Browse Definitions by Alphabet

  • A-weighted decibel (dBA or dB(A)) - A-weighted decibel (dBA or dB(A)) is an expression of the relative loudness of sounds as perceived by the human ear.
  • AAA server (authentication, authorization and accounting) - An AAA server is a server program that handles user requests for access to computer resources and, for an enterprise, provides authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) services.
  • abacus - An abacus is a manual aid to calculating that consists of beads or disks that can be moved up and down on a series of sticks or strings within a usually wooden frame.
  • ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) - ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) is the primary programming language supported on the SAP NetWeaver ABAP application server platform and applications that run on it, such as SAP ERP (formerly R/3), S/4HANA and CRM.
  • ABC classification - ABC classification is a ranking system for identifying and grouping items in terms of how useful they are for achieving business goals.
  • abend (abnormal end) - An abend (abnormal end) is an unexpected or abnormal termination of an application or operating system that results from a problem with the software.
  • absolute truth - In general, absolute truth is whatever is always valid, regardless of parameters or context.
  • abstract class - An abstract class is a template definition of methods and variables in a specific class, or category of objects.
  • abstraction - Abstraction (from the Latin abs, meaning away from and trahere, meaning to draw) is the process of taking away or removing characteristics from something in order to reduce it to a set of essential characteristics.
  • Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) - Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open source project created to improve the performance of web pages for mobile delivery.
  • acceptance test–driven development (ATDD) - Acceptance test–driven development (ATDD) is a collaborative process where developers, testers and business representatives come together to work out requirements, perceive potential pitfalls and reduce the chance of errors before coding begins.
  • access control list (ACL) - An access control list (ACL) is a list of rules that specifies which users or systems are granted or denied access to a particular object or system resource.
  • access log - An access log is a list of all requests for individual files -- such as Hypertext Markup Language files, their embedded graphic images and other associated files that get transmitted -- that people or bots have made from a website.
  • access network - Access networks are the communication networks that connect end-user devices, such as computers, smartphones and tablets, to a wide area network (WAN), such as the internet.
  • account-based experience (ABX) - Account-based experience (ABX) is a business-to-business (B2B) strategy in which the sales, marketing and customer success departments work together to provide accounts with a unified, personalized experience throughout the buyer journey.
  • accountability - Accountability is an assurance that an individual or an organization is evaluated on its performance or behavior related to something for which it is responsible.
  • accountable care organization (ACO) - An accountable care organization (ACO) is an association of hospitals, healthcare providers and insurers in which all parties voluntarily assume financial and medical responsibility for Medicare patients.
  • accumulator - An accumulator is a type of register for short-term, intermediate storage of arithmetic and logic data in a computer's central processing unit (CPU).
  • ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability) - In transaction processing, ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability) is an acronym and mnemonic device used to refer to the four essential properties a transaction should possess to ensure the integrity and reliability of the data involved in the transaction.
  • ACK (acknowledgement) - In some digital communication protocols, ACK -- short for 'acknowledgement' -- refers to a signal that a device sends to indicate that data has been received successfully.
  • acronym - An acronym (pronounced AK-ruh-nihm, from Greek acro- in the sense of extreme or tip and onyma or name) is an abbreviation of several words in such a way that the abbreviation itself forms a word.
  • action plan - An action plan is a document that lists what steps must be taken to achieve a specific goal.
  • actionable insights - Actionable insights are conclusions drawn from data that can be turned directly into an action or a response.
  • active attack - An active attack is a network exploit in which a hacker attempts to make changes to data on the target or data en route to the target.
  • active defense - An active defense is the use of offensive actions to outmaneuver an adversary and make an attack more difficult and to carry out.
  • Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) - Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) is a feature of the Windows Server operating system (OS) that extends end users' single sign-on (SSO) access to applications and systems outside the corporate firewall.
  • Active Directory forest (AD forest) - An Active Directory forest is the highest level of organization within Active Directory.
  • Active Directory functional levels - Active Directory functional levels are controls that specify which advanced Active Directory domain features can be used in an enterprise domain.
  • Active Directory tree - An Active Directory (AD) tree is a collection of domains within a Microsoft Active Directory network.
  • active RFID (active radio frequency identification) - Active RFID (radio frequency identification) tags are continuously operating, battery-powered sensors that gather and transmit data to a reading device.
  • active sensor - An active sensor is a device with a transmitter that sends out a signal, light wavelength or electrons to be bounced off a target, with data gathered by the sensor upon their reflection.
  • ActiveX - ActiveX is a set of object-oriented programming technologies and tools that Microsoft developed for Internet Explorer to facilitate rich media playback.
  • ActiveX controls - ActiveX controls are component program objects that Microsoft developed to enable applications to perform specific functions, such as displaying a calendar or playing a video.
  • adaptive multifactor authentication (adaptive MFA) - Adaptive multifactor authentication (MFA) is a security mechanism intended to authenticate and authorize users through a variety of contextual authentication factors.
  • address bar - The address bar is the familiar text field at the top of a web browser’s graphical user interface (GUI) that displays the name or the URL (uniform resource locator) of the current web page.
  • Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) - Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a protocol that maps dynamic IP addresses to permanent physical machine addresses in a local area network (LAN).
  • address space - Address space is the amount of memory allocated for all possible addresses for a computational entity -- for example, a device, a file, a server or a networked computer.
  • address space layout randomization (ASLR) - Address space layout randomization (ASLR) is a memory-protection process for operating systems (OSes) that guards against buffer-overflow attacks by randomizing the location where system executables are loaded into memory.
  • adiabatic cooling - Adiabatic cooling is the process of reducing heat through a change in air pressure caused by volume expansion.
  • Adobe Experience Platform - Adobe Experience Platform is a suite of customer experience management (CXM) solutions from Adobe.
  • Adobe Flash - Adobe Flash is a software platform used to create rich digital content containing animation, graphic effects, streaming video and other interactive elements to deliver engaging user experiences over many platforms, including desktops and mobile devices.
  • Adobe Flash Player - Adobe Flash Player is software used to stream and view video, audio, multimedia and Rich Internet Applications on a computer or supported mobile device.
  • Adobe Sign - Adobe Sign is a cloud-based service that lets an individual or organization send, secure, track and manage e-signature processes.
  • ADP Mobile Solutions - ADP Mobile Solutions is a self-service mobile app that enables employees to access work records such as pay, schedules, timecards, retirement funds, benefits and calendars.
  • ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) - ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology that facilitates fast data transmission at a high bandwidth on existing copper wire telephone lines to homes and businesses.
  • advanced analytics - Advanced analytics is a broad category of inquiry that can be used to help drive changes and improvements in business practices.
  • Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) - The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a symmetric block cipher chosen by the U.
  • Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) - Advanced Host Controller Interface, or AHCI, is a technical standard for an interface that enables software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices.
  • Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) - Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) is an open source published standard for asynchronous messaging by wire.
  • advanced shipping notice (ASN) - An advanced shipping notice (ASN) is a document that provides detailed information about a pending delivery.
  • adware - Adware is any software application in which an advertising banner or other advertising material displays or downloads while a program is running.
  • affinity marketing - Affinity marketing is a type of direct marketing in which a business forms a partnership with an organization to provide goods or services in exchange for access to a new market.
  • Agile Manifesto - The Agile Manifesto is a document that identifies four key values and 12 principles that its authors believe software developers should use to guide their work.
  • Agile operations (AgileOps) - Agile operations, or AgileOps, is a digital business operating model that builds on Agile methodologies and DevOps techniques to help organizations adapt to change quickly and efficiently.
  • Agile project management (APM) - Agile project management (APM) is an iterative approach to planning and guiding project processes.
  • Agile retrospective - An Agile retrospective is a meeting that's held at the end of an iteration in Agile software development.
  • agnostic - Agnostic, in an information technology (IT) context, refers to something that is generalized so that it is interoperable among various systems.
  • agri-tech - Agri-tech, sometimes ag-tech, agtech or digital agriculture, is the application of technology and digital tools to farming.
  • AI alignment - AI alignment is a field of AI safety research that aims to ensure artificial intelligence systems achieve desired outcomes.
  • AI PC - An AI PC is a personal computer equipped with hardware and software components to run artificial intelligence (AI) applications and tasks.
  • AI readiness: What is it, and is your business ready? - Artificial intelligence (AI) readiness encompasses all the elements, processes and steps needed to prepare an organization to implement AI systems.
  • AI watermarking - AI watermarking is the process of embedding a recognizable, unique signal into the output of an artificial intelligence model, such as text or an image, to identify that content as AI generated.
  • AI winter - AI winter is a quiet period for artificial intelligence research and development.
  • AIDA marketing model - The AIDA marketing model is a framework that describes a buyer's journey through four key stages: Attention, Interest, Decision and Action.
  • air gap (air gapping) - An air gap is a security measure that involves isolating a computer or network and preventing it from establishing an external connection.
  • airplane mode - Airplane mode is a setting on cell phones, smartphones and other mobile communication devices that prevents the device from sending or receiving calls and text messages.
  • AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) - AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a technique aimed at creating better and faster interactive web apps by combining several programming tools including JavaScript, dynamic HTML (DHTML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML).
  • alert fatigue - Alert fatigue, also called alarm fatigue, is an instance where an overwhelming number of alerts causes an individual to become desensitized to them.
  • algorithmic transparency - Algorithmic transparency is openness about the purpose, structure and underlying actions of the algorithms used to search for, process and deliver information.
  • all-flash array (AFA) - An all-flash array (AFA), also known as a solid-state storage disk system or a solid-state array, is an external storage array that supports only flash media for persistent storage.
  • Allscripts - Allscripts is a vendor of electronic health record systems for physician practices, hospitals and healthcare systems.
  • AlphaGo - AlphaGo is an artificial intelligence agent that is specialized to play Go, a Chinese game of strategy, against human competitors.
  • Alpine Linux - Alpine Linux is a small, security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on the musl C standard library and BusyBox utilities instead of GNU.
  • alternate data stream (ADS) - An alternate data stream (ADS) is a feature of Windows New Technology File System (NTFS) that contains metadata for locating a specific file by author or title.
  • Amazon AI - Amazon AI is a set of artificial intelligence (AI) services that offer machine learning (ML) and deep learning technologies for Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers.
  • Amazon API Gateway - Amazon API Gateway is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) feature that enables developers to connect non-AWS applications to AWS back-end resources, such as servers and code.
  • Amazon AppStream - Amazon AppStream is an Amazon Web Service (AWS) that enables compute-intensive applications to be streamed from the cloud to computing devices of all types.
  • Amazon Athena - Amazon Athena is a service that enables a data analyst to perform interactive queries in the web-based cloud storage service, Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3).
  • Amazon Aurora - Amazon Aurora is a relational database engine from Amazon Web Services.
  • Amazon Braket - Amazon Braket is a fully managed AWS cloud service designed to allow users remote access to a single development environment for quantum computers.
  • Amazon Cognito - Amazon Cognito is an Amazon Web Services product that controls user authentication and access for mobile applications on internet-connected devices.
  • Amazon Comprehend - Amazon Comprehend is a natural language processing (NLP) service that uses machine learning to analyze and find relationships in text.
  • Amazon Connect - Amazon Connect is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud customer contact center service.
  • Amazon Echo - Amazon Echo is a product line of hands-free speaker and virtual assistant devices that interact with an end user via the Amazon Alexa cloud-based voice service.
  • Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) - Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is a cloud-based file storage service for applications and workloads that run in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud.
  • Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a web-based service that enables businesses to run application programs in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud.
  • Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) - Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) is a cloud computing service in Amazon Web Services (AWS) that manages containers and allows developers to run applications in the cloud without having to configure an environment for the code to run in.
  • Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) - Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a cloud-based container management service that natively integrates with Kubernetes to deploy applications.
  • Amazon EMR (Elastic MapReduce) - Amazon EMR (previously known as Amazon Elastic MapReduce) is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) tool for big data processing and analysis.
  • Amazon Glacier - Amazon Glacier, also known as Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Glacier, is a low-cost cloud storage service for data with longer retrieval times offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
  • Amazon GuardDuty - Amazon GuardDuty is a managed cloud security monitoring service that detects behavior or threats that can compromise Amazon Web Services (AWS) accounts, resources or workloads.
  • Amazon Lightsail - Amazon Lightsail is an Amazon cloud service that offers bundles of cloud compute power and memory for new or less experienced cloud users.
  • Amazon Machine Image (AMI) - An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a master image for the creation of virtual servers -- known as EC2 instances -- in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment.
  • Amazon Machine Learning - Amazon Machine Learning is an Amazon Web Services product that allows a developer to discover patterns in end-user data through algorithms, construct mathematical models based on these patterns and then create and implement predictive applications.
  • Amazon Personalize - Amazon Personalize is a low-code recommendation engine that can generate custom recommendations for any application running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure.
  • Amazon QuickSight - Amazon QuickSight is a machine learning-powered business intelligence service built for the cloud under the Amazon Web Services (AWS) umbrella.
  • Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) - Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) is a managed database service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
  • Amazon Redshift - Amazon Redshift is a fully managed petabyte-scale data warehouse service.
  • Amazon Redshift Spectrum - Amazon Redshift Spectrum is a feature within Amazon Web Services' Redshift data warehousing service that lets a data analyst conduct fast, complex analysis on objects stored on the AWS cloud.
  • Amazon Resource Name (ARN) - An Amazon Resource Name is a file naming convention used to identify a particular resource in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud.