IT Career Management

Certifications

This glossary contains definitions related to IT Certifications.

• CCNA certification

  Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) is a technical certification that Cisco offers for early-career networking professionals.

• CPE credit

  Continuing professional education, or CPE, credit is a term referring to the points professionals receive for participating in specialized training in IT and other fields.

• CompTIA Network+

  The CompTIA Network+ is an IT certification exam that confirms an individual possesses the skills in networking required to develop a career in IT infrastructure.

Cloud Computing

Terms related to cloud computing, including definitions about on-demand, distributed computing and words and phrases about software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service and storage-as-a-service.

• metered services (pay-per-use)

  Metered services (also called pay-per-use) are any type of payment structure in which a customer has access to potentially unlimited resources but only pays for what they actually use.

• cloud-native application

  A cloud-native application is a program that is designed for a cloud computing architecture.

• Amazon EC2 instance

  An Amazon EC2 instance is a virtual server in Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for running applications on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure.

DevOps

This glossary contains definitions related to the DevOps movement. Some definitions explain the meaning of words used to describe how a DevOps culture breaks down silos between software development and operations teams. Other definitions are related to the software tools that DevOps engineers use to lower costs, achieve higher productivity and automate tasks.

• time-to-live (TTL)

  Time-to-live (TTL) is a value for the period of time that a packet, or data, should exist on a computer or network before being discarded.

• Snort

  Snort is an open source network intrusion detection system (NIDS) created by Sourcefire founder and former CTO Martin Roesch.

• pair programming

  Pair programming is an Agile software development technique originating from Extreme programming (XP) in which two developers team together and work on one computer.

IT Career Paths

• IT project manager

  An IT project manager is a professional charged with overseeing the process of planning, executing and delegating responsibilities around an organization's information technology (IT) pursuits and goals.

• CCNA certification

  Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) is a technical certification that Cisco offers for early-career networking professionals.

• cloud engineer

  A cloud engineer is an IT professional responsible for any technological duties associated with cloud computing, including design, planning, management, maintenance and support.

IT Operations

Terms related to the processes and services implemented and managed by an organization’s information technology (IT) department. Topics covered include systems management, configuration management, API management and DevOps, as well as real-time performance monitoring and management.

• nearshore outsourcing

  Nearshore outsourcing is the practice of getting work done or services performed by people in neighboring countries rather than an organization's country.

• CVO (Chief Visionary Officer)

  The Chief Visionary Officer (CVO) is a newer title where the holder is expected to have a broad and comprehensive knowledge of all matters related to the business of the organization, as well as the vision required to steer its course into the future.

• cloud-native application

  A cloud-native application is a program that is designed for a cloud computing architecture.

Marketing and CX

Terms related to business software, including definitions about billing and words and phrases about supply chain, CRM, POS, ERP, accounting, payroll and inventory.

• remote desktop protocol (RDP)

  Remote desktop protocol (RDP) is a secure network communications protocol from Microsoft.

• What is a private 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.

• robotic process automation (RPA)

  Robotic process automation (RPA) is a technology that mimics the way humans interact with software to perform high-volume, repeatable tasks.

Network Admin

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

• FCAPS (fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security)

  FCAPS (fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security) is a network management framework created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

• private IP address

  A private IP address is a range of non-internet facing IP addresses used in an internal network.

• network packet

  A network packet is a small amount of data sent over Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks.

Project Management

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

• Six Sigma

  Six Sigma is a business methodology for quality improvement that measures how many defects there are in a current process and seeks to systematically eliminate them.

• change control

  Change control is a systematic approach to managing all changes made to a product or system.

• IT project manager

  An IT project manager is a professional charged with overseeing the process of planning, executing and delegating responsibilities around an organization's information technology (IT) pursuits and goals.

Security Admin

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 cybersecurity?

  Cybersecurity is the protection of internet-connected systems such as hardware, software and data from cyberthreats.

• private key

  A private key, also known as a secret key, is a variable in cryptography that is used with an algorithm to encrypt and decrypt data.

• security token

  A security token is a physical or digital device that provides two-factor authentication for a user to prove their identity in a login process.

Software Developer

Definitions related to software development, including tech terms about programming and words and phrases about Scrum, Agile and waterfall methodologies.

• chaos engineering

  Chaos engineering is the process of testing a distributed computing system to ensure that it can withstand unexpected disruptions.

• change control

  Change control is a systematic approach to managing all changes made to a product or system.

• continuous delivery (CD)

  Continuous delivery (CD) is an approach for software delivery in which development teams produce and test code in short but continuous cycles, usually with high degrees of automation.

Technical Support

Terms related to computer fundamentals, including computer hardware definitions and words and phrases about software, operating systems, peripherals and troubleshooting.

• DOS (disk operating system)

  A DOS, or disk operating system, is an operating system that runs from a disk drive. The term can also refer to a particular family of disk operating systems, most commonly MS-DOS, an acronym for Microsoft DOS.

• metered services (pay-per-use)

  Metered services (also called pay-per-use) are any type of payment structure in which a customer has access to potentially unlimited resources but only pays for what they actually use.

• nearshore outsourcing

  Nearshore outsourcing is the practice of getting work done or services performed by people in neighboring countries rather than an organization's country.