IT Glossary
Key Terms To Know In The IT Industry
Directory
A hierarchical structure that stores information about objects on the network.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Security
Directory Service
A software system that stores, organizes, and provides access to information in a directory.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Security
Disaster Recovery
Strategies, policies, and procedures to recover and protect a business IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Security
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
A cloud computing and backup service model that uses cloud resources to protect applications and data from disruption caused by disaster.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Security
Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
A documented, structured approach with instructions for responding to unplanned incidents.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, General IT
Disk Array
A data storage system that contains multiple disk drives. It is differentiated from a disk enclosure, in that an array has cache memory and advanced functionality, like RAID and virtualization.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Networking
Disk Encryption
A technology which protects information by converting it into unreadable code that cannot be deciphered easily by unauthorized people.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, Cybersecurity
Disk Management
The utility used for managing disk drives and volumes.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Disk Partitioning
The process of dividing a disk into one or more regions, allowing different file systems to be used on each.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Distributed Application (DApp)
An application that runs on a distributed computing system.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Security
Distributed Computing
A field of computer science that studies distributed systems.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Networking
Distributed Database
A database in which storage devices are not all attached to a common processor.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, General IT
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack
A type of cyber attack where multiple compromised systems, which are often infected with a Trojan, are used to target a single system causing a Denial of Service (DoS) attack.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, Cybersecurity
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection
Measures taken to protect a targeted server or network from a distributed denial-of-service attack.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, Cybersecurity
Distributed File System (DFS)
A file system that allows access to files from multiple hosts sharing via a network.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, General IT
Distributed Ledger
A consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data spread across multiple sites, countries, or institutions.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, Cybersecurity
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)
Consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data geographically spread across multiple sites, countries, or institutions.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, Cybersecurity
DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)
A physical or logical subnetwork that contains and exposes an organization's external-facing services to an untrusted network, usually a larger network such as the internet.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Security
DNS (Domain Name System)
The hierarchical and decentralized naming system for computers, services, or other resources connected to the Internet or a private network.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions)
A suite of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) specifications for securing certain kinds of information provided by the Domain Name System (DNS) as used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, Networking
Docker
An open-source project that automates the deployment of applications inside software containers, providing an additional layer of abstraction and automation of OS-level virtualization on Linux.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Networking
Docker Container
A lightweight, stand-alone, executable package that includes everything needed to run a piece of software, including the code, a runtime, libraries, environment variables, and config files.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Networking
Document Management System (DMS)
A system (based on computer programs in the case of the management of digital documents) used to track, manage, and store documents and reduce paper.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Document Object Model (DOM)
A cross-platform and language-independent interface that treats an XML or HTML document as a tree structure wherein each node is an object representing a part of the document.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Domain
An area of control or a sphere of knowledge in a computing context, or the name of a network domain.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, General IT
Domain Controller
A server on a Microsoft Windows or Windows NT network that is responsible for allowing host access to Windows domain resources.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Security
Domain Name Registrar
An organization or commercial entity that manages the reservation of Internet domain names.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, General IT
Domain Name System (DNS)
The system by which Internet domain names and addresses are tracked and regulated. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Domain-Driven Design
An approach to software development for complex needs by connecting the implementation to an evolving model of the core business concepts.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Dongle
A small hardware device that connects to a computer to authenticate a piece of software.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, General IT
Double-Click
The action of pressing a computer mouse button twice quickly without moving the mouse.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Download
To receive data from a remote system, such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Networking
Downstream
The direction in which data can be transferred from the Internet to a computer system.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
DPI (Dots Per Inch)
A measure of spatial printing or video dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Drag-and-Drop
A pointing device gesture in which the user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Driver
Software that controls a device attached to a computer and allows the computer to use the device by providing a software interface.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
DRM (Digital Rights Management)
Technology that is used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders, and individuals to impose limitations on the usage of digital content and devices.
You will find this term commonly used in Security, General IT
Dual Boot
The practice of installing two operating systems on a computer, and being able to choose which one to boot.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Dual-Band
Refers to routers or Wi-Fi networks that can transmit at both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Dynamic DNS (DDNS)
A method of automatically updating a name server in the Domain Name System (DNS), often in real time, with the active DDNS configuration of its configured hostnames, addresses or other information.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
A network management protocol used to automate the process of configuring devices on IP networks, thus allowing them to use network services such as DNS, NTP, and any communication protocol based on UDP or TCP.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Dynamic Linking
The process of linking an application with libraries at runtime rather than at compile time.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
Dynamic Programming
A method for solving complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems.
You will find this term commonly used in AI, General IT
Dynamic Provisioning
The process of allocating resources to a service or application on-demand, or in real-time, based on current requirements.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, General IT
Dynamic Routing
The process where a router can forward data via a different route based on the current conditions of the communication circuits within a system.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Dynamic Volume
A type of disk volume with features that basic disks do not have, such as the ability to extend volumes without rebooting.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT
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