Generally speaking, data analytics comes in four types (Figure 1): Descriptive, to answer the question: What`s happening? Diagnostic, to answer the question: Why`s happening? Predictive, to answer the question: What will happen? Prescriptive, to answer the question: What actions should we take? Reference: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/answering-whats-happening-whys-happening-and-what-will-happen-with-iot-analytics/