Tech Glossary | CodeBeavers

A

Access Control List (ACL)

A set of rules that controls access to resources based on permissions.

Agile Development

A software development methodology focused on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration.

Agile Manifesto

A formal proclamation of four key values and 12 principles to guide an iterative and people-focused approach to software development.

Agile Methodology

A group of software development methods based on iterative development, where solutions evolve through collaboration.

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

The simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.

Anomaly Detection

The identification of unusual patterns that do not conform to expected behavior, is often used in fraud detection and network security.

Apache Kafka

A distributed event streaming platform used for building real-time data pipelines and streaming applications.

API (Application Programming Interface)

A set of rules that allows different software entities to communicate with each other.

API Gateway

A tool that sits in front of an API and acts as a reverse proxy to accept all API calls, aggregate the various services required to fulfill them, and return the appropriate result.

API Rate Limiting

The process of controlling the rate of traffic sent or received by an API to prevent abuse or overuse.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)

The process of managing the life of an application from conception through development, testing, deployment, support, and retirement.

Artifact Repository

A repository where binary files, libraries, or artifacts created during the software development process are stored and managed.

AWS (Amazon Web Services)

A comprehensive and widely adopted cloud platform, offering various services for computing, storage, and networking.

Authentication

The process of verifying the identity of a user, device, or entity in a computer system.

Authorization

The process of determining if a user, device, or entity has permission to access a resource or perform an action.

Auto-scaling

The process of automatically adjusting the number of computing resources allocated to handle the load of an application.

Automated Testing

The use of software tools to execute tests automatically, manage test data, and utilize the results to improve software quality.

B

Backend Development

Server-side development that involves databases, servers, and application logic.

Bandwidth

The maximum rate of data transfer across a given path. In computing, it often refers to the volume of information per unit of time that a transmission medium can handle.

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)

An agile software development technique that encourages collaboration among developers, QA, and non-technical or business participants in a software project.

Big Data

Large and complex data sets that require advanced analysis techniques.

Binary Code

The most basic form of computer code or programming data, using a binary system of 0s and 1s.

A system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. It is a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems.

Blockchain Protocol

A set of rules that defines how data is structured, shared, and validated across a blockchain network.

Bootstrap

A popular front-end open-source toolkit for developing responsive, mobile-first projects on the web using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Bottleneck

A point of congestion in a system that prevents it from performing optimally.

Bridge Network

A type of network configuration used in Docker containers, allows multiple containers to communicate on the same host.

Bug Bounty Program

A deal offered by many websites, organizations, and software developers by which individuals can receive recognition and compensation for reporting bugs, especially security exploits and vulnerabilities.

Business Intelligence (BI)

Technologies and strategies used by enterprises for data analysis and business information.

Business Process Automation (BPA)

The use of technology to execute recurring tasks or processes in a business where manual effort can be replaced.

C

Caching

The process of storing data in a temporary storage area improves performance and reduces latency.

CAP Theorem

In distributed data stores, it is impossible to simultaneously provide more than two out of three guarantees: Consistency, Availability, and Partition Tolerance.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

A style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in HTML or XML.

CI/CD Pipeline

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment Pipelines automate software delivery processes, including building, testing, and deploying code.

Chaos Engineering

The discipline of experimenting on a software system to build confidence in the system’s capability to withstand turbulent conditions in production.

Chaos Monkey

A tool developed by Netflix to randomly terminate instances in their production environment to ensure that engineers implement their services to be resilient to instance failures.

Cluster Computing

The use of a group of linked computers to work together so that they can be viewed as a single system.

Cloud Computing

The delivery of computing services over the internet, including storage, processing, and networking.

Cloud-Native

Describes applications designed to run in a cloud environment, taking full advantage of cloud computing models, services, and infrastructure.

Cloud-Native Applications

Applications are designed to leverage cloud environments fully, often using microservices, containers, and continuous delivery.

Composable Infrastructure

A framework that decouples hardware resources from the physical configuration, allowing them to be treated as services.

Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

A database is used by an organization to store information about hardware and software assets, often used in IT service management.

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

A DevOps practice where code changes are automatically tested and deployed.

Container Orchestration

The automated arrangement, coordination, and management of software containers.

Containerization

The process of packaging software with its dependencies to run consistently across different computing environments.

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

A mechanism that allows restricted resources on a web page to be requested from another domain outside the domain from which the resource originated.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Software that helps manage a company’s interactions with current and potential customers.

Cybersecurity

Practices and technologies designed to protect computers, networks, and data from unauthorized access or attacks.

D

Data Analytics

The process of examining data sets to conclude the information they contain.

Data Encryption

The process of converting data into a code to prevent unauthorized access.

Data Governance

The management of data availability, usability, integrity, and security in enterprise systems.

Data Lake

A centralized repository designed to store, process, and secure large amounts of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

A strategy for making sure that end users do not send sensitive or critical information outside the corporate network.

Data Migration

The process of transferring data between different storage types, formats, or computer systems.

Data Pipeline

A set of processes that systematically move data from one system to another.

Data Warehouse

A centralized repository for storing large amounts of structured and unstructured data from various sources.

Database Sharding

A method of splitting a database into smaller, more manageable pieces called shards that can be spread across multiple servers.

Deep Learning

A subset of machine learning that uses neural networks with many layers, often applied in image and speech recognition.

DevOps

A set of practices that combines software development and IT operations to shorten the development lifecycle.

Digital Transformation

The integration of digital technology into all business areas, fundamentally changes how you operate and deliver value to customers.

Disaster Recovery Plan

A documented, structured approach with instructions for responding to unplanned incidents that threaten an IT infrastructure, including hardware, software, networks, processes, and people.

Distributed Computing

A computing system in which multiple components located on different networked computers communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

A type of cyber attack where multiple systems overwhelm the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system, usually one or more web servers.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

A digital system for recording the transaction of assets in which the transactions and their details are recorded in multiple places at the same time.

Docker

A platform for developing, shipping, and running applications inside containers.

Domain-Driven Design (DDD)

A software development approach that emphasizes collaboration between technical experts and domain experts.

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

A security testing method that involves testing an application or software product in its running state.

E

Edge Computing

A distributed computing paradigm that brings computation and data storage closer to the location where it is needed to improve response times and save bandwidth.

Edge Node

A device or component located at the edge of a network that serves as an entry or exit point for data entering or leaving the network.

Elastic Beanstalk

An AWS service that allows users to deploy and manage applications in the AWS Cloud without worrying about the infrastructure that runs those applications.

Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)

A service that automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances.

Elastic Stack

A set of open-source tools from Elastic, including Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, and Beats, is used for searching, analyzing, and visualizing real-time data.

Elasticsearch

An open-source, distributed search and analytics engine for all types of data, including textual, numerical, geospatial, structured, and unstructured.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

The use of software and computer systems architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

A software architecture model is used for designing and implementing communication between mutually interacting software applications in a service-oriented architecture.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

Software that manages business processes by integrating all facets of an operation, including planning, development, sales, and marketing.

ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)

A data warehousing process that extracts data from multiple sources, transforms it into a suitable format and loads it into a data warehouse.

Event Sourcing

A pattern in which changes to the application state are stored as a sequence of events.

Event Streaming

The practice of capturing data in real-time from event sources like databases, sensors, mobile devices, cloud services, and software applications in the form of streams.

Event-Driven Architecture

A software architecture pattern promoting the production, detection, consumption of, and reaction to events.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

A cybersecurity technology that addresses the need for continuous monitoring and response to advanced threats.

Endpoint Security

The practice of securing endpoints or entry points of end-user devices like desktops, laptops, and mobile devices from being exploited by malicious actors.

Encryption

The process of converting data into a coded format to prevent unauthorized access.

Environment as Code (EaC)

The practice of managing computing environments such as development, testing, and production in a declarative and programmatic manner.

F

Failover

A backup operational mode in which the functions of a system component (such as a processor, server, network, or database) are assumed by secondary system components when the primary component becomes unavailable.

Feature Flagging

A software development practice that allows developers to enable or disable features or functionalities remotely without deploying new code.

Feature Toggle

A technique that allows developers to turn features on or off in an application without deploying new code.

Federated Identity Management

An arrangement that can be made among multiple enterprises that lets subscribers use the same identification data to obtain access to the networks of all enterprises in the group.

Federated Learning

A machine learning technique that trains an algorithm across multiple decentralized devices or servers holding local data samples, without exchanging them.

Federated Search

The process of searching multiple data sources from a single search interface, returning integrated search results.

File Integrity Monitoring (FIM)

Internal control or process that performs the act of validating the integrity of the operating system and application software files using a verification method between the current file state and a known, good baseline.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

A standard network protocol is used for the transfer of computer files between a client and server on a computer network.

Firewall

A network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic.

Firewall as a Service (FWaaS)

A cloud service that provides firewall protection to an organization’s IT infrastructure.

Full Stack Developer

A developer who is skilled in working on both the front-end and back-end portions of an application.

Full-Stack Development

The development of both the front end (client-side) and the back end (server-side) of a web application.

Function as a Service (FaaS)

A cloud computing service that allows customers to execute code in response to events without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure.

Function Point Analysis (FPA)

A standardized method for measuring the functional size of a software application.

Functional Programming

A programming paradigm where programs are constructed by applying and composing functions.

G

Gantt Chart

A type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule and shows the dependency relationships between activities and the current schedule status.

Garbage Collection

The process of automatically freeing memory on the heap by deleting objects that are no longer accessible in a program.

Garbage-in, Garbage-out (GIGO)

A concept that emphasizes the importance of correct input data to ensure correct output or results.

Git

A distributed version-control system for tracking changes in source code during software development.

GitOps

An operational framework that takes DevOps best practices used for application development, such as version control, collaboration, compliance, and CI/CD, and applies them to infrastructure automation.

GitOps Pipeline

A continuous deployment methodology that uses Git repositories as the source of truth for declarative infrastructure and applications.

GitHub Actions

A CI/CD and automation platform that allows users to automate their software workflows directly from their GitHub repositories.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

A suite of cloud computing services runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products.

GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

A specialized processor designed to accelerate graphics rendering and perform parallel processing.

Graph Database

A database is designed to treat the relationships between data as equally important to the data itself. It is intended to hold data without constricting it to a pre-defined model.

GraphQL

A query language for your API that allows clients to request exactly the data they need.

Gremlin

A tool for chaos engineering that helps companies ensure their systems can withstand failures and errors.

Greenfield Project

A project that is started from scratch without needing to consider any prior work.

H

Hadoop

An open-source framework that allows for the distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of computers using simple programming models.

Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS)

A distributed file system designed to run on commodity hardware, part of the Hadoop ecosystem.

Hashing

The process of converting an input (or ‘message’) into a fixed-size string of bytes, typically a hash code.

High Availability (HA)

A system design approach and associated service implementation that ensures a certain level of operational performance, usually uptime, for a higher than normal period.

Heterogeneous Network

A network that consists of different types of devices and systems, such as a mix of hardware, operating systems, and applications.

Honeypot

A security mechanism set to detect, deflect, or counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems.

Hotfix

A quick fix or patch to a bug or security issue in a software product that is deployed without the usual testing process due to the urgency of the fix.

Hybrid Cloud

A computing environment that combines a public cloud and a private cloud by allowing data and applications to be shared between them.

Hybrid IT

The practice of using both in-house and cloud-based services to manage a company’s information technology environment.

Hyperautomation

The use of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to automate tasks that were once done by humans.

Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)

An IT framework that combines storage, computing, and networking into a single system to reduce data center complexity and increase scalability.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)

An extension of HTTP used for secure communication over a computer network, widely used on the internet.

Hypervisor

Software, firmware, or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines by separating the underlying hardware from the operating systems.

I

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

A form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

A framework of policies and technologies for ensuring that the proper people in an enterprise have the appropriate access to technology resources.

Identity as a Service (IDaaS)

A cloud-based service that provides identity management solutions, including single sign-on (SSO), authentication, and identity governance.

Identity Provider (IdP)

A system entity that creates, maintains, and manages identity information for principals and provides principal authentication to other service providers within a federation.

Immutable Infrastructure

An approach where servers are never modified after deployment. Instead, if something needs to be updated, a new server is built from a common image.

Immutable Object

An object whose state cannot be modified after it is created is often used in functional programming to prevent side effects.

Incident Management

The process used by DevOps and IT operations teams to respond to an unplanned event or service interruption and restore the service to its operational state.

Infrastructure as a Code (IaC)

The process of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware.

Infrastructure Orchestration

The automated arrangement, coordination, and management of complex computer systems, middleware, and services.

Ingress Controller

An application that runs in a Kubernetes cluster and configures an HTTP load balancer according to Ingress resources.

Ingress Traffic

Network traffic that originates from outside a network and is transmitted to a host or server inside the network.

Integration

The process of combining different computing systems and software applications to work together within a larger system.

In-Memory Computing

The practice of storing data in the main RAM of servers rather than on slower disk-based storage significantly speeds up data processing.

IoC (Indicators of Compromise)

Pieces of forensic data that identify potentially malicious activity on a system or network.

IoT (Internet of Things)

The interconnection of computing devices embedded in everyday objects enables them to send and receive data.

IT Service Management (ITSM)

A strategic approach to designing, delivering, managing, and improving the way IT is used within an organization.

J

Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

An abstract machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode.

JavaScript

A programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers.

Jenkins

An open-source automation server used to automate parts of software development related to building, testing, and deploying.

Jenkins Pipeline

A suite of plugins that supports implementing and integrating continuous delivery pipelines into Jenkins.

JIRA

A proprietary issue-tracking product developed by Atlassian that allows bug tracking and agile project management.

Job Scheduling

The process of automating the execution of tasks, jobs, or workflows in computing environments.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

A lightweight format for storing and transporting data, often used when data is sent from a server to a web page.

JSON Web Token (JWT)

An open standard (RFC 7519) defines a compact and self-contained way for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object.

Just-In-Time Compilation (JIT)

A runtime environment component that improves the performance of interpreted programs by translating bytecode into native machine code at runtime.

K

Kappa Architecture

A software architecture pattern designed to handle real-time data processing.

Kerberos

A network authentication protocol designed to provide strong authentication for client/server applications.

Kerberos Authentication

A secure method for authenticating a request for a service in a computer network.

Key Management Service (KMS)

A service that helps you create, manage, and control cryptographic keys across various applications and services.

Key Rotation

The process of periodically changing cryptographic keys limits the amount of data encrypted by the same key and reduces the impact of key compromise.

Kibana

A data visualization and exploration tool used for log and time-series analytics, application monitoring, and operational intelligence use cases.

Kinesis

A suite of services provided by AWS for real-time data processing, including ingesting, processing, and analyzing streaming data.

Kubernetes

An open-source platform for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

Kubernetes Operator

A method of packaging, deploying, and managing a Kubernetes application.

L

Latency

The delay before a transfer of data begins following an instruction for its transfer.

Latency Optimization

Techniques and strategies used to reduce the time delay in data communication and processing.

Least Privilege

A security principle in which a user is given the minimum levels of access – or permissions – needed to perform their job functions.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

A protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over a network.

Load Balancer

A device that distributes network or application traffic across several servers to ensure reliability and performance.

Load Balancing Algorithm

A method used by load balancers to distribute incoming traffic among servers to ensure no single server is overwhelmed.

Load Shedding

The practice of dropping some load on a system when it is overwhelmed, to maintain responsiveness for high-priority tasks.

Load Testing

The practice of putting demand on a software system and measuring its response.

Log Analytics

The practice of analyzing log data to extract meaningful insights for monitoring and troubleshooting purposes.

Log Management

The process of dealing with computer-generated log messages, which includes their collection, storage, and analysis.

Low-Code Development

A software development approach that requires little to no coding to build applications and processes.

M

Machine Learning

A subset of artificial intelligence that involves the use of data and algorithms to imitate the way humans learn, gradually improving its accuracy.

Managed Services Provider (MSP)

A company that remotely manages a customer’s IT infrastructure and/or end-user systems, typically on a proactive basis and under a subscription model.

MBaaS (Mobile Backend as a Service)

A model for providing web and mobile app developers with a way to link their applications to backend cloud storage and APIs exposed by backend applications.

Message Queue

A form of asynchronous service-to-service communication is used in serverless and microservices architectures.

Metadata Management

The practice of managing and governing data about other data is often used in data lakes and data warehouses.

Micro Frontends

An architectural style where independently deliverable frontend applications are composed into a greater whole.

Microservices

An architectural style that structures an application as a collection of small autonomous services modeled around a business domain.

Microservices Architecture

An architectural style that structures an application as a collection of loosely coupled services.

Middleware

Software that acts as a bridge between an operating system or database and applications, especially on a network.

MLOps

A set of practices that combines Machine Learning, DevOps, and data engineering to deploy and maintain ML systems in production reliably and efficiently.

Monolithic Architecture

A traditional unified model for the design of a software program. It often contrasts with microservices architecture.

Multitenancy

An architecture in which a single software instance serves multiple customers (tenants).

N

Namespace

A container for a set of identifiers, allows the same identifier to be used in different contexts without collision.

Namespace Isolation

The practice of isolating groups of resources or processes to prevent them from interacting or interfering with each other.

NAT (Network Address Translation)

A method of remapping one IP address space into another by modifying network address information in the IP header of packets.

Network Attached Storage (NAS)

A file-level storage architecture that makes stored data more accessible to networked devices.

Network Function Virtualization (NFV)

A network architecture concept that uses IT virtualization technologies to virtualize entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may connect or chain together to create communication services.

Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI)

The totality of all hardware and software components that build the environment in which VNFs are deployed.

Network Load Balancer (NLB)

A load balancer that directs client requests at the transport layer (TCP/UDP) and routes them to backend servers.

Network Security

Policies and practices adopted to prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and its resources.

Network Topology

The arrangement of the various elements (links, nodes, etc.) of a computer network, is often represented as a graph.

Network Virtualization

The process of combining hardware and software network resources and network functionality into a single, software-based administrative entity.

NoOps

A concept that represents the goal of completely automating the deployment, monitoring, and management of applications and the infrastructure on which they run.

NoSQL

A non-relational database that allows for storage and retrieval of data modeled in means other than tabular relations used in relational databases.

O

OAuth (Open Authorization)

An open standard for access delegation is commonly used as a way to grant websites or applications access to information on other websites without exposing passwords.

OAuth Scopes

Permissions that define what access levels are given to third-party applications when accessing user data via OAuth.

OAuth2

The second version of the OAuth protocol focuses on client developer simplicity while providing specific authorization flows for web applications, desktop applications, mobile phones, and living room devices.

Object Storage

A type of storage architecture that manages data as objects, in contrast to file systems, which manage data as a file hierarchy, and block storage, which manages data as blocks within sectors and tracks.

Observability

The measure of how well you can understand the internal states of a system based on the data it produces.

Observability Stack

A suite of tools and processes used to monitor the health and performance of applications and infrastructure, often including metrics, logs, and tracing.

On-Premises

Software and technology that is located within the physical confines of an enterprise – often in the company’s data center – as opposed to running remotely on hosted servers or in the cloud.

Open Source

Software for which the source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified.

OpenShift

A family of containerization software developed by Red Hat for Kubernetes, including an enterprise Kubernetes container platform.

OpenShift Service Mesh

A service mesh for OpenShift, providing consistent management, security, and observability across microservices.

OpenStack

An open-source software platform for cloud computing, primarily deployed as infrastructure-as-a-service.

OpenID Connect (OIDC)

A simple identity layer on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol, allows clients to verify the identity of the end-user based on the authentication performed by an authorization server.

OpsGenie

An alerting and incident response solution for development and operations teams used to manage and resolve incidents faster.

Oracle

A multinational computer technology corporation that sells database software and technology, cloud engineered systems, and enterprise software products.

Orchestration

The automated arrangement, coordination, and management of complex computer systems, middleware, and services.

P

Penetration Testing

A simulated cyber attack against your computer system to check for exploitable vulnerabilities.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

A cloud computing service that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure.

Platform Engineering

The practice of building and maintaining a self-service platform for developers to deploy their applications.

Polyglot Persistence

The coexistence of multiple kinds of database technologies is chosen based on their particular strengths and weaknesses.

Predictive Analytics

A form of advanced analytics that makes predictions about future events, typically using statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques.

Private Cloud

A cloud computing model where the infrastructure is dedicated to a single organization, offering more control over data, security, and quality of service.

Private Key Infrastructure (PKI)

A framework for creating a secure method for exchanging information based on public key cryptography.

Provisioning

The process of setting up IT infrastructure, such as servers, storage, network equipment, and other resources.

Pub/Sub (Publish/Subscribe)

A messaging pattern where senders of messages, called publishers, do not program the messages to be sent directly to specific receivers, called subscribers.

Python

A high-level programming language widely used in software development, data science, and machine learning.

Q

QoS (Quality of Service)

The description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network or a cloud computing service.

Queue

A data structure or service that manages a sequence of elements with a first-in, first-out (FIFO) ordering.

Queue Depth

The number of outstanding requests or operations waiting to be processed by a device or system.

Query Federation

The capability to run a single query that fetches data from multiple heterogeneous data sources.

Query Language

A type of computer language used to make queries in databases and information systems.

Query Optimization

Techniques used to improve query performance in databases.

Quantum Annealing

A quantum algorithm for finding the global minimum of a function over a given set of candidate solutions is widely used in quantum computing.

Quantum Computing

A type of computing that takes advantage of quantum phenomena like superposition and entanglement to perform computation.

Quantum Encryption

A method of encryption that leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to secure data, ensuring it remains confidential and integral.

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)

A secure communication method that implements a cryptographic protocol involving components of quantum mechanics.

Quorum

The minimum number of members of a group or committee that must be present to make the proceedings of that meeting valid.

R

Rate Limiting

The process of controlling the rate of traffic sent or received by an API to prevent abuse or overuse.

Rate Limiter

A tool or technique used to control the amount of traffic sent or received in a network.

RDBMS (Relational Database Management System)

A database management system (DBMS) based on the relational model introduced by E.F. Codd.

Red Hat OpenShift

A Kubernetes distribution focused on developer experience and application security that’s platform-agnostic.

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)

A data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units.

Replication Lag

The delay between the time when data is updated on the primary database and when the update is applied to the replica database.

Replicated Log

A log that is copied across multiple machines, is often used in distributed systems to ensure consistency and reliability.

Representational State Transfer (REST)

An architectural style for designing networked applications, relying on a stateless, client-server communication protocol, usually HTTP.

Resilience

The ability of a system or network to withstand and recover quickly from difficulties.

Reverse Proxy

A server that sits in front of web servers and forwards client requests (like web browsers) to those web servers.

RPA (Robotic Process Automation)

The use of software with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required a human to perform.

Round-Robin Scheduling

A method for managing time-shared resources in which each task is assigned a fixed time slice in a cyclic order.

Rolling Deployment

A software release strategy where an update is gradually rolled out to users and infrastructure in a staggered approach.

S

SaaS (Software as a Service)

A software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over the Internet.

Salesforce

A cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management service and a suite of enterprise applications focused on customer service, marketing automation, analytics, and application development.

Scalability

The capability of a system, network, or process to handle a growing amount of work or its potential to be enlarged to accommodate that growth.

Scrum

An agile process framework for managing complex knowledge work, with an initial emphasis on software development.

Scrum Master

A facilitator for an agile development team. Scrum is a methodology that allows a team to self-organize and make changes quickly.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

A set of tools and services offering a holistic view of an organization’s information security.

Serverless Architecture

A cloud computing execution model where the cloud provider dynamically manages the allocation and provisioning of servers.

Serverless Computing

A cloud-computing execution model in which the cloud provider runs the server, and dynamically manages the allocation of machine resources.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

A formal commitment between a service provider and a client that outlines the expected level of service and responsibilities.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

An architectural pattern in software design in which application components provide services to other components via a communications protocol over a network.

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)

A discipline that incorporates aspects of software engineering and applies them to infrastructure and operations problems.

SOC (Security Operations Center)

A centralized function within an organization employs people, processes, and technology to continuously monitor and improve an organization’s security posture.

Software Development Kit (SDK)

A collection of software tools and libraries that developers use to build applications for specific platforms.

Software-Defined Networking (SDN)

An approach to networking that uses open protocols to enable software control of networks instead of hardware control.

Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)

A virtual WAN architecture that allows enterprises to securely connect any user to any application, leveraging the internet or private MPLS.

Stateful vs. Stateless

Refers to whether a system maintains state information across sessions (stateful) or treats each session as independent and maintains no state (stateless).

Synthetic Monitoring

The practice of monitoring applications by simulating user interactions.

Syntactic Sugar

Syntax within a programming language is designed to make things easier to read or to express, which makes the language “sweeter” for human use.

T

Terraform

An open-source infrastructure as a code software tool that provides a consistent CLI workflow to manage hundreds of cloud services.

Technical Debt

The concept of expediting software development results in more costly fixes and updates in the future due to rushed or incomplete coding.

Tech Debt

Short for technical debt, which refers to the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer.

Test-Driven Development (TDD)

A software development process that relies on the repetition of a very short development cycle: requirements are turned into specific test cases, then the software is improved to pass the new tests.

Terraform Module

A container for multiple resources that are used together. A module could be used to represent a component, such as a set of Amazon VPC resources.

Threat Modeling

A process by which potential threats, such as structural vulnerabilities or the absence of appropriate safeguards, can be identified, enumerated, and mitigated.

Tokenization

The process of protecting sensitive data by replacing it with an algorithmically generated number called a token.

Traffic Shaping

The practice of regulating network data transfer to assure a certain level of performance, quality, or bandwidth.

Transaction Log

A history of actions executed by a database management system used for recovery in case of a failure.

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

A cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network.

Turing Completeness

A system of data manipulation rules is said to be “Turing complete” if it can be used to simulate any Turing machine.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

An extra layer of security is used to ensure that people trying to gain access to an online account are who they say they are.

Two-Person Integrity (TPI)

A security measure that requires two individuals to be present or participate in a sensitive activity to prevent malicious actions.

U

UAT (User Acceptance Testing)

The last phase of the software testing process is where actual software users test the software to make sure it can handle required tasks in real-world scenarios.

UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience)

UI refers to the aesthetic elements by which people interact with a product, while UX refers to the experience a user has when interacting with a product or service.

Unified Communications (UC)

A framework for integrating various real-time communication tools such as voice, video, chat, and email.

Unified Modeling Language (UML)

A standardized modeling language is used to specify, visualize, construct, and document the artifacts of software systems.

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

A single solution that provides multiple security functions, such as antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, network firewall, intrusion detection and prevention, and content filtering.

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)

A set of networking protocols that permits networked devices to seamlessly discover each other’s presence on the network and establish functional network services.

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

A device that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source or mains power fails.

Unit Testing

A software testing method by which individual units of source code are tested to determine whether they are fit for use.

Use Case

A written description of how users will perform tasks on your website or application, detailing the user’s interactions and system responses.

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

A communication protocol is used across the internet for especially time-sensitive transmissions such as video playback or DNS lookups.

User Interface (UI)

The point of interaction between a user and a digital device or application, including screens, pages, buttons, icons, and any visual element.

User Story

An informal, natural language description of one or more features of a software system, written from the perspective of an end user or user of a system.

User Story Mapping

A visual exercise that helps product teams define the work that will create the most delightful user experience.

V

Vertical Scaling

Increasing the capacity of a single server, such as adding more CPU or RAM to handle more load.

Version Control System (VCS)

A system that records changes to a file or set of files over time so that you can recall specific versions later.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

A technology used to create a virtualized desktop environment on a remote server setup.

Virtual Machine (VM)

An emulation of a computer system, providing the functionality of a physical computer.

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

A private cloud exists within a shared or public cloud, allowing users to control the virtual networking environment.

Virtualization

The process of creating a virtual version of something, including virtual computer hardware platforms, storage devices, and computer network resources.

VMware vSphere

A cloud computing virtualization platform for building cloud infrastructures, primarily used in data centers.

Volume Group

A collection of logical volumes in storage that can be managed together.

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

A feature in Microsoft Windows that allows taking manual or automatic backup copies or snapshots of computer files or volumes.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)

A service that encrypts your internet traffic and protects your online identity by hiding your IP address.

VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network)

A group of host computers and servers that are configured as if they are on the same LAN even if they reside across multiple different physical LANs.

W

WAN (Wide Area Network)

A telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area for the primary purpose of computer networking.

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

A firewall that monitors, filters, and blocks data packets as they travel to and from a web application.

Web Development

The work involved in developing a website for the internet or an intranet.

Web Services

A standardized way of integrating web-based applications using open standards over an internet protocol backbone.

WebAssembly

A binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine, designed to be a portable target for the compilation of high-level languages like C, C++, and Rust.

WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication)

A free, open-source project that provides web browsers and mobile applications with real-time communication via simple application programming interfaces.

Webhooks

Automated messages sent from apps when something happens are often used in APIs to provide real-time information to another app.

Wireframe

A visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website or application.

Workflow Automation

The design, execution, and automation of processes based on pre-defined business rules.

Workflow Management System

Software designed to help streamline and automate business processes, improving efficiency and consistency.

Write-Ahead Logging (WAL)

A method used in databases to provide atomicity and durability (two of the ACID properties) in database transactions.

X

XaaS (Anything as a Service)

A collective term refers to delivering IT services via the cloud rather than on-premises.

XPath

A language for selecting nodes from an XML document is also used with XSLT to extract values from XML documents.

X.509 Certificate

A standard defining the format of public key certificates is used in many internet protocols, including TLS/SSL.

Xen

A hypervisor that enables multiple operating systems to run on the same physical server at the same time.

XML (eXtensible Markup Language)

A markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

XML Schema Definition (XSD)

A way to describe the structure and validate the content of XML documents.

XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol)

A protocol for real-time, decentralized messaging, presence, and request-response services.

XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

A type of security vulnerability typically found in web applications, where attackers inject malicious scripts into content from otherwise trusted websites.

XSS Protection

A feature in browsers and web applications to protect users from cross-site scripting attacks.

Y

YAML (YAML Ain’t Markup Language)

A human-readable data serialization standard that can be used in conjunction with all programming languages and is often used to write configuration files.

YANG (Yet Another Next Generation)

A data modeling language used to model configuration and state data manipulated by the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF).

Yarn

A package manager for the JavaScript programming language that acts as an alternative to npm.

Yellowdog Updater, Modified (YUM)

A command-line package management utility for computers running the Linux operating system using the RPM Package Manager.

Yellowfin

A business intelligence and analytics software suite that offers data visualization, dashboards, and reporting.

Yottabyte

A unit of data storage size equal to 1 septillion bytes (10^24 bytes) or 1 trillion terabytes.

Yield Curve Analysis

A term used in data analytics and financial technology to analyze the relationship between interest rates and time to maturity.