IT Management

Career paths and IT certifications

• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

  The Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) is a certification and globally recognized standard for appraising an IT auditor's knowledge, expertise and skill in assessing vulnerabilities and instituting IT controls in an enterprise environment. 

• MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate)

  MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) is a certification program intended for people who seek entry-level jobs in an information technology (IT) environment.

• Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT)

  Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT) is a now-retired certification offered by Cisco, as part of their certification program.

Compliance, risk and governance

This glossary contains definitions related to compliance. Some definitions explain the meaning of words used in compliance regulations. Other definitions are related to the strategies that compliance officers use to mitigate risk and create a manageable compliance infrastructure.

• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

  The Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) is a certification and globally recognized standard for appraising an IT auditor's knowledge, expertise and skill in assessing vulnerabilities and instituting IT controls in an enterprise environment. 

• ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)

  The ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a framework designed to standardize the selection, planning, delivery, maintenance, and overall lifecycle of IT services within a business.

• tokenization

  Tokenization is the process of replacing sensitive data with unique identification symbols that retain all the essential information about the data without compromising its security.

CRM

The goal of customer experience management (CEM) is to optimize customer satisfaction at each touchpoint of the customer journey. Definitions in this glossary include terms about marketing and creating a customer-centric view of business, the use of AI and RPA in martech, capturing and analyzing customer feedback and contact center automation.

• customer satisfaction (CSAT)

  In customer relationship management, customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a measure of the degree to which a product or service meets customer expectations.

• speech recognition

  Speech recognition, or speech-to-text, is the ability for a machine or program to identify words spoken aloud and convert them into readable text.

• contact center as a service (CCaS)

  Contact center as a service (CCaaS) is a framework for contact center infrastructure management that combines the principles of contact center hosting and cloud-based contact center infrastructure.

ERP

Terms related to business, including definitions about project management and words and phrases about human resources, finance and vertical industries.

• identity management (ID management)

  Identity management (ID management) is the organizational process for ensuring that individuals have the appropriate access to technology resources.

• production planning

  Production planning is the act of developing a guide for the design and production of a given product or service.

• business impact analysis (BIA)

  Business impact analysis (BIA) is a systematic process to determine and evaluate the potential effects of an interruption to critical business operations as a result of a disaster, accident or emergency.

Government IT

Terms related to government IT, including definitions about specific federal, state and local government programs as well as words and phrases about policy and compliance.

• Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

  The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) is United States legislation that defines a framework of guidelines and security standards to protect government information, operations and assets.

• United Launch Alliance (ULA)

  United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a private aerospace launch provider. Formed in 2006, ULA is a joint venture between The Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin Corporation

• Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21)

  Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21) is an infrastructure protection and resilience directive in the United States that aims to strengthen and secure the country's critical infrastructure.

Healthcare IT

Terms related to healthcare IT, including definitions about healthcare information and management systems and words and phrases about electronic health records, meaningful use, government regulations and medical technology.

• protected health information (PHI) or personal health information

  Protected health information (PHI), also referred to as personal health information, generally refers to demographic information, medical histories, test and laboratory results, mental health conditions, insurance information, and other data that a healthcare professional collects to identify an individual and determine appropriate care.

• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

  HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.

• What is cybersecurity? Everything you need to know

  Cybersecurity is the protection of internet-connected systems -- including hardware, software and data -- from cyberattacks.

HR management

• Zoom fatigue (virtual meeting fatigue)

  Zoom fatigue, also known as virtual meeting fatigue, is the feeling of exhaustion that often occurs after attending a series of virtual video meetings. In this context, the label "Zoom" is used generically; the phenomenon can be applied to any video conferencing platform that permits gallery views.

• people analytics (HR analytics)

  People analytics, also known as HR analytics and talent analytics, is the use of data analysis on candidate and employee issues to understand their impact on business goals and evaluate the effectiveness of human resources initiatives.

• employee experience

  Employee experience is a worker's perceptions about his or her journey through all the touchpoints at a particular company, starting with job candidacy through to the exit from the company.

IT procurement

Terms related to the activities and procedures necessary to acquire information technology (IT) products and services.

• IT operations

  IT operations is the overarching term for the processes and services administered by an organization's information technology (IT) department.

• business impact analysis (BIA)

  Business impact analysis (BIA) is a systematic process to determine and evaluate the potential effects of an interruption to critical business operations as a result of a disaster, accident or emergency.

• What is supply chain management (SCM)?

  Supply chain management (SCM) is the optimization of a product's creation and flow from raw material sourcing to production, logistics and delivery to the final customer.

Network management

Terms related to managing computer networks, including definitions about LANS or WANS and words and phrases about network design, troubleshooting, security and backups.

• data center services

  Data center services is a collective term for all the supporting components necessary to the proper operation of data center. This includes all the implementation, maintenance and operation of a data center.

• IT operations

  IT operations is the overarching term for the processes and services administered by an organization's information technology (IT) department.

• What is configuration management? A comprehensive guide

  Configuration management (CM) is an information governance and systems engineering process to ensure consistency among physical and logical assets in an operational environment.

Project management

Terms related to project management, including definitions about project management methodologies and tools.

• project management framework

  A project management framework is a set of processes, tasks, and tools that provide guidance and structure for the execution of a project.

• triple constraint

  The triple constraint is a model that describes the three most significant restrictions on any project: scope, schedule and cost.

• gig economy

  A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations hire independent workers for short-term commitments.

Security management

Terms related to security management, including definitions about intrusion detection systems (IDS) and words and phrases about asset management, security policies, security monitoring, authorization and authentication.

• SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response)

  SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response) is a solution stack of compatible software programs that allow an organization to collect data about security threats, and respond to low-level security events without human assistance.

• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

  The Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) is a certification and globally recognized standard for appraising an IT auditor's knowledge, expertise and skill in assessing vulnerabilities and instituting IT controls in an enterprise environment. 

• security operations center (SOC)

  A security operations center (SOC) is a command center facility for a team of IT professionals with expertise in information security who monitors, analyzes and protects an organization from cyber attacks.

SEO

Definitions related to search engine optimization, including definitions about SEO and words and phrases about bots, spiders, organic traffic and all areas of search engine marketing (SEM).

• metadata

  Metadata is data that describes other data. 

• microdata

  Microdata is a type of specification language that is embedded within HTML content to improve machine readability, annotate elements and analyze web pages.

• Click to Tweet

  Click to Tweet is a website that automatically generates links for users to share content through their own Twitter accounts.

Software asset management

Terms related to software management, including definitions about licensing and words and phrases about software lifecycle management and software asset management.

• IT operations

  IT operations is the overarching term for the processes and services administered by an organization's information technology (IT) department.

• predictive analytics

  Predictive analytics is a form of advanced analytics that uses both new and historical data to forecast activity, behavior and trends.

• DevOps as a Service

  DevOps as a Service is a delivery model for a set of tools that facilitates collaboration between an organization's software development team and the operations team.

Storage management

Terms related to data storage management, including definitions about enterprise storage and words and phrases about storage infrastructure, storage capacity and hierarchical storage management (HSM).

• IT operations

  IT operations is the overarching term for the processes and services administered by an organization's information technology (IT) department.

• NVMe (non-volatile memory express)

  NVMe (non-volatile memory express) is a host controller interface and storage protocol created to accelerate the transfer speed of data between enterprise and client systems and solid-state drives (SSDs) over a computer's high-speed Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bus.

• paging

  Paging is a function of memory management where a computer will store and retrieve data from a device’s secondary storage to the primary storage.