Acronym/Term Full Term What it actually means...
Application Software application Computer-accessible program that performs a function or task.
 
ASP Application Software Provider Third party software, licensed to you, for use over the Internet. There are many software applications that can reside outside your office but are customized to meet your specific needs. A monthly fee is paid for access.
Bandwidth Bandwidth A term used in measuring the amount of data that can be carried from one point to another in a given time period (usually a second). Bandwidth will determine how quickly you can access information over a Local Area Network, or over the Internet.
BCM Business Continuity Manager The person responsible for managing the process to minimize any disruption to business.
Best Practices Best Practices As stated, these are the processes and procedures deemed to work best for most companies within the industry associated with specific best practices.
Business Intelligence Business Intelligence The process of gathering data for use in making informed business decisions.
Business Intelligence (BI) Software Business Intelligence (BI) Software Software used for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. BI software allows users to perform the activities of decision support, query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining.
BCM Business Value of Information Technology The process of gathering data for use in making informed business decisions.
CTI Computer Telephony Integration The software, hardware and programming necessary to integrate computers and telephones so they can work together seamlessly.
CPU Central Processing Unit The CPU is the "brains" of the computer sometimes referred to as the processor or central processor. The CPU is where most calculations take place.
Dashboard Dashboard Graphical representations of data used to monitor the individual or group performance against targets and thresholds defined by managers.
Data Mart Data Mart A data mart is a repository of data gathered from operational data and other sources that is designed to serve a particular community of knowledge workers.
Data Mining Data Mining Name for the process of sorting through data to identify patterns and establish relationships.
Data Warehouse Data Warehouse A data warehouse is a central repository for all or significant parts of the data that an enterprise's various business systems collect. Data from various business applications and other sources is selectively extracted and organized on the data warehouse database for use by analytical applications and user queries.
DBA Database Administrator Person responsible for the maintenance of databases within the organization. Tasks may include providing access to employees, assuring the database is backed-up correctly, and assuring the database is secure.
D/R Disaster Recovery A series of processes contained within BCM that focus only upon the recovery of data, principally in response to physical disasters.
ETL Extract, Transform and Load The processes that enable companies to move data from multiple sources, reformat and cleanse it, then load it into another database, data mart or a data warehouse for analysis, or on another operational system to support a business process.
Failover Failover A backup operation that automatically switches to a standby database, server or network if the primary system fails or is temporarily shut down for servicing.
GHz Gigahertz 1 GHz represents one billion cycles per second. The speed of microprocessors, called the clock speed. For example, a microprocessor that has 200 GHz executes 200 billion cycles per second.
Hardware Hardware The physical components of a computer system, such as the hard drive, monitor, mouse, etc.
Help Desk Help Desk See "Service Desk".
Incident Incident Any event that is not part of a standard operation and may cause an interruption to (or a reduction in) the quality of that service.
ISP Internet Services Provider A third party, utilized to access the Internet, usually subscription based. Providers include: Earthlink, AOL, ISWest. A monthly fee is paid for access.
IT Information Technology The department responsible for technology in your company.
ITIL Information Technology Infrastructure Library A framework for best practices regarding service support and technology delivery.
ITSM Information Technology Service Management IT Service Management (ITSM) is a discipline for managing information technology (IT) systems, philosophically centered on the customer's perspective of IT's contribution to the business. ITSM stands in deliberate contrast to technology-centered approaches to IT management and business interaction.
LAN Local Area Network One or many PC-based servers stored locally in your office. They are used to link together multiple PC's.
MCSE Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Person responsible for a portion of the network (such as servers) who ensures that they are built properly, with security, and serve the purposes desired by the company. One must pass many exams to become Microsoft Certified.
Metrics Metrics A form of measure, generally referred to in IT as reports and statistics that measure the progress, delivery or other services delivered to the business. Also used in conjunction with Business Intelligence - the reporting/documenting that results from gathering data and statistics to measure a process, function or department, such as sales.
MIPS Million Instructions per Second An old measure of a computer's speed and power, DIPS measures roughly the number of machine instructions a computer can execute in one second.
OLA Operational Level Agreement A term used in measuring the amount of data that can travel through the cables at one time. Bandwidth will determine how quickly you can access remote information.
OLAP Online Analytical Processing A term used in measuring the amount of data that can travel through the cables at one time. Bandwidth will determine how quickly you can access remote information.
OS Operating System A type of computer processing that enables a user to easily and selectively extract and view data from different points-of-view. For example, a user can request that data be analyzed to display a spreadsheet showing all of a company's beach ball products sold in Florida in the month of July, compare revenue figures with those for the same products in September, and then see a comparison of other product sales in Florida in the same time period.
PMO Project Management Office The person or group responsible for coordinating all projects within IT. A single place to gather status and allocate resources to best accomplish open projects.
Problem Control Problem Control A process for handling malfunctions in an efficient and effective way. The aim is to identify the root cause (such as the CI's that are at fault) and to provide the Service Desk with information and advice on how to work around when available.
RAM Random Access Memory RAM is the most common type of memory found in computers and other devices such as printers.
RFC Request for Change Form, or screen, used to record details of a request for a change to any CI within an infrastructure or to procedures and items associated with the infrastructure.
Risk Management Risk Management The identification, selection, and adoption of countermeasures. This is necessary if there are identified risks to assets (in terms of their potential impact upon services if failure occurs). Those risks need to be reduced to an acceptable level.
Root Cause Root Cause The discovered original error at fault. In problem management, knowing the root cause changes a problem of unknown origin to a known error.
SAN Storage Area Network A high speed subnetwork of shared storage devices. A storage device is a machine that contains nothing but a disk or disks for storing data.
Scorecard Scorecard A "report card" consisting of summary level data, of how a given business unit, location, or even an entire organization performed with respect to certain goals over a given time period (usually monthly or quarterly).
SE Systems Engineer Person responsible for the technical support and development of hardware and software.
Service Desk Service Desk The single point of contact within the IT organization for users of IT services. Also referred to as "Help Desk" in many organizations.
Service Management Service Management Management of services which sees to it that the customer's requirements are met.
Single Point of Failure Single Point of Failure A component within the IT infrastructure that has no back-up capability and can cause negative impact to the business when it fails.
SLA Service Level Agreement Written agreement between a service provider and the Customers, which documents agreed Service Levels for a specific service.
Software Software The program(s) that tell a computer how to run.
TPS Transactions per Second A measurement used to determine how many transactions have been processed in one second in a transaction-driven system.
VPN Virtual Private Network Allows persons outside a company to access software and servers that are inside the company, with special permission. VPN's are generally used for dial-in access to e-mail and other software applications from remote locations.
WAN Wide Area Network Many servers that provide a link to your home office and remote offices via an Internet connection.
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