When we want to advance something, we often need to simplify it first. Piling on layers of complexity will only get us so far — at times, we need to go back to ground zero and re-think things.

There are many ways to specify contracts between systems, such as APIs and schemas. A more fundamental contract focuses on a more granular unit of data. Points in an IoT system are like atoms in matter. A Node tree in an IoT system is like the DNA in a living organism. The composition of points and structure of nodes (like atoms and DNA) is infinitely flexible. It is this simplicity and flexibility that allows atoms and DNA to define so many different types of matter and species of organisms. It is time to throw out the custom struct as the defined unit of data between systems and focus on something more granular, flexible, and scalable.