💻IT: Service Level Agreement [SLA] (Definitions)

"A signed agreement of system service requirements between two parties (such as your company and an ASP or between your department and end users) that defines the guidelines, response times, actions, and so on, that will be adhered to for the life of the agreement." (Allan Hirt et al, "Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability", 2004)

"A contract with a service provider, be it an internal IT organization, application service provider, or outsourcer, that specifies discrete reliability and availability requirements for an outsourced system. An SLA might also include other requirements such as support of certain technology standards or data volumes. An outsourcer’s failure to adhere to the terms laid out in an SLA could result in financial penalties." (Evan Levy & Jill Dyché, "Customer Data Integration", 2006)

"A formal negotiated agreement between two parties. It is a contract that exists between customers and their service provider, or between service providers. It records the common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees, and so on, with the main purpose to agree on the level of service." (Tilak Mitra et al, "SOA Governance", 2008)

"An agreement between a customer and a product or service provider that defines conditions under which the provider will offer support or additional services to the customer, and what level of services will be offered under each of those conditions." (Steven Haines, "The Product Manager's Desk Reference", 2008)

"An agreement between a service provider and a service recipient that formally defines the levels of service that are to be provided." (David G Hill, "Data Protection: Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance", 2009)

"A formal negotiated agreement between two parties that usually records the common understanding about priorities, responsibilities, and warranties, with the main purpose of agreeing on the quality of the service. For example, an SLA may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation, or other attributes of the service (such as billing and even penalties in the case of violations of the SLA)." (David Lyle & John G Schmidt, "Lean Integration", 2010)

"A written legal contract between a service provider and client wherein the service provider guarantees a minimum level of service." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed., 2011)

"A contracted guarantee of service delivery for a program, transaction, service, or workload." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration", 2012)

"The part of a contract between two parties that outlines the delivery of services within defined timeframes." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"A statement to customers or the user community about the service the IT department will provide. It can refer to a variety of metrics, such as performance, up-time, resolution time, and so on." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"An agreement between an IT service provider and a customer to provide a specific level of reliability for a service. It stipulates performance expectations such as minimum uptime and maximum downtime levels. Many SLAs include monetary penalties if the IT service provider does not provide the service as promised." (Darril Gibson, "Effective Help Desk Specialist Skills", 2014)

"The service or maintenance contract that states the explicit levels of support, response time windows or ranges, escalation procedures in the event of a persistent problem, and possible penalties for nonconformance in the event the vendor does not meet its contractual obligations." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"A contract for formally defined services. Particular aspects of the service (scope, quality, responsibilities) are agreed between the service provider and the service user. A common feature of an SLA is a contracted delivery time of the service or performance." (Thomas C Wilson, "Value and Capital Management", 2015)

"A portion of a service contract that promises specific levels of service." (Weiss, "Auditing IT Infrastructures for Compliance" 2nd Ed, 2015)

"A contract between a service provider (either internal or external) and the end user that defines the level of service expected from the service provider." (Project Management Institute, "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)", 2017)

💻IT: Extranet (Definitions)

"A secure Internet site available only to a company’s internal staff and approved third-party partners. Extranets are flourishing in B2B environments where suppliers can have ready access to updated information from their business customers, and vice versa." (Evan Levy & Jill Dyché, "Customer Data Integration", 2006)

"Semi-public TCP/IP network used by several collaborating partners." (Martin J Eppler, "Managing Information Quality 2nd Ed.", 2006)

"Enterprise network using Web technologies for collaboration of internal users and selected external business partners." (Paulraj Ponniah, "Data Warehousing Fundamentals for IT Professionals", 2010)

"An internal network or intranet opened to selected business partners. Suppliers, distributors, and other authorized users can connect to a company’s network over the Internet or through private networks." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"Private, company-owned network that uses IP technology to securely share part of a business's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers, or other businesses." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management 8th Ed", 2011)

"A network that is outside the control of the company. Extranets are usually connections to outside companies, service providers, customers, and business partners." (Mark Rhodes-Ousley, "Information Security: The Complete Reference" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"A special network set up by a business for its customers, staff, and business partners to access from outside the office network; may be used to share marketing assets and other non-sensitive items." (Faithe Wempen, "Computing Fundamentals: Introduction to Computers", 2015)

"An extension of the corporate intranet over the Internet so that vendors, business partners, customers, and others can have access to the intranet." (James R Kalyvas & Michael R Overly, "Big Data: A Businessand Legal Guide", 2015)

💻IT: Intranet (Definitions)

"This is a network technology similar to the Internet that has been constructed by a company for its own benefit. Usually access to a company's intranet is limited to its employees, customers, and vendors." (Dale Furtwengler, "Ten Minute Guide to Performance Appraisals", 2000)

"A private network that uses web technology to distribute information. Usually used to make information available inside a company among employees." (Andy Walker, "Absolute Beginner’s Guide To: Security, Spam, Spyware & Viruses", 2005)

"An organization’s internal system of connected networks built on Internet-standard protocols and usually connected to the Internet via a firewall." (Sharon Allen & Evan Terry, "Beginning Relational Data Modeling 2nd Ed.", 2005)

"Internal company networks designed to provide a secure forum for sharing information, often in a web-browser type interface." (Martin J Eppler, "Managing Information Quality 2nd Ed.", 2006)

"The enterprise network using Web technologies for collaboration of internal users." (Paulraj Ponniah, "Data Warehousing Fundamentals for IT Professionals", 2010)

"A subset of the Internet used internally by an organization. Unlike the larger Internet, intranets are private and accessible only from within the organization. The use of Internet technologies over a private network." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"Network designed to serve the internal informational needs of a company, using Internet tools." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed., 2011)

"a private web site available only to those within a company or organization." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"A computer network designed to be used within a business or company. An intranet is so named because it uses much of the same technology as the Internet. Web browsers, email, newsgroups, HTML documents, and websites are all found on intranets.  In addition, the method for transmitting information on these networks is TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). See Internet." (James R Kalyvas & Michael R Overly, "Big Data: A Businessand Legal Guide", 2015)

"A special network that only staff within the company network can access. For security reasons an intranet can only be accessed onsite and not remotely." (Faithe Wempen, "Computing Fundamentals: Introduction to Computers", 2015)

 "A trusted digital source of corporate communication and content designed to educate and empower employees and improve their workplace experiences." (Forrester)

💻IT: IT Governance (Definitions)

"Framework for the leadership, organizational structures and business processes, standards and compliance to these standards, which ensure that the organization’s IT supports and enables the achievement of its strategies and objectives." (Alan Calder, "IT Governance: Guidelines for Directors", 2005)

"The processes, policies, relationships, and mechanisms that ensure that information technology delivers business value while balancing risk and investment decisions. IT governance ensures accountability and provides rigor for managing IT capabilities in the context of a larger corporate governance framework." (Evan Levy & Jill Dyché, "Customer Data Integration", 2006)

"Addresses the application of governance to an IT organization and its people, processes, and information to guide the way those assets support the needs of the business. It may be characterized by assigning decision rights and measures to processes." (Tilak Mitra et al, "SOA Governance", 2008)

"IT governance is the system and structure for defining policy and monitoring and controlling the policy implementation, and managing and coordinating the procedures and resources aimed at ensuring the efficient and effective execution of services." (Anton Joha & Marijn Janssen, "The Strategic Determinants of Shared Services", 2008)

"The discipline of managing IT as a service to the business, aligning IT objectives with business goals." (Allen Dreibelbis et al, "Enterprise Master Data Management", 2008)

"An integral part of enterprise governance and consists of the leadership and organizational structures and processes that ensure the enterprise’s IT sustains and extends the organization’s strategies and objectives." (Edephonce N Nfuka & Lazar Rusu, IT Governance in the Public Sector in a Developing Country, 2009)

"(1) Locus of IT decision-making authority (narrow definition). (2) The distribution of IT decision-making rights and responsibilities among different stakeholders in the organization, and the rules and procedures for making and monitoring decisions on strategic IT concerns (comprehensive definition)." (Ryan R Peterson, "Trends in Information Technology Governance", 2009)

"Structure of relationships and processes to direct and control the IT enterprise to achieve IT’s goals by adding value while balancing risk versus return over IT and its processes." (IT Governance Institute, "IT Governance Implementation Guide, Using COBIT and Val IT", 2010)

"The discipline of tracking, managing, and steering an IS/IT landscape. Architectural governance is concerned with change processes (design governance). Operational governance looks at the operational performance of systems against contracted performance levels, the definition of operational performance levels, and the implementation of systems that ensure the effective operation of systems." (David Lyle & John G Schmidt, "Lean Integration", 2010)

"Formally established statements that direct the policies regarding IT alignment with organizational goals and allocation of resources." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management 8th Ed", 2011)

"Supervision monitoring and control of an organization's IT assets." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed, 2011)

"The processes and relationships that lead to reasoned decision making in IT." (Steven Romero, "Eliminating ‘Us and Them’", 2011)

"The function of ensuring that the enterprise's IT activities match and support the organization's strategies and objectives. Governance is very often associated with budgeting, project management, and compliance activities." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed, 2012)

"Controls and process to improve the effectiveness of information technology; also, the primary way that stakeholders can ensure that investments in IT create business value and contribute toward meeting business objectives." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"Processes used to ensure that IT resources are aligned with the goals of the organization. Organizations often use frameworks to help them with IT governance." (Darril Gibson, "Effective Help Desk Specialist Skills", 2014)

"The framework of rules and practices by which an organization structures its technology decision-making process in order to ensure alignment of the organization's business strategy with its operations." (David K Pham, "From Business Strategy to Information Technology Roadmap", 2016)

"Set of methods and techniques for reaching full alignment between business strategy and IT strategy." (Dalia S Vugec, "IT Strategic Grid: A Longitudinal Multiple Case Study", 2019)

"The processes that ensure the effective and efficient use of IT in enabling an organization to achieve its goals." (Lili Aunimo et al, "Big Data Governance in Agile and Data-Driven Software Development: A Market Entry Case in the Educational Game Industry", 2019)

"The structures, processes, and mechanisms by which the current and future use of ICT is directed and controlled." (Konstantinos Tsilionis & Yves Wautelet, "Aligning Strategic-Driven Governance of Business IT Services With Their Agile Development: A Conceptual Modeling-Based Approach", 2021)

"IT governance (ITG) is defined as the processes that ensure the effective and efficient use of IT in enabling an organization to achieve its goals." (Gartner)

"The system by which the current and future use of IT is directed and controlled, Corporate Governance of IT involves evaluating and directing the use of IT to support the organisation and monitoring this use to achieve plans." (ISO/IEC 38500)

💻IT: Localization (Definitions)

"The process of making a program suitable for execution within a particular geographic region, typically by translating messages to the local language and handling things such as local time zones, currency symbols, date formats, and so on. Sometimes localization is used just to refer to the language translation and the term internationalization to the rest of the process." (Stephen G Kochan, "Programming in Objective-C", 2003)

"The process of customizing a globalized application for a specific culture." (Rod Stephens, "Stephens' Visual Basic® Programming 24-Hour Trainer", 2011)

"The process of making a program support a specific locale." (Rod Stephens, "Start Here! Fundamentals of Microsoft® .NET Programming", 2011)

"The process of adapting a product and/or content (including text and non-text elements) to meet the language, cultural, and political expectations and/or requirements of a specific local market (locale)." (SQL Server 2012 Glossary, "Microsoft", 2012)

"The process of customizing and adapting a global application for a particular culture and locale." (Joan C Dessinger, "Fundamentals of Performance Improvement" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"The process of setting up an application to run in a particular national language environment. An application that is localized typically generates messages in a local language and character set and uses local datetime formats." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)

 "A view that joins horizontally partitioned data from a set of member tables across a single server, making the data appear as if from one table." (Microsoft Technet)

💻IT: Cloud Computing (Definitions)

"The service delivery of any IT resource as a networked resource." (David G Hill, "Data Protection: Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance", 2009)

"A technology where the data and the application are stored remotely and made available to the user over the Internet on demand." (Janice M Roehl-Anderson, "IT Best Practices for Financial Managers", 2010)

"A business model where programs, data storage, collaboration services, and other key business tools are stored on a centralized server that users access remotely, often through a browser." (Rod Stephens, "Start Here! Fundamentals of Microsoft .NET Programming", 2011)

"Technology that is rented or leased on a regular, or as-needed basis." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed, 2011)

"Using programs and data stored on servers connected to computers via the Internet rather than storing software and data on individual computers." (Gina Abudi & Brandon Toropov, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Best Practices for Small Business", 2011)

"The delivery of computing as a service. Cloud computing applications rely on a network (typically the Internet) to provide users with shared resources, software, and data." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration", 2012)

"Using Internet-based resources (e.g., applications, servers, etc.) as opposed to buying and installing in-house." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook, 3rd Ed", 2012)

"A business strategy where part or all of an organization’s information processing and storage is done by online service providers." (Kenneth A Shaw, "Integrated Management of Processes and Information", 2013)

"A computing model that makes IT resources such as servers, middleware, and applications available as services to business organizations in a self-service manner." (Marcia Kaufman et al, "Big Data For Dummies", 2013)

"Computing resources provided over the Internet using a combination of virtual machines (VMs), virtual storage, and virtual networks." (Mark Rhodes-Ousley, "Information Security: The Complete Reference, Second Edition, 2nd Ed.", 2013)

"A model for network access in which large, scalable resources are provided via the Internet as a shared service to requesting users. Access, computing, and storage services can be obtained by users without the need to understand or control the location and configuration of the system. Users consume resources as a service, and pay only for the resources that are used." (Jim Davis & Aiman Zeid, "Business Transformation: A Roadmap for Maximizing Organizational Insights", 2014)

"The delivery of software and other computer resources as a service over the Internet, rather than as a stand-alone product." (Manish Agrawal, "Information Security and IT Risk Management", 2014)

"The provision of computational resources on demand via a network. Cloud computing can be compared to the supply of electricity and gas or the provision of telephone, television, and postal services. All of these services are presented to users in a simple way that is easy to understand without users' needing to know how the services are provided. This simplified view is called an abstraction. Similarly, cloud computing offers computer application developers and users an abstract view of services, which simplifies and ignores much of the details and inner workings. A provider's offering of abstracted Internet services is often called the cloud." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"A computational paradigm that aims at supporting large-scale, high-performance computing in distributed environments via innovative metaphors such as resource virtualization and de-location." (Alfredo Cuzzocrea & Mohamed M Gaber, "Data Science and Distributed Intelligence", 2015)

"A computing model that makes IT resources such as servers, middleware, and applications available as services to business organizations in a self-service manner." (Judith S Hurwitz, "Cognitive Computing and Big Data Analytics", 2015)

"A delivery model for information technology resources and services that uses the Internet to provide immediately scalable and rapidly provisioned resources as services using a subscription or utility-based fee structure." (James R Kalyvas & Michael R Overly, "Big Data: A Businessand Legal Guide", 2015)

"A service that provides storage space and other resources on the Internet" (Nell Dale & John Lewis, "Computer Science Illuminated, 6th Ed.", 2015)

"Delivering hosted services over the Internet, which includes providing infrastructures, platforms, and software as services." (Mike Harwood, "Internet Security: How to Defend Against Attackers on the Web 2nd Ed.", 2015)

"The delivery of computer processing capabilities as a service rather than as a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to end users as a utility. Offerings are usually bundled as an infrastructure, platform, or software." (Adam Gordon, "Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK" 4th Ed., 2015)

"A general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. These services are broadly divided into: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and Analytics-as-a-Service (AaaS)."  (Suren Behari, "Data Science and Big Data Analytics in Financial Services: A Case Study", 2016)

"A type of Internet-based technology in which different services (such as servers, storage, and applications) are delivered to an organization’s or an individual’s computers and devices through the Internet." (Jonathan Ferrar et al, "The Power of People: Learn How Successful Organizations Use Workforce Analytics To Improve Business Performance", 2017)

"A form of distributed computing whereby many computers and applications share the same resources to work together, often across geographically separated areas, to provide a coherent service." (O Sami Saydjari, "Engineering Trustworthy Systems: Get Cybersecurity Design Right the First Time", 2018)

"Cloud computing is a general term for the delivery of hosted services over the Internet. Cloud computing enables companies to consume compute resources as a utility - just like electricity - rather than having to build and maintain computing infrastructures in-house." (Thomas Ochs & Ute A Riemann, "IT Strategy Follows Digitalization", 2018)

"Cloud computing refers to the provision of computational resources on demand via a network. Cloud computing can be compared to the supply of a utility like electricity, water, or gas, or the provision of telephone or television services. All of these services are presented to the users in a simple way that is easy to understand without the users’ needing to know how the services are provided. This simplified view is called an abstraction. Similarly, cloud computing offers computer application developers and users an abstract view of services, which simplifies and ignores many of the details and inner workings. A provider’s offering of abstracted Internet services is often called The Cloud." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance for Healthcare Professionals", 2018)

"The delivery of computing services and resources such as the servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and analytic through the internet." (Babangida Zubairu, "Security Risks of Biomedical Data Processing in Cloud Computing Environment", 2018)

"The use of shared remote computing devices for the purpose of providing improved efficiencies, performance, reliability, scalability, and security." (Shon Harris & Fernando Maymi, "CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide" 8th Ed., 2018)

"A computing model that makes information technology resources such as servers, middleware, and applications available over the internet as services to business organizations in a self-service manner." (K Hariharanath, "BIG Data: An Enabler in Developing Business Models in Cloud Computing Environments", 2019)

"Cloud computing refers to the practice of using a network of remote servers, hosted on the Internet to manage, store and process data instead of using a local server or a personal computer." (Jurij Urbančič et al, "Expansion of Technology Utilization Through Tourism 4.0 in Slovenia", 2020)

"A standardized technology delivery capability (services, software, or infrastructure) delivered via internet-standard technologies in a pay-per-use, self-service way." (Forrester)

"Cloud computing is a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service using internet technologies." (Gartner)

💻IT: Authorization (Definitions)

"Access privileges granted to a user, program, or process or the act of granting those privileges." (CNSSI 4009-2015)

"Authorization is defined as a process ensuring that correctly authenticated users can access only those resources for which the owner has given them approval." (Gartner)

"The granting or denying of access rights to a user, program, or process." (NIST SP 800-33)

[authorization to operate:] "The official management decision given by a senior official to authorize operation of a system or the common controls inherited by designated organizations systems and to explicitly accept the risk to organizational operations (including mission, functions, image, and reputation), organizational assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation based on the implementation of an agreed-upon set of security and privacy controls." (NIST SP 800-12 Rev. 1)

"The process of initially establishing access privileges of an individual and subse­quently verifying the acceptability of a request for access." (NISTIR 4734)

"The process of verifying that a requested action or service is approved for a specific entity."(NIST SP 800-152) 

"The right or a permission that is granted to a system entity to access a system resource."(NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 2)

💻IT: Crowdsourcing (Definitions)

"Obtaining information by tapping the collective knowledge of many people." (W Roy Schulte & K Chandy, "Event Processing: Designing IT Systems for Agile Companies", 2009)

"A model of problem solving and idea generation that marshals the collective talents of a large group of people." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed., 2011)

"the act of outsourcing a task to an undefined, generally large group of people or community, typically in the form of some sort of post on the Internet." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"Tapping into collective online knowledge by inviting large numbers of people, via the Internet, to contribute ideas on different aspects of a business’s operations. A related concept is 'crowdfunding', which involves funding a project or venture by raising capital from individual investors via the Internet." (DK, "The Business Book", 2014)

"The process by which ideas, services, or other needs are solicited from predominantly amorphous and undefined large groups of people." (Evan Stubbs, "Big Data, Big Innovation", 2014)

"A method of resource gathering where interested potential customers pledge money to innovators for a product that has not yet been created." (Rachel Heinen et al, "Tools for the Process: Technology to Support Creativity and Innovation", 2015)

"The practice of outsourcing organisational tasks by placing a call on the internet and inviting all-comers to post submissions, often with the lure of a prize or commission for the 'best entry'." (Duncan Angwin & Stephen Cummings, "The Strategy Pathfinder" 3rd Ed., 2017)

"Dividing the work of collecting a substantial amount of data into small tasks that can be undertaken by volunteers." (Open Data Handbook)

💻IT: Product Information Management [PIM] (Definitions)

"The management of product master data, usually via a PIM hub, to avail a single version of the truth about product data to the business." (Evan Levy & Jill Dyché, "Customer Data Integration", 2006)

"MDM Systems that focus exclusively on managing the descriptions of products are also call PIM systems." (Martin Oberhofer et al, "Enterprise Master Data Management", 2008)

"Processes and technologies focused on centrally managing information about products, with a focus on the data required to market and sell the products through one or more distribution channels. A central set of product data can be used to feed consistent, accurate, and up-to-date information to multiple output media such as websites, print catalogs, ERP systems, and electronic data feeds to trading partners. PIM systems generally need to support multiple geographic locations, multilingual data, and maintenance and modification of product information within a centralized catalog to provide consistently accurate information to multiple channels in a cost-effective manner." (Janice M Roehl-Anderson, "IT Best Practices for Financial Managers", 2010)

"Processes and tools used to predict and evaluate success of products through marketing and sales efforts." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"Product Information Management (PIM) is the process, techniques and technology of gaining control over a company's product marketing information. The objective of PIM solutions is to remove inefficiency in the marketing supply chain by delivering information to sales channels more quickly and with fewer mistakes." (Digital Asset Management)

"Product information management (PIM) is the process of managing all the information required to market and sell products through distribution channels." (Wikipedia) [source]

"Product information management (PIM) is the software-based orchestration of data dissemination related to a business’s products and its suppliers’ products. PIM coordinates changing product information across all channels of communication, thus ensuring that a business’s entire ecosystem has consistent and up-to-date information." (Informatica)

"The processes and tools for managing product information, including: 1) data centralization and governance; 2) data onboarding from partners; 3) data and content creation and enrichment; and 4) content distribution/syndication." (Forrester)

💻IT: Information Security [IS] (Definitions)

"Secures the information assets of an organization." (David G Hill, "Data Protection: Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance", 2009)

"The practice of protecting information in all its forms, whether written, spoken, electronic, graphical, or using other methods of communication." (Mark Rhodes-Ousley, "Information Security: The Complete Reference, Second Edition" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"Is the practice of protecting information from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction. Information security encompasses both physical and electronic information." (David Sutton, "Information Risk Management: A practitioner’s guide", 2014)

"Protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide integrity, confidentiality, and availability." ( Manish Agrawal, "Information Security and IT Risk Management", 2014)

"The preservation of confidentiality, integrity and availability of information [1]" (David Sutton, "Information Risk Management: A practitioner’s guide", 2014)

"The techniques and policies used to ensure proper access to data" (Nell Dale & John Lewis, "Computer Science Illuminated" 6th Ed., 2015)

"The discipline of information security goes beyond simply restricting access to confidential business information. Information security can be defined as the implementation and management of the set of tools and processes whose goal is to preserve the three key elements of information security in the business: confidentiality, integrity and availability." (Sumo Logic) [source]

💻IT: Resilience (Definitions)

"The ability to cope with adversity and recover quickly from setbacks." (PMI, "Navigating Complexity: A Practice Guide", 2014)

"System resilience is an ability of the system to withstand a major disruption within acceptable degradation parameters and to recover within an acceptable time." (Denis Čaleta, "Cyber Threats to Critical Infrastructure Protection: Public Private Aspects of Resilience", 2016)

"The ability of an information system to continue to (1) operate under adverse conditions or stress, even if in a degraded or debilitated state, while maintaining essential operational capabilities; and (2) recover to an effective operational posture in a time frame consistent with mission needs." (William Stallings, "Effective Cybersecurity: A Guide to Using Best Practices and Standards", 2018)

"The ability of a project to readily resume from unexpected events, threats or actions." (Phil Crosby, "Shaping Mega-Science Projects and Practical Steps for Success", 2019)

"The ability of an infrastructure to resist, respond and overcome adverse events" (Konstantinos Apostolou et al, "Business Continuity of Critical Infrastructures for Safety and Security Incidents", 2020)

"The word resilience refers to the ability to overcome critical moments and adapt after experiencing some unusual and unexpected situation. It also indicates return to normal." (José G Vargas-Hernández, "Urban Socio-Ecosystems Green Resilience", 2021)

"Adaptive capacity of an organisation in a complex and changing environment’ (ISO Guide 73:2009)

"The ability to resist failure or to recover quickly following a failure" (ITIL)

"The ability of an information system to continue to: (i) operate under adverse conditions or stress, even if in a degraded or debilitated state, while maintaining essential operational capabilities; and (ii) recover to an effective operational posture in a time frame consistent with mission needs." (NIST SP 800-39)

"The ability to prepare for and adapt to changing conditions and withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions. Resilience includes the ability to withstand and recover from deliberate attacks, accidents, or naturally occurring threats or incidents." (NIST SP 800-37)

"The ability to quickly adapt and recover from any known or unknown changes to the environment through holistic implementation of risk management, contingency, and continuity planning." (NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1)

💻IT: Grid Computing (Definitions)

"A grid is an architecture for distributed computing and resource sharing. A grid system is composed of a heterogeneous collection of resources connected by local-area and/or wide-area networks (often the Internet). These individual resources are general and include compute servers, storage, application servers, information services, or even scientific instruments. Grids are often implemented in terms of Web services and integrated middleware components that provide a consistent interface to the grid. A grid is different from a cluster in that the resources in a grid are not controlled through a single point of administration; the grid middleware manages the system so control of resources on the grid and the policies governing use of the resources remain with the resource owners." (Beverly A Sanders, "Patterns for Parallel Programming", 2004)

"Clusters of cheap computers, perhaps distributed on a global basis, connected using even something as loosely connected as the Internet." (Gavin Powell, "Beginning Database Design", 2006)

"A step beyond distributed processing. Grid computing involves large numbers of networked computers, often geographically dispersed and possibly of different types and capabilities, that are harnessed together to solve a common problem." (Judith Hurwitz et al, "Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies" 2nd Ed., 2009)

"A web-based operation allowing companies to share computing resources on demand." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"The use of networks to harness the unused processing cycles of all computers in a given network to create powerful computing capabilities." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed., 2011)

"A distributed set of computers that can be allocated dynamically and accessed remotely. A grid is distinguished from a cloud in that a grid may be supported by multiple organizations and is usually more heterogeneous and physically distributed." (Michael McCool et al, "Structured Parallel Programming", 2012)

"the use of multiple computing resources to leverage combined processing power. Usually associated with scientific applications." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"A step beyond distributed processing, involving large numbers of networked computers (often geographically dispersed and possibly of different types and capabilities) that are harnessed to solve a common problem. A grid computing model can be used instead of virtualization in situations that require real time where latency is unacceptable." (Marcia Kaufman et al, "Big Data For Dummies", 2013)

"A named set of interconnected replication servers for propagating commands from an authorized server to the rest of the servers in the set." (IBM, "Informix Servers 12.1", 2014)

"A type of computing in which large computing tasks are distributed among multiple computers on a network." (Jim Davis & Aiman Zeid, "Business Transformation: A Roadmap for Maximizing Organizational Insights", 2014)

"Connecting many computer system locations, often via the cloud, working together for the same purpose." (Jason Williamson, "Getting a Big Data Job For Dummies", 2015)

"A computer network that enables distributed resource management and on-demand services." (Forrester)

"A computing architecture that coordinates large numbers of servers and storage to act as a single large computer." (Oracle, "Oracle Database Concepts")

"connecting different computer systems from various location, often via the cloud, to reach a common goal." (Analytics Insight)

💻IT: Latency (Definitions)

"The fixed cost of servicing a request, such as sending a message or accessing information from a disk. In parallel computing, the term most often is used to refer to the time it takes to send an empty message over the communication medium, from the time the send routine is called to the time the empty message is received by the recipient. Programs that generate large numbers of small messages are sensitive to the latency and are called latency-bound programs." (Beverly A Sanders, "Patterns for Parallel Programming", 2004)

"The amount of time it takes a system to deliver data in response to a request. For mass storage devices, it is the time it takes to place the read or write heads over the desired spot on the media. In networks, it is a function of the electrical and software properties of the network connection." (Tom Petrocelli, "Data Protection and Information Lifecycle Management", 2005)

"The time delay it takes for a network packet to travel from one destination to another." (John Goodson & Robert A Steward, "The Data Access Handbook", 2009)

"The time it takes for a system to respond to an input." (W Roy Schulte & K Chandy, "Event Processing: Designing IT Systems for Agile Companies", 2009)

"A period of time that the computer must wait while a disk drive is positioning itself to read a particular block of data." (Rod Stephens, "Start Here!™ Fundamentals of Microsoft® .NET Programming", 2011)

"The measure of time between two events, such as the initiation and completion of an event, or the read on one system and the write to another system." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"The time period from start to completion of a unit of work." (Max Domeika, "Software Development for Embedded Multi-core Systems", 2011)

"The time it takes to complete a task - that is, the time between when the task begins and when it ends. Latency has units of time. The scale can be anywhere from nanoseconds to days. Lower latency is better in general." (Michael McCool et al, "Structured Parallel Programming", 2012)

"The amount of time lag before a service executes in an environment. Some applications require less latency and need to respond in near real time, whereas other applications are less time-sensitive." (Marcia Kaufman et al, "Big Data For Dummies", 2013)

"A delay. Can apply to the sending, processing, transmission, storage, or receiving of information." (Mike Harwood, "Internet Security: How to Defend Against Attackers on the Web" 2nd Ed., 2015)

"A period of waiting for another component to deliver data needed to proceed." (Faithe Wempen, "Computing Fundamentals: Introduction to Computers", 2015)

"The time it takes for the specified sector to be in position under the read/write head" (Nell Dale & John Lewis, "Computer Science Illuminated" 6th Ed., 2015)

"The delay between when an action such as transmitting data is taken and when it has an effect." (O Sami Saydjari, "Engineering Trustworthy Systems: Get Cybersecurity Design Right the First Time", 2018)

💻IT: Automation (Definitions)

"The act of replacing control of a manual process with computer or electronic controls." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

[soft automation:] "automation that is configurable through software without requiring changes to the underlying code of the software itself." (Meredith Zozus, "The Data Book: Collection and Management of Research Data", 2017)

[hard automation:] "automation that requires computer programming to be altered if changes are required." (Meredith Zozus, "The Data Book: Collection and Management of Research Data", 2017)

[Decision Automation:] "This broad term refers to computerized systems that make decisions and have some capability to independently act upon them. Decision automation refers to using technologies, including computer processing, to make decisions and implement programmed decision processes." (Ciara Heavin & Daniel J Power, "Decision Support, Analytics, and Business Intelligence" 3rd Ed., 2017)

"Automation is machine-controlled execution of actions, based on artificial intelligence and machine learning that do not require human intervention. It enables speed to action to help reduce time taken by human operators." (Heru Susanto et al, "Data Security for Connected Governments and Organisations: Managing Automation and Artificial Intelligence", 2021)

"refers to the technology where procedures or processes are performed with minimal human intervention. Machines can be configured based on an explicit set of rules or algorithms." (Accenture)

"performing all or part of a set of tasks with a machine rather than through human effort (NRC 1998)

[Intelligent Automation:] "refers to an automation solution that is enhanced with cognitive capabilities that enable programs and machines to learn, interpret and respond." (Accenture)

💻IT: Gateway (Definitions)

"A network software product that allows computers or networks running dissimilar protocols to communicate, providing transparent access to a variety of foreign database management systems (DBMSs). A gateway moves specific database connectivity and conversion processing from individual client computers to a single server computer. Communication is enabled by translating up one protocol stack and down the other. Gateways usually operate at the session layer." (Microsoft Corporation, "SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Training Kit", 1999)

"Connectivity software that allows two or more computer systems with different network architectures to communicate." (Sybase, "Glossary", 2005)

"A generic term referring to a computer system that routes data or merges two dissimilar services together." (Paulraj Ponniah, "Data Warehousing Fundamentals for IT Professionals", 2010)

"A software product that allows SQL-based applications to access relational and non-relational data sources." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"An entrance point that allows users to connect from one network to another." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed., 2011)

[database gateway:] "Software required to allow clients to access data stored on database servers over a network connection." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration: The Complete Guide to DBA Practices and Procedures" 2nd Ed., 2012)

"A connector box that enables you to connect two dissimilar networks." (Faithe Wempen, "Computing Fundamentals: Introduction to Computers", 2015)

"A node that handles communication between its LAN and other networks" (Nell Dale & John Lewis, "Computer Science Illuminated, 6th Ed.", 2015)

"A system or device that connects two unlike environments or systems. The gateway is usually required to translate between different types of applications or protocols." (Shon Harris & Fernando Maymi, "CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide" 8th Ed., 2018)

"An application that acts as an intermediary for clients and servers that cannot communicate directly. Acting as both client and server, a gateway application passes requests from a client to a server and returns results from the server to the client." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)