IT standards and organizations

Terms related to information technology (IT) standards, including definitions about IT organizations and words and phrases about policies and compliance.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) - Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, modifying and terminating real-time sessions that involve video, voice, messaging and other communications applications and services between two or more endpoints on IP networks.
seven wastes - The seven wastes are categories of unproductive manufacturing practices identified by Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System (TPS).
short message service center (SMSC) - The short message service center (SMSC) is the portion of a mobile phone network that handles text message operations.
siemens (mho) - (Siemens AG is a German company engaged in electrical engineering and electronics.
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) - Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application-layer protocol for monitoring and managing network devices on a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN).
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.
Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP) - Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP) is a Cisco proprietary standard for terminal control for use with voice over IP (VoIP).
sliding window (windowing) - The sliding window (windowing) technique is used by Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to manage the flow of packets between two computers or network hosts.
slowness movement - The slowness movement is a grassroots reaction to the hectic pace, overwork, and lack of leisure typical of modern life.
SMB (small and medium-sized business or small and midsize business) - SMB is an abbreviation for a small and medium-sized business, sometimes called a small and midsize business.
SMS gateway - An SMS gateway is a website that allows users to send SMS messages from a web browser to people within the cell served by that gateway.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) - SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a TCP/IP protocol used in sending and receiving email.
SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms) - SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms) is a standardized, multilingual vocabulary of clinical terminology that is used by physicians and other health care providers for the electronic exchange of health information.
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) - SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a message protocol that enables the distributed elements of an application to communicate.
solid - A solid is a state of matter that retains its shape and density when not confined.
SpaceX - SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) is a space transportation and aerospace manufacturer founded in 2002 by Elon Musk.
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) - Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a Layer 2 network protocol used to prevent looping within a network topology.
specific gravity - Specific gravity, more formally known as relative density, is a measure of the density of a substance in comparison to the density of water.
square meter (meter squared) - The square meter, also called the meter squared, is the International System of Units (SI) unit of area.
SRTP (Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol or Secure RTP) - SRTP (Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol or Secure RTP) is an extension to RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) that incorporates enhanced security features.
SSADM (Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method) - SSADM (Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method) is a widely used computer application development method in the United Kingdom, where its use is often specified as a requirement for government computing projects.
SSL (secure sockets layer) - Secure sockets layer (SSL) is a networking protocol designed for securing connections between web clients and web servers over an insecure network, such as the internet.
stand-up - In agile software development, a stand-up is a daily progress meeting, traditionally held within a development area.
standard temperature and pressure (STP) - Standard temperature and pressure (STP) refers to the nominal conditions in the atmosphere at sea level.
standardization - Standardization is the process of developing, promoting and possibly mandating standards-based and compatible technologies and processes within an industry.
static IP address - A static IP address is a 32 bit number that is assigned to a computer to be its address on the internet.
statistical mean, median, mode and range - The terms mean, median, mode, and range describe properties of statistical distributions.
Stefan-Boltzmann constant - The Stefan-Boltzmann constant, symbolized by the lowercase Greek letter sigma (σ), is a physical constant expressing the relationship between the heat radiation emitted by a black body and its absolute temperature.
Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) - Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a connection-oriented network protocol for transmitting multiple streams of data simultaneously between two endpoints that have established a connection in a network.
Sun Microsystems - Sun Microsystems (often just called "Sun"), the leading company in computers used as Web servers, also makes servers designed for use as engineering workstations, data storage products, and related software.
SWIFT FIN message - SWIFT FIN is a message type (MT) that transmits financial information from one financial institution to another.
syslog - Syslog is an IETF RFC 5424 standard protocol for computer logging and collection that is popular in Unix-like systems including servers, networking equipment and IoT devices.
systems thinking - Systems thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems.
TCP/IP - TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and is a suite of communication protocols used to interconnect network devices on the internet.
think tank - A think tank is an organization that gathers a group of interdisciplinary scholars to perform research around particular policies, issues or ideas.
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) - Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is a digital modulation technique used in digital cellular telephone and mobile radio communication.
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.
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Total Quality Management (TQM) - Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management framework based on the belief that an organization can build long-term success by having all its members -- from low-level workers to its highest-ranking executives -- focus on improving quality and, thus, delivering customer satisfaction.
transparency - Transparency is the quality of being easily seen through, while transparency in a business or governance context refers to being open and honest.
transport layer - The transport layer is Layer 4 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communications model.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) - Transport Layer Security (TLS) is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard protocol that provides authentication, privacy and data integrity between two communicating computer applications.
UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) - UDDI, or Universal Description, Discovery and Integration, is an Extensible Language Markup (XML)-based standard to describe, publish and find information about web services.
Unicode - Unicode is a universal character encoding standard that is maintained by the Unicode Consortium, a standards organization founded in 1991 for the internationalization of software and services.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) - United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a private aerospace launch provider.
Universal Naming Convention (UNC) - The Universal Naming Convention (UNC) is a standard for naming resources -- such as files and devices -- that are shared by computers on a network.
Universal Process Notation (UPN) - Universal Process Notation is a method for illustrating the steps in a business process.
USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed USB) - USB 3.0 is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) data transfer standard that is backwards compatible with USB 2.
Uuencode (Uuencode/Uudecode) - Uuencode (also called Uuencode/Uudecode) is a popular utility for encoding and decoding files exchanged between users or systems in a network.
velocity - Velocity is a vector expression of the displacement that an object or particle undergoes with respect to time.
vertical market - A vertical market is made up of companies that offer goods and services to meet the needs of customers in a specific industry or niche market.
VistA EHR - VistA EHR, more formally known as the VistA Computerized Patient Record System, is an open source electronic health record (EHR) system developed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
volt-ampere (VA) - A volt-ampere (VA) is a measurement of power in a direct current (DC) electrical circuit.
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) - The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is an international organization that creates standards for the World Wide Web.
watt-hour (Wh) - The watt-hour, which is symbolized Wh, is a unit of energy equivalent to one watt of power expended for one hour of time.
well-known port numbers - The well-known port numbers are the port numbers that are reserved for assignment by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for use by the application end points that communicate using the Internet's Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or the User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
Wien's constant - Wien's constant is a physical constant that is used in defining the relationship between the thermodynamic temperature of a black body (an object that radiates electromagnetic energy perfectly) and the wavelength at which the intensity of the radiation is the greatest.
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) - Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a set of specifications from Microsoft for consolidating the management of devices and applications in a network from Windows computing systems.
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) - Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a specification for a set of communication protocols to standardize the way wireless devices, such as mobile phones and radio transceivers, can be used for internet access, including email, the web, newsgroups and instant messaging.
WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI) - WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI) is a wireless local area network security standard officially supported by the Chinese government.
work - Work is force applied over distance.
World Wide Web (WWW) - The World Wide Web -- also known as the web, WWW or W3 -- refers to all the public websites or pages that users can access on their local computers and other devices through the internet.
WSTx (Web Services Transactions) - WSTx (Web Services Transaction) is a set of XML markup specifications designed to permit the use of open, standard protocols for secure, reliable transactions across the Web.
XML (Extensible Markup Language) - XML (Extensible Markup Language) is used to describe data.
XML Schema Definition (XSD) - XML Schema Definition or XSD is a recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to describe and validate the structure and content of an XML document.
yottabyte (YB) - A yottabyte (YB) is a measure of theoretical storage capacity and data volumes equal to 2 to the 80th power bytes, or approximately a million trillion megabytes (MB).
Zigbee - Zigbee is a standards-based wireless technology developed to enable low-cost, low-power wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) and internet of things (IoT) networks.
Zulu (Zulu time) - Zulu (Zulu time) is used in the military and navigation for timekeeping purposes to avert confusion when coordinating with countries using other time standards.