What Is IOTA, IoT, Blockchain, Machine Learning And Cloud Computing


We have seen about internet of things, how to setup raspberry pi for IoT projects in the tutorials. We will see about IOTA technology, is IOTA related to IoT ? difference between IOTA and bitcoin, also importance of machine learning, role of cloud computing in IoT etc in this article.

What is IoT ?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of things (physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators)  connected through internet which enables these things to exchange data. This creates opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, resulting in efficiency improvements, economic benefits, and reduced human exertions.

In simple terms we can say IoT is a system of things integrated with sensors, software's, electronics which are connected to each other & can exchange data or Information with other connected devices.


What is IOTA?

IOTA is an Open-Source Distributed Ledger.It is the first open-source distributed ledger that is being built to power the future of the Internet of Things with feeless microtransactions and data integrity for machines.

IOTA Meaning :  IOTA is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that allows computers in an IOTA network to transfer immutable data and value (IOTA tokens) among each other.

By solving the inefficiencies of the Blockchain, IOTA, based on the revolutionary distributed ledger technology, the Tangle, is the missing link for the Internet of Everything and Web 3.0. Powering a secure, scalable and feeless transaction settlement layer, IOTA will empower machines and humans to participate in flourishing new permissionless economies - the most important one being the Machine Economy which we are building.

How does IOTA work: An IOTA network consists of nodes and clients. A node is a computer that's connected to peers in an IOTA network and that has read/write access to a ledger of transactions. A client is a device that has a seed, which can be used to create their addresses and signatures.

What is a distributed ledger?

A distributed ledger is a database that's stored in all nodes in a network.
DLT can have two types of ledger:
  • Permissionless ledger: A ledger that's distributed among nodes that can be run by anyone without permission. The purpose of a permissionless ledger is to allow anyone to contribute data to the ledger and for everyone in possession of the ledger to have identical copies. Nodes maintain the integrity of the ledger by reaching a consensus about its state. A permissionless ledger can be used as an immutable global record of transfers.
  • Permissioned ledger: A ledger that's distributed only among nodes that are preselected by a central authority such as a bank or a government.

Are you confused about iota cryptocurrency? , iota and blockchain, iota vs blockchain, yes it is litte confusing at this point. We will also see about blockchain to get this clarified. You must be able to relate how iota and iot can used together.

Refer the articles on iota foundation and iota wiki for more information.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain  is  an encrypted, distributed computer filing system , it is a growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked using cryptography. Block chain certainly is real however may not be completely ready in 2018 for adoption in every industry. Blockchain is going to be technology that will make a real impact across industry sectors along with IoT. Blockchain is the invention from brain of a single person or a group of person know by pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto. Digital currency , Bitcoin is first majority used purpose however now industry is finding the potential use of it as technology. Blockchain is getting used in Cybersecurity, healthcare, financial sectors etc. for securing health records, control disease, patient data, cryptocurrency wallets.

What is Machine Learning?

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence and machine learning are inter-related. Machine learning algorithms build a mathematical model of sample data in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform the task.

Machine learning definition (ML) is the scientific study of algorithms and statistical models that computer systems use to effectively perform a specific task without using explicit instructions rather uses the intelligence to automatically learn from sample data to predict and do the task. The algorithm builds a mathematical model from a set of data that contains both the inputs and the desired outputs.

Machine learning algorithms are classified as supervised or unsupervised.In supervised learning, the algorithm builds a mathematical model from a set of data that contains both the inputs and the desired outputs.In unsupervised learning, the algorithm builds a mathematical model from a set of data which contains only inputs and no desired output labels. Unsupervised learning algorithms are used to find structure in the data, like grouping or clustering of data points are some of the machine learning examples. Python language is majorly used for machine learning coding.

Are you thinking of what is difference between AI and Machine Learning , Artificial Intelligence is the concept of machines being able to carry out tasks where as Machine Learning is a current application of AI based around the idea that we should really just be able to give machines access to data and let them learn for themselves. Refer the article machine learning tutorial for  more info.

When we speak about AI and ML, first things comes up in mind is how will machine learning impact future of jobs and impact of machine learning on jobs on different sectors. We are not covering that in this article.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing definition: Cloud computing is the on demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet.

What is cloud computing in simple terms:  Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources and lower cost. You typically pay only for cloud services you use, helping lower your operating costs, run your infrastructure more efficiently and scale as your business needs change.

There are different types of cloud computing, public cloud, private cloud or hybrid cloud. These are the major 3 types of cloud computing to deploy cloud services.The enterprise are moving to cloud because benefits of cloud computing which are majorly

  • Low Cost
  • High Speed
  • Scalability
  • High Performance
  • Security

When we talk about advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing, above are the major advantages of cloud computing.

How does IoT fit in with the concept of cloud computing?for understanding you should know the IoT ecosystem. check the tutorial on IoT Architecture for more details. Cloud storage for iot , we have seen mutiple IoT companies like AWS, Azure, Google IoT for this.

Refer the Wiki link for cloud computing tutorial and understanding cloud computing basics.

Different IoT cloud based services available are :

  • Software as a service (SaaS)
  • Platform as a service (PaaS) 
  • Infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

I hope this gives you the basic information on IOTA, IoT, Machine Learning,what is cloud technology, cloud computing and iot are connected.