IT Management

Career paths and IT certifications

• microlearning (microtraining)

  Microlearning is an educational strategy that breaks complex topics down into short-form, stand-alone units of study that can be viewed as many times as necessary, whenever and wherever the learner needs them. Microlearning instructional modules are designed to address one specific skill or knowledge gap.

• chief product officer (CPO)

  A chief product officer (CPO) is a C-level executive who is responsible for the strategy and execution of all product-related activities within an organization.

• DevOps engineer

  A DevOps engineer is an IT professional who works with software developers, system operators and other production IT staff to create and oversee code releases and deployments.

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.

• What is BCDR? Business continuity and disaster recovery guide

  Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) are closely related practices that support an organization's ability to remain operational after an adverse event.

• consumer privacy (customer privacy)

  Consumer privacy, also known as customer privacy, involves the handling and protection of the sensitive personal information provided by customers in the course of everyday transactions.

• enterprise content management (ECM)

  Enterprise content management (ECM) is a set of defined processes, strategies and tools that allow a business to effectively obtain, organize, store and deliver critical information to its employees, business stakeholders and customers.

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.

• virtual agent

  A virtual agent (sometimes called an intelligent virtual agent, virtual rep or chatbot) is a software program that uses scripted rules and, increasingly, artificial intelligence applications to provide automated service or guidance to humans.

• behavioral targeting

  Behavioral targeting is the presentation of content and marketing based on the previous choices of users across websites.

• contact center

  A contact center -- also referred to as a customer interaction center or e-contact center -- is a central point from which all customer interactions across various channels are managed.

ERP

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

• cloud ERP

  Cloud ERP is a type of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that runs on a provider's cloud computing platform, rather than on premises in an enterprise's own data center.

• What is BCDR? Business continuity and disaster recovery guide

  Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) are closely related practices that support an organization's ability to remain operational after an adverse event.

• process manufacturing

  Process manufacturing is a production method that creates goods by combining supplies, ingredients or raw materials using a formula or recipe.

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.

• Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

  The Advanced Encryption Standard, or AES, is a symmetric block cipher chosen by the U.S. government to protect classified information and is implemented in software and hardware throughout the world to encrypt sensitive data.

• RIFAN 2

  Reseau Internet de la Force Aeronavale etape 2 (RIFAN 2) is a secure internet developed for military applications.

• Australian Assistance and Access Bill

  The Australian Assistance and Access Bill is legislation introduced and passed in 2018 by the Parliament of Australia to support law enforcement and security agencies in their ability to collect evidence from electronic devices.

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.

• Project Nightingale

  Project Nightingale is a controversial partnership between Google and Ascension, the second largest health system in the United States. The partnership, which began in 2018, has provided Google with access to the medical records of over 50 million people.

• medical imaging (radiology)

  Medical imaging, also known as radiology, is the field of medicine in which medical professionals recreate various images of parts of the body for diagnostic or treatment purposes.

• CT scan

  A computerized tomography (CT scan) is a form of computer-assisted imaging, that is assembled from many xrays. CT Scans are also known as CAT scans.

HR management

• microlearning (microtraining)

  Microlearning is an educational strategy that breaks complex topics down into short-form, stand-alone units of study that can be viewed as many times as necessary, whenever and wherever the learner needs them. Microlearning instructional modules are designed to address one specific skill or knowledge gap.

• upskilling

  Upskilling is a workplace trend that facilitates continuous learning by providing training programs and development opportunities that expand an employee's abilities and minimize skill gaps.

• HRIS director (human resources information system director)

  An HRIS (human resource information system) director is the manager who serves as a technical point of contact for the organization's human resource management department.

IT procurement

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

• service-level agreement (SLA)

  A service-level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and its customers that documents what services the provider will furnish and defines the service standards the provider is obligated to meet.

• Sysprep (System Preparation Tool)

  Sysprep is Microsoft's System Preparation tool intended to duplicate, test and deliver new installations for the Windows operating system based on an established installation.

• FinOps

  FinOps (financial operations) is a framework for managing operating expenditures (Opex) in the cloud. An important goal of FinOps is to help cross-functional teams within the same organization maintain financial accountability for cloud services. 

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.

• Microsoft Azure

  Microsoft Azure, formerly known as Windows Azure, is Microsoft's public cloud computing platform.

• latency

  Latency is the delay from the input into a system to a desired outcome. In telecommunications, low latency is associated with a positive user experience (UX) while high latency is associated with poor UX.

• computer network

  A computer network, also referred to as a data network, is a series of interconnected nodes that can transmit, receive and exchange data, voice and video traffic.

Project management

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

• corporate performance management (CPM)

  Corporate performance management (CPM) is a term used to describe the various processes and methodologies involved in aligning an organization's strategies and goals to its plans and executions in order to control the success of the company.

• gig economy

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

• quality control (QC)

  Quality control (QC) is a procedure or set of procedures intended to ensure that a manufactured product or performed service adheres to a defined set of quality criteria or meets the requirements of the client or customer.

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.

• What is BCDR? Business continuity and disaster recovery guide

  Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) are closely related practices that support an organization's ability to remain operational after an adverse event.

• intrusion detection system (IDS)

  An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a system that monitors network traffic for suspicious activity and alerts when such activity is discovered.

• Secure Shell (SSH)

  SSH, also known as Secure Shell or Secure Socket Shell, is a network protocol that gives users, particularly system administrators, a secure way to access a computer over an unsecured network.

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.

• application lifecycle management (ALM)

  Application lifecycle management (ALM) is an integrated system of people, tools and processes that supervise a software application from its initial planning through retirement.

• enterprise content management (ECM)

  Enterprise content management (ECM) is a set of defined processes, strategies and tools that allow a business to effectively obtain, organize, store and deliver critical information to its employees, business stakeholders and customers.

• private cloud (internal cloud or corporate cloud)

  Private cloud is a type of cloud computing that delivers similar advantages to public cloud, including scalability and self-service, but through a proprietary architecture.

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).

• cloud storage

  Cloud storage is a service model in which data is transmitted and stored on remote storage systems, where it is maintained, managed, backed up and made available to users over a network (typically the internet).

• cloud computing

  Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet.

• data lake

  A data lake is a storage repository that holds a vast amount of raw data in its native format until it is needed.