Glossary

A zero-day (or zero-hour or day zero) attack is a computer threat that attempts to manipulate the computer application vulnerabilities that are undisclosed to the software developer. Zero-day exploits is the actual code that can use a security hole to carry out an attack. These exploits are used or shared by attackers before the software developer knows about the vulnerability.

See also: Zero-day

A zombie computer is a computer is connected to the Internet that has been compromised by a hacker, a computer virus, or a trojan horse. Generally, a compromised machine is only one of many in a botnet, and is used to perform malicious tasks of one sort or another under remote direction.

See also: Zombie

Platform as a service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model in which a third-party provider delivers hardware and software tools -- usually those needed for application development -- to users over the internet. A PaaS provider hosts the hardware and software on its own infrastructure. As a result, PaaS frees users from having to install in-house hardware and software to develop or run a new application.  

Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet. SaaS is one of three main categories of cloud computing, alongside infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. IaaS is one of the three main categories of cloud computing services, alongside software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).

Artificial intelligence is technology that appears to emulate human performance typically by learning, coming to its own conclusions, appearing to understand complex content, engaging in natural dialogs with people, enhancing human cognitive performance (also known as cognitive computing) or replacing people on execution of nonroutine tasks. Applications include autonomous vehicles, automatic speech recognition and generation and detecting novel concepts and abstractions (useful for detecting potential new risks and aiding humans quickly understand very large bodies of ever changing information).

Back-end is defined as the server side of a client/server system.

A blockchain is an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable transactional records shared by all participants in a network. Each record contains a time stamp and reference links to previous transactions. With this information, anyone with access rights can trace back a transactional event, at any point in its history, belonging to any participant. A blockchain is one architectural design of the broader concept of distributed ledgers.

Critical path method is a project planning and management methodology that focuses on activities that control the total duration of a project.

See also: Critical Path

The component of a computer system that controls the interpretation and execution of instructions. The CPU of a PC consists of a single microprocessor, while the CPU of a more powerful mainframe consists of multiple processing devices, and in some cases, hundreds of them. The term “processor” is often used to refer to a CPU.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy that optimizes revenue and profitability while promoting customer satisfaction and loyalty. CRM technologies enable strategy, and identify and manage customer relationships, in person or virtually. CRM software provides functionality to companies in four segments: sales, marketing, customer service and digital commerce.

Dark data as the information assets organizations collect, process and store during regular business activities, but generally fail to use for other purposes (for example, analytics, business relationships and direct monetizing). Similar to dark matter in physics, dark data often comprises most organizations’ universe of information assets. Thus, organizations often retain dark data for compliance purposes only. Storing and securing data typically incurs more expense (and sometimes greater risk) than value.
 

A data lake is a collection of storage instances of various data assets additional to the originating data sources. These assets are stored in a near-exact, or even exact, copy of the source format. The purpose of a data lake is to present an unrefined view of data to only the most highly skilled analysts, to help them explore their data refinement and analysis techniques independent of any of the system-of-record compromises that may exist in a traditional analytic data store (such as a data mart or data warehouse).

A data warehouse is a storage architecture designed to hold data extracted from transaction systems, operational data stores and external sources. The warehouse then combines that data in an aggregate, summary form suitable for enterprise-wide data analysis and reporting for predefined business needs.

A DBMS is a product used for the storage and organization of data that typically has defined formats and structures. DBMSs are categorized by their basic structures and, to some extent, by their use or deployment.

DevOps represents a change in IT culture, focusing on rapid IT service delivery through the adoption of agile, lean practices in the context of a system-oriented approach. DevOps emphasizes people (and culture), and seeks to improve collaboration between operations and development teams. DevOps implementations utilize technology — especially automation tools that can leverage an increasingly programmable and dynamic infrastructure from a life cycle perspective.

Distributed Computing is a form of computing in which data and applications are distributed among disparate computers or systems, but are connected and integrated by means of network services and interoperability standards such that they function as a single environment.

An earth station is a collection of equipment installed on the earth’s surface that enables communications over one or more satellites. Earth stations consist of a reflector antenna (or parabolic dish), a feed system to send and receive the RF carrier, data handling equipment and mechanical tracking equipment to keep the satellite within the antenna’s data send/receive area. Earth stations are typically owned by the company receiving the data from the satellite network, thus must operate within certain specified parameters to maintain the network’s stability. Earth stations are part of a satellite network’s ground segment, which consists of all earth stations operating in a satellite system. These can be connected to the end user’s equipment directly or via a terrestrial network.

Encryption is the process of systematically encoding a bit stream before transmission so that an unauthorized party cannot decipher it.

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a discipline for proactively and holistically leading enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analyzing the execution of change toward desired business vision and outcomes. EA delivers value by presenting business and IT leaders with signature-ready recommendations for adjusting policies and projects to achieve target business outcomes that capitalize on relevant business disruptions.