug (OBD) sensors, and send them to the Cloud of Things platform. It has a straightforward registration workflow to get you up and running quickly and provides an easy way to get data into Cloud of Things.

For details see Cloud of Things Sensor App in the User guide.

Cloud of Things Advanced Rules

Using the Advanced Rules application, you can add your own logic to your IoT solution for immediate processing of incoming data from devices or other data sources. These user-defined operations can, for example, alert applications of new incoming data, create new operations based on the received data (such as sending an alarm when a threshold for a sensor is exceeded), or trigger operations on devices. The operation logic is based on Apama’s Event Processing Language (EPL).

See also Analytics Builder and EPL Apps.

For details see the Advanced Rules guide.

Data broker

The data broker functionality is an optional feature in Enterprise tenants which lets you share data selectively with other tenants.

For details see Enterprise tenant > Using the data broker in the User guide.

Data explorer

Part of the Cockpit application. The data explorer visualizes all data points (that is, measurements or sensor data) of either a particular asset or of all assets.

For details see Cockpit > Data explorer in the User guide.

Data lake

Used in the context of DataHub.

A data lake serves as a storage container for offloaded data either on the basis of ADLS Gen2/Azure Storage (Azure), S3 (Amazon), NAS, or HDFS.

Data point library

The Data point library provides a collection of data points with default values for data point properties which serve as templates that can be applied easily to your data points from different devices.

For details see Cockpit > Data point library in the User guide.

Device

Devices are a special type of asset. They can constitute a hierarchy of devices. In the Cloud of Things inventory their digital twins are represented as managed objects.

Device management application

The Device management application is one of the default applications of Cloud of Things. The Device management application provides functionalities for connecting, managing and monitoring devices and allows to control and troubleshoot devices remotely.

For details see Device management in the User guide.

Device protocol

A device protocol defines how data from a specific device type should be transferred into the Cloud of Things platform. It contains protocol-specific information about where the data is obtained from, how to transform it, and how to store it in Cloud of Things. The definition of the device protocol differs based on the underlying protocol used by the device (for example, Modbus, LoRa, OPC UA or LWM2M).

For details see the Protocol integration guide.

Digital twin

A digital twin is a digital representation of physical or virtual assets. Devices, sensors and tools are examples of physical assets, virtual assets can for example be processes or rules. In Cloud of Things they are represented as managed objects.

Enterprise tenant

A tenant type in the Cloud of Things tenant hierarchy.

Enterprise tenants offer additional administrative functionality compared to a Standard tenant, the major difference being multi-tenancy. Using an Enterprise tenant, you can create and manage subtenants, manage the subscribed applications/features of the subtenants, and invoice subtenants based on usage statistics. Moreover, Enterprise tenants offer individual customization features, such as Branding for the creation of an individual look & feel.

See also Standard tenant and Management tenant.

Event Processing Language (EPL)

On top of Cloud of Things you can use the Advanced Rules (powered by Apama) engine to define business operations for real-time processing. The operation logic is implemented in Apama’s Event Processing Language (EPL). EPL covers statements, which are organized into actions and monitors. Monitor files can be edited directly from within Cloud of Things using the Cloud of Things Advanced Rules application. Alternatively, you can install Apama on your local machine and develop your applications in an Eclipse-based development environment. You can deploy your monitor files as Apama applications to Cloud of Things.

For details see Real-time processing > Using the Apama Event Processing Language (EPL).

EPL Apps

EPL Apps is part of the Cloud of Things Advanced Rules application. It allows you to develop EPL apps (that is, single *.mon files) directly within Cloud of Things, written in Apama EPL. You can also import existing *.mon files as EPL apps into Cloud of Things. When you activate an EPL app from the Advanced Rules application, you deploy it to Cloud of Things.

See also Event Processing Language (EPL) and Analytics Builder.

For more details see Overview > EPL Apps in the Advanced Rules guide.

Events

In the context of Cloud of Things:

Events contain real-time information from the sensor network, such as the triggering of a door sensor. Events can also be alarms. In addition, security-related events are shown as audit logs.

In the context of Apama:

Conceptually, an event is an occurrence of a particular item of interest at a specific time. Apama events are used for all interactions with Cloud of Things, such as listening for and creating device measurements, alarms and (Cloud of Things) events.

GA release

A GA release is a release with general availability (GA). GA releases are typically provided in a 3-month cycle. They are published on all Cloud of Things public cloud instances and they are provided to customers with an on-premises instance through the Software Download Center on the DT IoT Support der Cloud of Things. GA releases include new features, improvements and fixes.

Global roles

Role type in Cloud of Things’s’ permission concept. Global roles contain permissions that apply to all data within a tenant.

See also Inventory roles and Permissions.

For details see Security aspects > Access control and Administration > Managing permissions > Global roles in the User guide.

Inventory

The inventory is a collection of all stored managed objects in a tenant.

Inventory roles

Role type in Cloud of Things’s’ permission concept. Inventory roles contain permissions that apply to managed objects.

See also Global roles and Permissions.

For details see Administration > Managing permissions > Inventory roles in the User guide.

LWM2M

Lightweight M2M (LWM2M) is a traffic and resource-optimized protocol to remotely manage IoT devices. Cloud of Things provides support for easily connecting any LWM2M device to the platform.

For details see LWM2M in the Protocol integration guide.

Maintenance release

Cumulocity provides Maintenance releases for supported Cloud of Things GA releases. A Maintenance release contains fixes and improvements for a GA release but no new features.

Managed objects

In Cloud of Things, all assets are represented as managed objects. Cloud of Things comes with a predefined set of types, for example devices, groups, and agents.

Hierarchical structures of managed objects allow for the implementation of complex structures like a factory with many machines which consist of devices and sensors which can report events, alarms, and measurements.

Management tenant

The Management tenant builds the highest level of the Cloud of Things tenant hierarchy. Every Cloud of Things deployment is delivered with a Management tenant. The Management tenant is used to administer all tenants within the same deployment on platform level and thus provides full control of the platform.

See also Standard tenant and Enterprise tenant.

Measurement

A measurement contains one or multiple numerical values taken at a single point in time for a single asset. A sequence of measurements forms a time series.

Microservices

Microservices are server-side applications. Microservices can be used to develop for example the following functionality on top of Cloud of Things:

Microservices are deployed as Container images to Cloud of Things, and follow specific conventions. They typically provide one REST API, which is available under /service/ and access Cloud of Things using this REST API.

For details see Developing applications > Microservices.

Model

Used in the context of Analytics Builder.

A model is a container which can have a network of Blocks connected to each other with wires. The behavior of a block inside a model does not depend on other blocks. There can be multiple instances of the same block in a model where each instance may behave differently, depending on the configurable parameters or the inputs connected to the block.

MQTT

Cloud of Things supports MQTT, an OASIS standard messaging protocol, for device integration.

For details see Device integration using MQTT in Device integration.

Multi-tenancy

With Cloud of Things Enterprise tenant concept, Cloud of Things supports full multi-tenancy. All data related to a tenant is stored in a dedicated database. This includes user data, inventory, events, measurements, operations and alarms.

For details see Tenant hierarchy > Multi-tenancy.

The navigator is an element in the UI of the Cloud of Things platform. It is located at the left of the UI. The navigator provides a list of menu items which lead you to the various pages of the application you are currently using.

OEE

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is a metric for measuring the efficiency, effectiveness and performance of production processes, by breaking them down into the three components Availability, Performance, and Quality. The Cloud of Things OEE application uses machine data, master data and planning data from machines and machine lines to calculate the factors of the OEE calculation.

For details see the Cloud of Things OEE guide.

OPC UA

OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is a standard to enable the communication between industrial devices. OPC UA is designed to work across technology boundaries (cross-platform).

One component of the OPC UA integration in Cloud of Things is the OPC UA device gateway. The OPC UA device gateway is a stand-alone Java program that communicates with OPC UA server(s) and the Cloud of Things platform. It stores data into the Cloud of Things database via REST. The gateway must be registered as Cloud of Things device.

For details see OPC UA in the Protocol integration guide.

Operations

Operations are cloud-to-device messages so that devices can be remotely controlled and managed by Cloud of Things. Typical operations are installing a new software, switching a relay in a power meter or sending a credit to a vending machine.

For details see Cloud of Things’s domain model > Operations.

Permissions

The ability to execute certain functionality in the Cloud of Things platform is based on permissions. Permissions define explicitly what functionality can be executed by a user. Cloud of Things distinguishes read permissions and administration permissions. Read permissions enable users to read data. Administration permissions enable users to create, update and delete data.

To manage permissions more easily, they are grouped into roles. Every user can be associated with a number of roles, adding up permissions of the user.

See also Global roles and Inventory roles.

Real-time processing

Cloud of Things allows developers and power users to run real-time IoT business logic inside Cloud of Things based on a high-level real-time processing language, that is, Apama’s Event Processing Language (EPL).

For details see Real-time processing.

REST

In Cloud of Things, REST (Representational State Transfer) is used for all external communication with IoT devices, other web applications or back-office IT systems.

REST API

The Cloud of Things REST API is an interface that allows for communication between the Cloud of Things platform and other systems via HTTP and REST. It allows the user to perform operations and process data by issuing a simple request using any HTTP client such as a web browser.

For details see the Cloud of Things OpenAPI Specification.

Sensor library

Cloud of Things includes a sensor library to model specific sensing and controlling skills across device products. A single device can have many sensor and control characteristics. The sensor library covers basic sensors and controls, and is supported by the Cloud of Things client libraries. It also enables writing powerful generic IoT software plugins. Technically, the sensor library defines standard fragments for inventory, measurements, events and device control, following the naming convention.

For details see Cloud of Things’s domain model > The sensor library and Cloud of Things’s domain model > Inventory.

Smart rules

Cloud of Things includes a rule engine to analyze data in realtime and to perform actions based on data. To easily create rules, the Cockpit application includes a “smart rules” builder which allows you to create rules from templates (so-called smart rule templates).

For details see Cockpit > Smart rules in the User guide.

Standard tenant

At the bottom of the Cloud of Things tenant hierarchy you can find single tenants which are represented by the concept of Standard tenant. A Standard tenant offers most of the device management and monitoring functionality of the Cloud of Things platform, but has certain limitations when it comes to administrative aspects.

See also Enterprise tenant and Management tenant.

Subscription

The application concept of Cloud of Things includes a basic application marketplace. Tenants can be subscribed to applications which have been deployed by their superior tenant (Management tenant or Enterprise tenant). Granting access to subtenants and subscribing to applications is done in the Administration application.

For details see Developing applications > Subscribing applications and Administration > Managing applications in the User guide.

Tenant

Tenants are physically separated data spaces with a separate URL, which has a specific set of users, a separate application management and no data sharing by default. Users in a single tenant share the same URL and the same data space.

See also Tenant hierarchy.

Tenant domain

A key feature of Cloud of Things Enterprise tenant is the ability to operate the Cloud of Things platform using a custom domain name. This means that you can configure the platform to serve you and your customers using a host name of choice.

For details see Enterprise tenant > Customizing your platform in the User guide.

Tenant hierarchy

The Cloud of Things tenant concept builds a 3-level hierarchy, including the following levels from bottom to top:

These three levels differ in their scope, particularly with regards to administration.

See also Tenant hierarchy, Standard tenant, Enterprise tenant and Management tenant.

Tenant ID

The unique ID of a tenant or subtenant. When a tenant is created, it gets an auto-generated ID, which cannot be changed. The tenant ID is shown in the user dropdown menu in the UI.

Thin Edge

Thin-edge.io is an open-source and cloud-agnostic IoT framework designed for lightweight IoT devices. It offers simple and secure device connectivity, freedom of the cloud platform, for example Cloud of Things, and freedom of the programming language.

Web applications

A Cloud of Things web application can be:

All subscribed web applications are hosted by Cloud of Things and the application will be made available through a URL like this: .cumulocity.com/apps/.

For details see Developing applications > Web applications.

Web SDK

The Cloud of Things Web SDK enables you to develop web applications that can be:

For details see the Web SDK guide.

Widgets

Widgets are useful to track information, for example on alarms, assets or applications, or provide maps, quick links and more in dashboards or reports. Cloud of Things provides preset widget types for various purposes.

For details see Cockpit > Widgets collection and Cockpit > Using widgets in dashboards and reports in the User guide.

Wires

Used in the context of Analytics Builder.

Wires are used to connect two or more blocks with each other. They are used for all data transfer between the output port of one block and the input port of another block.