Glossary

Mobile satellite services (MSS) provide two-way voice and data communications to global users who are on the go or in remote locations; terminals range in size from handheld to laptop-size units. Terminals can also be mounted in a vehicle, with communications maintained while the vehicle is moving. MSS operates at L-band—low enough in the frequency spectrum to avoid the rain fade associated with higher bandwidth Ku- and Ka-band fixed satellite systems. (Note: Ku and Ka bands are used for a limited set of similar applications, but typically have much larger terminals; more focused beams also result in the need for the terminal to track the satellite.)

Multicore processors are single processors that incorporate more than one processor core. Each core includes the functional elements required to enable it to execute instructions independently of the other cores.

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is an international nonprofit consortium that promotes open, collaborative development of e-business specifications based on public standards such as XML and SGML.

See also: OASIS

Private Key is the confidential half of the asymmetric key pair used in public-key cryptography. Unlike the “secret key” used in symmetric-key cryptography — a single key known by both the sender and the receiver — a private key is known only by the recipient. See public-key cryptography and secret-key cryptography.

A project management office (PMO) is usually created to solve a specific problem: generally, the IT organization’s inability to deliver IT projects on time, on budget and in scope. Project managers may “live” in the PMO, or in different IT units, such as in application development or in the business.

Almost all PMOs start at this initial project management stage before they can evolve to the program management or portfolio management stages.

The scope of work changes from tactical to strategic, while the scope of initiatives broadens from IT-intensive projects to enterprise-wide business and IT initiatives. Once the PMO has earned credibility with the business, it usually receives requests to help manage business projects.

Public-key infrastructure (PKI) was developed mainly to support secure information exchanges over unsecure networks. It has been used to ensure that the person identified as sending a transaction is the originator, that the person receiving the transaction is the intended recipient and that the transaction data has not been compromised. PKI requires a system for generating and managing digital certificates that identify the holders (people, systems or devices) of assigned public and private key pairs, which is useful for identification, authentication, encryption and digital signing. Enterprise PKI refers to the use of this system over enterprise intranets, and involves the issuance of digital certificates to individual users, servers and services, and software tools that assist with enrollment, integration with directory services, managing keys, and renewal and revocation of certificates.

Push Technology is software that automates the delivery of information to users. In contrast, the Web is a “pull” environment that requires a user to seek information.
In a “push” environment, information is sent to a person proactively, through a Web browser, e-mail, or even voice mail or a pager. In business, push technology can be used for the conveyance of time-sensitive information, like changes in commodity pricing or the introduction of promotional programs to a sales force. Enterprises can employ push technology to communicate externally with their clients or internally with their employees over a network.

Quick response codes (QR codes) and color codes are high-density, two-dimensional bar codes that are readable by mobile phones and computer cameras with the correct software. Color codes enable the same physical space to encode more information by incorporating color in any pattern or shape, such as a logo, that attracts attention. Users capture the mono or color image, which, after decoding by the device, launches its browser, linking the device to the URL embedded in the code.QR codes may be printed on any substrate. The small, densely packed bar code fits well on printed transaction documents, magazines and direct-mail pieces, as well as clothing, point-of-purchase displays, packaging, buses, buildings and business cards. Software that captures QR codes tends to be very efficient and reliable (although users or specific apps report widely varying ease of use and results) and can capture any code in view of the camera, often when it is slightly out of focus or if only part of it is visible. Although the QR code enables the user to link to a URL, the website owner must still provide relevant product information, payment portal, and other content.

RFID tags are generally small devices that respond to an RFID reader’s interrogation via radio frequency. Tags vary in terms of memory, the range over which they can be read, the level of read and write capabilities, and the availability of other computational functions. The tag can hold just a product’s serial number all the way up to a mass of information about the product and its history.

ROC (return on competitiveness) is a nomenclature and philosophy that goes beyond the traditional return on investment (ROI) concept by focusing the metric or calculation on how competitiveness is affected by investment. A good way to visualize and quantify the overall return on IT competitiveness is to build a spider diagram that identifies and maps all the relevant dimensions of competitiveness within a given industry sector, and then measure the changes in the overall mapping area during a given time interval (e.g., a year).

ROI (return on investment) is financial gain expressed as a percentage of funds invested to generate that gain.

ROIT (return on information technology) is financial gain expressed as a function of an enterprise’s investment in information technology.

satellite broadcasting operator is an entity that leverages satellite infrastructure to transmit TV channels to viewers as a main business.

SDK (software development kit) is a set of development utilities for writing software applications, usually associated with specific environments (e.g., the Windows SDK).

Salesforce.com, Inc. (styled in its logo as salesÆ’orce; abbreviated usually as SF or SFDC) is an American cloud computing company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Though its revenue comes from a customer relationship management (CRM) product, Salesforce also sells commercial applications of social networking through acquisition and internal development.

See also: Salesforce Also: Salesforce

Six Sigma is a business management strategy aimed at improving the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability. “Six Sigma” refers to a six standard deviation distance between a process norm and its nearest specification limit; in practice, Six Sigma is also known by its improvement process steps: “Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control” (DMAIC).

Service Pack (SP) is a minor revision to a software product that contains feature updates or bug fixes, but not enough new code to warrant a new version number.

SIM card (subscriber identity module) card is a programmable smart card in a mobile device that gives access to a network. It contains codes (such as the IMSI) to identify a subscriber to a digital mobile service and the details of the special services the subscriber has elected to use. A SIM card may be a removable plastic card with embedded memory and a processor chip or may be fixed within the mobile device.

Spider is a piece of software (also called a Web crawler) designed to follow hyperlinks to their completion, and return information on Internet addresses passed.

Subnet is a portion of network that may be physically independent of another network portion, but both portions of the network share the same network address, and the portion is distinguished by a subnet number.