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| Term | Acronym | Concept Area | Definition | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Externalizing | Bringing assets and service owners outside the organization; similar to outsourcing | |||
| Extranet | Secure network/IT assets, shared by autonomous organizations | |||
| Fabric | In the context of cloud computing, indicating a network of component, federated | |||
| Federated identity | An identity accepted by a federation | |||
| Federation | In the context of IT, a set of organizations with some trust relation, in this case with respect to member or user identities | |||
| File-Based Storage | Storage that is presented over a network or locally as files and directories/folders. | |||
| Firewall | A function to restrict network access according to specific rules | |||
| Functionality | Function: An intended purpose of a Configuration Item, person, team, process, or IT service; for example, one function of an e-mail service may be to store and forward outgoing mails while one function of a business process may be to dispatch goods to customers | |||
| Governing, governance | Governance: Ensuring that policies and strategy are actually implemented and that required processes are correctly followed; governance includes defining roles and responsibilities, measuring and reporting, and taking actions to resolve any issues identified | |||
| Grid computing | A term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal | |||
| Guest operating system | An operating system that is run on top of a virtualization layer (that is, hypervisor), not directly on the hardware | |||
| Hosting | Providing a server for an application | |||
| Hotfixes | A hotfix was originally the term applied to software patches that were applied to live, that is, still running systems; lately the term has been more generally used to denote rapid software updates | |||
| Hybrid cloud | NIST CC | The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more clouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (for example, cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds) (Source: NIST CC Definition) | ||
| Identity | Service Operation | (ITIL phase: Service Operation) A unique name that is used to identify a user, person, or role; the identity is used to grant rights to that user, person, or role; for example, identities might be the user name SmithJ or the role change manager | ||
| Identity Management | Identity Management (IdM) is a term related to how humans are identified and authorized across computer networks; it covers issues such as how users are given an identity, the protection of that identity, and the technologies supporting that protection (for example, network protocols, digital certificates, passwords, and so on); includes lifecycle management of these identities | |||
| Identity provider | Issuer of identities, typically including the facility to authenticate | |||
| Image factory | A service to produce virtual machine images out of specified application components | |||
| Information Technology | IT | The use of technology for the storage, communication, or processing of information; the technology typically includes computers, telecommunications, applications, and other software;the information may include business data, voice, images, video, and so on; IT is often used to support business processes through IT services | ||
| Infrastructure | All the hardware, software, networks, facilities, and so on that are required to develop, test, deliver, monitor, control, or support IT services; the term IT infrastructure includes all of the Information Technology but not the associated people, processes, and documentation | |||
| Infrastructure as a Service | IaaS | NIST CC | Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) ? the capability provided to the consumer to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications; the consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control over select networking components (for example, host firewalls) (Source: NIST CC Definition) | |
| Integration (software) | Here: Bundling applications for use by end users while enabling meaningful data exchange between these applications | |||
| Integrity | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) A security principle that ensures that data and Configuration Items are only modified by authorized personnel and activities; integrity considers all possible causes of modification, including software and hardware failure, environmental events, and human intervention | ||
| Interactive | Allowing real-time interaction, sometimes used as a synonym for responsive | |||
| Interconnect infrastructure | Network infrastructure including hardware and security measures | |||
| Interfaces | Means through which IT systems are accessed or connected | |||
| ISV | Independent Software Vendor | |||
| IT infrastructure | All the hardware, software, networks, facilities, and so on that are required to develop, test, deliver, monitor, control, or support IT services; the term IT infrastructure includes all of the Information Technology but not the associated people, processes, and documentation | |||
| IT Service Management | The implementation and management of quality IT services that meet the needs of the business;IT Service Management is performed by IT service providers through an appropriate mix of people, processes, and Information Technology | |||
| IT strategy | A set of objective(s), principles, and tactics relating to the IT that the organization uses | |||
| ITIL processes (list of) | Information Technology Infrastructure Library: A framework that describes IT Service Management processes | |||
| Job | A software task; as part of a batch process | |||
| Landscape (IT ..., Cloud ...) | The entirety of assets, services, vendors, and service contracts | |||
| Latency | In the context of data transmission, the time it takes for data to travel from one place to another | |||
| Legacy application | An application with a long history in the organization, often with a high operational and exit cost | |||
| Library (application ...) | A set of reusable software assets, typically not directly for user use. | |||
| License | A legal agreement to be granted the use of something | |||
| Load balancer | A (virtual) server that distributes Web traffic over a number of servers | |||
| Local network | A network related to a geographically confined space, characterized by having low latencies and high bandwidth | |||
| Locally Attached Storage | Devices like discs and tapes that are connected to a computer for use on that computer. | |||
| Lock-in | Technology dependence with a high migration cost | |||
| Logfiles | Records of (system) activity | |||
| Management interface | A user interface specifically for administrators | |||
| Mash-ups | In Web development, a mash-up is a Web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation, or functionality from two or more sources to create new services | |||
| Master data | Data that is relatively stable, in contrast to transactional data; for example, catalog data and user identities | |||
| Middleware | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) Software that connects two or more software components or applications; middleware is usually purchased from a supplier, rather than developed within the IT service provider | ||
| Migrating applications | See also migration | |||
| Migration | Change of provider, supplier, or architecture while retaining some of the current assets | |||
| Mitigation | When applied to risk: Reduction of harm or negative effect | |||
| Multitenant | A multitenant application has multiple customers sharing the same infrastructure, typically without sharing any data | |||
| Network | The technology through which data is transmitted | |||
| Network perimeter | Traditionally, the administrative border of the network | |||
| Network-Attached Storage | Storage that is delivered to computers over general purpose, often Internet-protocol, data networks, as distinct from special purpose, storage-area networks. | |||
| NIC | Network Interface Card (hardware) | |||
| Online portal | A Web application that serves as a directory to a number of functions | |||
| Operating expenses | OpEx | Business Cloud Adoption | Operating expenses (OpEx): Although IT would continue to make capital investments, Public cloud offerings are billed to the enterprise on a pay-per-use basis, and private clouds can be treated as OpEx by consuming business units. Through automation, cloud computing reduces the amount of time and effort needed to provision and scale IT resources. | |
| Operating model | An abstract representation of how an organization works, including processes, organization, and technology | |||
| Operational assurance | Making sure the systems are operational | |||
| Operator | Continual Service Improvement | Service owner: (ITIL phase: Continual Service Improvement) A role that is accountable for the delivery of a specific IT service | ||
| Orchestration | A service to automatically provision interrelated services and (virtual) servers | |||
| Outsourcing | Service Strategy | Contracting the services of outside suppliers instead of providing those services with the company?s own staff and assets; (ITIL phase: Service Strategy) Using an external service provider to manage IT services | ||
| Password | A secret used to authenticate a user to an account | |||
| Patch | A patch is a change applied to a piece of software designed to fix problems | |||
| Performance Management | Continual Service Improvement | (ITIL phase: Continual Service Improvement) The process responsible for day-to-day Capacity Management activities; these include monitoring, threshold detection, performance analysis and tuning, and implementing changes related to performance and capacity | ||
| Physical | In the context of cloud computing and virtualization: Real, as opposed to virtual | |||
| Planning, Protection and Optimization, PPO | PPO | Availability Management, Capacity Management, IT Service Continuity Management, Information Security Management, Demand Management, Risk Management, and Information Security Management. | ||
| Platform | A technology to build software solutions on; typically, a combination of hardware and software | |||
| Platform as a Service | PaaS | NIST CC | Platform as a Service (PaaS) ? the capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations. (Source: NIST CC Definition) | |
| Plug-in | An additional piece of software, to add specific abilities to a larger software application, suchas a browser | |||
| Privacy | The right of individuals to selectively disclose information about themselves and restrict the further use of that information by any party | |||
| Private cloud | NIST CC | The cloud infrastructure is operated solely for an organization; it may be managed by the organization or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise (Source: NIST CC definition) | ||
| Process maturity | Continual Service Improvement | (ITIL phase: Continual Service Improvement) A measure of the reliability, efficiency, and effectiveness of a process, function, organization, and so on; the most mature processes and functions are formally aligned to the business objectives and strategy and are supported by a framework for continual improvement | ||
| Processor (in the context of privacy) | Broadly: Person or organization handling data | |||
| Procurement | Acquisition of goods and/or services | |||
| Proprietary (technology) | Technology that is not freely usable by other vendors, for example, because it is patented or secret | |||
| Provider | Service Strategy | Service provider: (ITIL phase: Service Strategy) An organization supplying services to one or more internal customers or external customers | ||
| Provisioning | Provisioning/configuration? process of preparing and equipping a cloud to allow it to provide (new) services to its users | |||
| Public cloud | Public cloud ? the cloud infrastructure is made available to the general public or a large industry group and is owned by an organization selling cloud services | |||
| Real-time | Immediate, without much delay | |||
| Redundancy | Replicated assets in order to reduce single points of failure | |||
| Reference (local/remote) | Here: URL | |||
| Relying party | In Identity Management, the party that relies on another party to check credentials | |||
| Replicate | A copy, with the intent of using this in production rather than backup | |||
| Reporting application | An application that produces, for example, monthly reports, as opposed to an application that provides immediate or near-immediate information | |||
| Request fulfillment | Service Operation | (ITIL phase: Service Operation) The process responsible for managing the lifecycle of all service requests | ||
| Residual Risk | Risks that remain after all risk management measures have been taken | |||
| Resilience | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) The ability of a Configuration Item or IT service to resist failure or to recover quickly following a failure, for example, an armored cable will resist failure when put under stress | ||
| Resource | Service Strategy | (ITIL phase: Service Strategy) A generic term that includes IT Infrastructure, people, money or anything else that might help to deliver an IT service; resources are considered to be the assets of an organization | ||
| Risk | A possible event that could cause harm or loss or affect the ability to achieve objectives; a Riskis measured by the probability of a threat, the vulnerability of the asset to that threat, and the impact it would have if it occurred | |||
| Risk Management | The process responsible for identifying, assessing, and controlling risks | |||
| Risk mitigation | Reduce in effect | |||
| Roadmap | In IT, a set of plans with alternatives | |||
| Sandbox | In IT, a restricted environment in which software is executed | |||
| Scalability | The ability of an IT service, process, Configuration Item, and so on to perform its agreed function when the workload or scope changes | |||
| Security entitlements | In IT, digital identities and the authorizations associated with them | |||
| Security Management | Service Design | ISM: (ITIL phase: Service Design) The process that ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an organization?s assets, information, data, and IT services; Information Security Management usually forms part of an organizational approach to Security Management, which has a wider scope than the IT service provider, and includes handling of paper, building access, phone calls, and so on for the entire organization | ||
| Sensitive data | Data of which unauthorized disclosure poses a risk | |||
| Server | Service Operation | (ITIL phase: Service Operation) A computer that is connected to a network and provides software functions that are used by other computers | ||
| Service Design | Service Design | (ITIL phase: Service Design) A stage in the lifecycle of an IT service; ITIL phase: Service Design includes a number of processes and functions and is the title of one of the core ITIL publications | ||
| Service Level Agreement | SLA | NIST SAJACC | SLA ? a document explaining expected quality of service and legal guarantees. (Source: NIST-SAJACC) | |
| Service Management | Service Management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services | |||
| Service model | A service model describes the way in which one can interact with a service provider: Types ofservice requests and division of obligations | |||
| Service Operation | SO | Service Operation | (ITIL phase: Service Operation) A stage in the lifecycle of an IT service; ITIL phase: Service Operation includes a number of processes and functions and is the title of one of the core ITIL publications. | |
| Service Strategy | SS | Service Strategy | (ITIL phase: Service Strategy) The title of one of the core ITIL publications; ITIL phase: Service Strategy establishes an overall strategy for IT services and for IT Service Management. | |
| Service Transition | ST | Service Transition | (ITIL phase: Service Transition) A stage in the lifecycle of an IT service; ITIL phase: Service Transition includes a number of processes and functions and is the title of one of the core ITIL publications. | |
| Service(s) | A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating the outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. | |||
| Social media | Public applications (Web sites and mobile applications) mainly used to interact between people. | |||
| Software as a Service | SaaS | NIST CC | Software as a Service (SaaS): capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure; the applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface. such as a Web browser (for example, Web-based e-mail); the consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings (Source: NIST CC definition) | |
| Software release | Service Transition | (ITIL phase: Service Transition) A collection of hardware, software, documentation, processes, or other components required to implement one or more approved changes to IT services; the contents of each release are managed, tested, and deployed as a single entity | ||
| Solid-State Storage | Devices that emulate disks but, being made of semiconductor-based memory like RAM and FLASH, are tremendously faster and more expensive. | |||
| Sourcing | Service Strategy | Service sourcing: (ITIL phase: Service Strategy) The strategy and approach for deciding whether to provide a service internally or to outsource it to an external service provider; service sourcing also means the execution of this strategy | ||
| Spreadsheets | A category of software for end-user computing, oftentimes also a category of applications generated and managed by users | |||
| Standard API | An API adhered to by a number of independent providers | |||
| Storage | The technology through which data is stored | |||
| Storage Area Network | SAN | Virtualized storage, storage shared between multiple servers | ||
| Storage-Area Networks | Dedicated networks for connecting enterprise storage devices to each other and to the computers they serve. They are typically run over fiber-optic cables. | |||
| Synchronization | Originally, keeping the same time; in the context of IT typically, the process of making data copies identical | |||
| System administrators | People performing System Management | |||
| System integrator | SI | A contractor or service provider who assembles hardware, software, and services into an IT asset with business value | ||
| System Management | The part of IT Service Management that focuses on the management of IT infrastructure rather than on the management of processes | |||
| Tape | In IT, magnetic tapes in their capacity as storage devices | |||
| Tapes | Magnetic storage devices that store data for later retrieval. | |||
| Target platform | A platform for the production environment, as opposed to the development platform | |||
| Termination clause | A provision in a contract which allows for its termination under specified circumstances; also called a termination provision | |||
| Time sharing system | A system through which CPU time is shared over users, historically through simple terminals | |||
| Touch points | In IT, interfaces between infrastructure items that are under the control of the organization and outside infrastructure | |||
| Transactional awareness | In IT, being able to manage and monitor transactions | |||
| Uniform Resource Locator | URL | An address on the World Wide Web | ||
| Updates | New versions, implying some form of compatibility with the previous version | |||
| Upgrades (software/capacity) | Extending the functionality of software and/or capacity of hardware | |||
| Upload | Transfer of data, typically from a user to a server | |||
| User interface | The space where interaction between humans and machines occurs (can include technology as well as service and cognitive elements) | |||
| Vendor lock-in | The situations where large vendor-specific investments are made, which increase the cost of switching away from that vendor | |||
| Vertically integrated | Of businesses: Spanning a supply chain from raw goods to final end-user products and services | |||
| Virtual appliance | An appliance delivered as a virtual machine image, which includes a bundle of virtual hardware and software created to serve a specific purpose (for example, Web server) | |||
| Virtual environment | An environment consisting of virtualized resources | |||
| Virtual machine | Software that looks and behaves just like a physical server onto which an operating system can be loaded | |||
| Virtual Private Network | VPN | A seemingly closed and dedicated network using public network resources | ||
| Virtual server | A virtualized server, typically including an operating system | |||
| Virtualization | Abstracting hardware resources, typically through software, to mask the physical boundaries tothe user (for example, to provide multiple copies of a server) | |||
| Virtualized development environment | An environment consisting of virtualized resources, in which development is done | |||
| Waterfall model | A development approach where phases are executed sequentially | |||
| Web hosting | Hosting of Web sites (that is, applications accessed over HTTP) | |||
| Web service | An API accessed over the Web | |||
| Wide Area Network | A network with a large, potentially global, geographical scope | |||
| Workload | The resources required to deliver an identifiable part of an IT Service. Workloads may be categorized by users, groups of users, or functions within the IT service. This is used to assist in analyzing and managing the capacity, performance, and utilization of Configuration Items and IT services. The term Workload is sometimes used as a synonym for Throughput. | |||
| Workload portability | System portability - the ability of a service to run on more than one type or size of cloud [Source: modified from Federal Standard 1037C] | |||
| Workplace | The computing device through which users interact with an information system, also known as endpoint | |||
| Workspace | In the context of IT: Client device including business applications | |||
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