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Virtual Vocabulary - can you navigate an interview involving all these terms?
| Term | Acronym | Concept Area | Definition | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account | User identity, implying some contractual relationship | |||
| Agility | In business, the capability of rapidly and efficiently adapting to changes; can be applied to, for example, business, process, and technology | |||
| API standard | See standard API | |||
| Appliance | A preconfigured bundle of hardware and software integrated at the factory, created for a specific purpose, and typically packaged with services at time of sale; metaphorically refers to electric apparatus as in a household appliance. | |||
| Application | Software that provides the functions that are required by an IT service; each application may be part of more than one IT service and runs on one or more servers or clients | |||
| Application Programming Interface | API | A particular set of rules and specifications that software programs can follow to communicate with each other; it serves as an interface between different software programs and facilitates their interaction, similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. | ||
| Application service provider | Service Design | (This term is now superseded by SaaS service provider, though not exactly identical) (ITIL phase: Service Design) An external service provider that provides IT services using applications running at the service provider?s premises; users access the applications by network connections to the service provider | ||
| Application stack | A set of related/dependent software assets, for example, Web server plus database and middleware | |||
| Architecture | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) The structure of a system or IT service, including the relationships of components to each other and to the environment they are in; architecture also includes the standards and guidelines, which guide the design and evolution of the system | ||
| Arrays | Consolidated devices containing a large number of discs and other technology that provide reliability and additional benefits layered on basic storage. | |||
| Assets | Service Strategy | Asset: (ITIL phase: Service Strategy) Any resource or capability; assets of a service provider include anything that could contribute to the delivery of a service; assets can be one of the following types: Management, Organization, Process, Knowledge, People, Information, Applications, Infrastructure, and Financial Capital | ||
| Asynchronous | Not at the same time, as in-service provisioning without blocking the requestor of the service | |||
| Audit | Formal inspection and verification to check whether a standard or set of guidelines is being followed, that records are accurate, or that efficiency and effectiveness targets are being met; an audit may be carried out by internal or external groups. | |||
| Authentication | Establishing the individual identity of a user or determining that the user has certain attributes oris a member of a specified group; the user can be a real user or can be a system or service | |||
| Authorization | The process or determining a specific user's eligibility to gain access to an application or function or to make use of a resource; a right or permission that is granted to access a system resource; see also definition of authentication | |||
| Automation | Replacement of manual procedures by machines, including hardware and software | |||
| Availability | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) Ability of a Configuration Item or IT service to perform its agreed function when required; availability is determined by reliability, maintainability, serviceability, performance, and security; availability is usually calculated as a percentage; this calculation is often based on agreed service time and downtime; it is best practice to calculate availability using measurements of the business output of the IT service | ||
| Backup | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) (ITIL phase: Service Operation) Copying data to protect against loss of integrity or availability of the original | ||
| Bandwidth | The amount of data that can be transmitted per unit of time, for example, Gigabit/second | |||
| Batch application | An application with low response time requirements, in comparison with interactive applications, often with high volumes and run on a regular basis | |||
| Block-Based Storage | Storage that is presented as an abstraction of a disk. | |||
| Branch computing | A way of operating IT, where every branch office has its own infrastructure and support (becoming obsolete) | |||
| Browser | A software program to access content on the Internet, in particular the world wide web of HTTP servers, addressed by a URL | |||
| Business continuity | The capability of a business to continue operating in the face of adverse conditions | |||
| Business continuity management | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) The business process responsible for managing risks that could seriously impact the business; BCM safeguards the interests of key stakeholders, reputation, and brand and value-creating activities; the BCM process involves reducing risks to an acceptable level and planning for the recovery of business processes should a disruption to the business occur; BCM sets the objectives, scope, and requirements for IT Service Continuity Management | ||
| Business intelligence | The application of analytical techniques and processes to data to gain insights and knowledge useful to the optimization of a business or business function | |||
| Business model | A blueprint/description of the way a company creates value, including the types of products and their combined pricing structure | |||
| Calls (Web services calls) | Atomic invocations that make up the use of Web services | |||
| Capacity | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) The maximum throughput that a Configuration Item or IT service can deliver while meeting agreed service level targets; for some types of CIs, capacity may be the size or volume, for example, a disk drive | ||
| Capacity Management | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) The process responsible for ensuring that the capacity of IT services and the IT infrastructure is able to deliver agreed service level targets in a cost-effective and timely manner; Capacity Management considers all resources required to deliver the IT service and plans for short-, medium-, and long-term business requirements | ||
| Capital expenses | CapEx | Business Cloud Adoption | Capital expenses (CapEx): Cloud computing drives greater optimization and utilization of IT assets, allowing you to do more with less and to realize significant cost reduction. You can take on IT capital investments in increments of required capacity instead of building for maximum, or burst, capacity. | |
| Change Advisory Board | Service Transition | (ITIL phase: Service Transition) A group of people that advises the Change Manager in the assessment, prioritization, and scheduling of changes; this board is usually made up of representatives from all areas within the IT service provider, the business, and third parties, such as suppliers | ||
| Change Management | Service Transition | (ITIL phase: Service Transition) The process responsible for controlling the lifecycle of all changes; the primary objective of Change Management is to enable beneficial changes to bemade, with minimum disruption to IT services | ||
| Chargeback | The charging (cost allocation) between units of the same company; similar to cross-charging | |||
| Charging | Service Strategy | (ITIL phase: Service Strategy) Requiring payment for IT services; charging for IT services is optional, and many organizations choose to treat their IT service provider as a cost center | ||
| Chief Information Officer | CIO | The person responsible for an organization; IT strategy and services | ||
| Client | A computer that is used directly by a user, for example, a PC, handheld computer, or workstation; the part of a client/server application that the user directly interfaces with, for example, an e-mail client | |||
| Cloud broker | Cloud Broker: An entity that manages the use, performance, and delivery of cloud services, | |||
| Cloud computing | Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (for example, networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction; this cloud model has five essential characteristics ? on-demand self-service, broad network access; resource pooling, rapid elasticity, measured service | |||
| Cloud customer | NIST SAJACC | Cloud subscriber; a person or organization that has been authenticated to a cloud and maintains a business relationship with a cloud (Source: NIST SAJACC) | ||
| Cloud ecosystem | An interrelated and interdependent set of providers of cloud services and products | |||
| Cloud Management provider | A Cloud Management provider provides all the service-related functions that are necessary for the management and operations of those services required by or proposed to customers | |||
| Cloud provider | The person, organization, or entity responsible for making a service available to service consumers | |||
| Cloud service provider | The person, organization, or entity responsible for making a service available to service consumers | |||
| Cloud services | Services that are delivered by cloud providers | |||
| Cloudscape | Short for cloud landscape; the entirety of assets, services, vendors, and service contracts | |||
| Community cloud | NIST CC | Community cloud, a cloud infrastructure that is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns (for example, mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations); it may be managed by the organizations or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise (Source: NIST CC Definition) | ||
| Compliance | Ensuring that a standard or set of guidelines is followed or that appropriate, consistent accounting or other practices are being employed | |||
| Confidentiality | Service Design | The security goal that generates the requirement for protection from intentional or accidental attempts to perform unauthorized data reads; confidentiality covers data in storage, during processing, and in transit (ITIL phase: Service Design); a security principle that requires that data should only be accessed by authorized people | ||
| Configuration | Service Transition | (ITIL phase: Service Transition) A generic term used to describe a group of Configuration Items that work together to deliver an IT service or a recognizable part of an IT service; configuration is also used to describe the parameter settings for one or more CIs | ||
| Configuration Management Database | CMDB | Service Transition | Configuration Management Database (ITIL phase: Service Transition) A database used to store configuration records throughout their lifecycle; the Configuration Management System maintains one or more CMDBs, and each CMDB stores attributes of CIs and the relationships with other CIs | |
| Configuring | The process of developing and deploying a configuration (see configuration) | |||
| Connectivity | As in Internet connectivity: the capability of making connections to, for example, servers on the Internet | |||
| Content delivery network | A network of geographically distributed servers that replicate data (content) to users and otherwise improve the content and its delivery for users | |||
| Content distribution network | A synonym for a content delivery network | |||
| Contingency plan | A plan of which the execution is conditional upon a specific (typically negative) event | |||
| Controller (in the context of privacy) | Broadly: A person or organization determining what happens with data; see also EU data protection directive | |||
| Corruption (of data) | Changes to data that reduce its integrity or usefulness, typically as a result of hardware/software failure | |||
| Cost per seat | Total cost divided by maximum number of simultaneous users or alternatively, the number of registered users | |||
| CPU | The component of a computer system that controls the interpretation and execution of instructions | |||
| Credential | Proof of identity issued by a trusted identity provider | |||
| Cross-charging | The way one organizational unit compensates another unit of the same organization | |||
| Custom Web site | A Web site specifically built for a particular purpose, as opposed to being an instance of a generic service (for example, a blog) | |||
| Customer | Someone who buys goods or Services; the customer of an IT service provider is the person or group who defines and agrees on the service level targets; the term customers is also sometimes informally used to mean users, for example, this is a customer-focused organization | |||
| Customer Relationship Management system | CRM | An information system to record data about customers and interactions with customers | ||
| Data center | A physical building with a substantial number of servers, storage, and network connections | |||
| Data format | The type of encoding of data | |||
| Deployment | Service Transition | (ITIL phase: Service Transition) The activity responsible for movement of new or changed hardware, software, documentation, processes, and so on to the live environment; deployment is part of the Release and Deployment Management process | ||
| Desktop productivity (tools) | An application category including word processing, typically operating on a user's personal data | |||
| Developer, development | Service Design | Development: (ITIL phase: Service Design) The process responsible for creating or modifying an IT service or application; also used to mean the role or group that carries out development work | ||
| Digital identities | The digital representation of an identity. | |||
| Disk drive | A class of nonvolatile storage devices; traditionally magnetic or optical, but often used as a generic term for randomly accessible permanent storage. | |||
| Disks | Magnetic storage devices that can quickly retrieve and store data. | |||
| Download | Transfer of data, typically from a server to a user | |||
| Downtime | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) (ITIL phase: Service Operation) The time when a Configuration Item or IT service is not available during its agreed service time; the availability of an IT service is often calculated from agreed service time and downtime | ||
| Ecosystem | See cloud ecosystem | |||
| Edge server | On a content delivery network, a server that is nearest to the final destination | |||
| Elastic | In the context of cloud computing, being able to grow and shrink | |||
| Encoding | Transliteration of information into a specific set of symbols | |||
| Enterprise Storage | Consolidated storage devices made available to a number of computers over a network, and the services to support and deliver their capacity. | |||
| Environment | Service Transition | (ITIL phase: Service Transition) A subset of the IT infrastructure that is used for a particular purpose; for example, live environment, test environment, and build environment. | ||
| Execution | Here: Follow/effect instructions | |||
| Exit process | The process through which a supplier relation is terminated, and relevant assets and services are prepared for transferal to a new supplier | |||
| Exit strategy | The planned set of actions to terminate the contract with a provider and move assets and service usage to another provider; this could be for business reasons or because the provider goes out of business | |||
Whether you're preparing for Cybersecurity certification, working with government standards, or simply starting your career in compliance, these are the NIST Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), Special Publication (SP), and Interagency Report (IR) topics