IT Glossary

A web-based DevOps lifecycle tool that provides a Git repository manager providing wiki, issue-tracking, and CI/CD pipeline features, using an open-source license.

Commonly used in Software Development

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment and delivery features integrated into GitLab, a web-based DevOps lifecycle tool.

Commonly used in Software Development

A paradigm or a set of practices that empowers developers to perform tasks which typically (in traditional IT) fall under IT operations. It uses Git as a single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and applications.

Commonly used in Software Development / General IT

A visual effect on screens that occurs when a light source directly hits the display, making it difficult to see the content. Addressing glare involves hardware design and ergonomics.

Commonly used in Hardware / Ergonomics

Techniques or technologies designed to minimize glare on screens and monitors, improving visibility and reducing eye strain for users.

Commonly used in Hardware / User Experience

Another term for white box testing, where the tester has full visibility of the internal workings of the software being tested.

Commonly used in Software Development / Security

A technology that uses thin strands of glass or plastic fibers for transmitting data as pulses of light. It’s widely used in telecommunications and networking because of its high speed and long distance capabilities.

Commonly used in Networking

A form of art that leverages digital or analog errors for aesthetic purposes, often created by corrupting digital data.

Commonly used in Digital Art, Multimedia

A business model that allows companies to provide services across the world using a mix of onshore, nearshore, and offshore teams.

Commonly used in Business Strategy, Outsourcing

A set of algorithms in computer graphics that simulate how light is transferred among surfaces, not just from direct light sources, for more realistic renderings.

Commonly used in Computer Graphics, Game Development

A general term describing any satellite constellation that provides positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services on a global or regional basis. It includes systems like GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (EU), and Beidou (China).

Commonly used in Networking / GIS

An interconnected system of networks that spans multiple geographic locations, facilitating communication and data exchange around the world.

Commonly used in Networking

A satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth.

Commonly used in Networking / Security

In programming, refers to the state of an application that is shared across multiple components or functions, making it accessible from any part of the program.

Commonly used in Software Development

A variable that is declared in the global scope, making it accessible and modifiable from any part of the program. While convenient, their use is generally discouraged due to potential for conflicts and unintended modifications.

Commonly used in Software Development

A programming term used to describe the use of wildcard characters (*, ?, etc.) to match patterns or sets of filenames.

Commonly used in Software Development / Shell Scripting

Code that does not contribute any functionality towards meeting the program’s requirements but instead serves to “glue” together different parts of code that would not otherwise be compatible.

Commonly used in Software Development

A scalable network filesystem that allows rapid provisioning of additional storage based on your storage needs. It is used in cloud computing, streaming media services, and content delivery.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing

The process of displaying text characters in graphical applications, focusing on the accurate representation of font glyphs.

Commonly used in Typography, Graphics

A free and open-source desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems. GNOME aims to provide an easy to use and accessible desktop for everyone.

Commonly used in General IT

The use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals to determine a precise location on Earth.

Commonly used in Navigation, Location Services

A Unix-like operating system that is free software—it respects users’ freedom. The development of GNU made it possible to use a computer without software that would trample your freedom.

Commonly used in General IT

A compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain and the standard compiler for most Unix-like operating systems.

Commonly used in Software Development

A decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) network protocol used for large-scale file sharing.

Commonly used in Networking

A peer-to-peer protocol developed as an open standard alternative to Gnutella original protocol, designed to provide better scalability and efficiency in file sharing.

Commonly used in Networking

The point at which a system, application, or website is made available for use by its intended end users.

Commonly used in Software Development / Web Development

An official dependency management solution in Go, which makes dependency version information explicit and easier to manage.

Commonly used in Software Development

An action plan that specifies how a company will reach target customers and achieve competitive advantage. While not exclusively an IT term, it’s crucial in the launch of IT products and services.

Commonly used in General IT / Marketing

An open-source programming language designed at Google in 2007 to improve programming productivity in an era of multicore, networked machines, and large codebases.

Commonly used in Software Development

An online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users.

Commonly used in Marketing / Web Development

A web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand.

Commonly used in Web Development / Marketing

A fully managed, serverless platform for developing and hosting web applications at scale.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing / Web Development

An artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant developed by Google that is primarily available on mobile and smart home devices. Unlike the company’s previous virtual assistant, Google Now, Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations.

Commonly used in AI / Consumer Technology

A set of development tools provided by Google that allows developers to integrate the Google Assistant into their own devices and services.

Commonly used in AI / Development Tools

Certification that demonstrates the skills of an entry-level Android developer to employers and peers.

Commonly used in Mobile Development

A fully-managed, serverless data warehouse that enables scalable analysis over petabytes of data. It is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that supports querying using ANSI SQL.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing / Data Analysis

Offers certifications for cloud engineers, architects, and data engineers, focusing on skills and knowledge related to Google Cloud technologies.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing

A suite of artificial intelligence services provided by Google Cloud, offering machine learning and data analytics capabilities.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing, AI

Demonstrates the ability to design, develop, and manage a secure, scalable, and reliable cloud architecture using Google Cloud Platform.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing

An NGINX-based proxy that helps developers create, deploy, and manage APIs on Google Cloud Platform.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing / Web Development

A NoSQL document database built for automatic scaling, high performance, and ease of application development.

Commonly used in Database Management / Cloud Computing

A serverless execution environment for building and connecting cloud services. With Cloud Functions, you can write simple, single-purpose functions that are attached to events emitted from your cloud infrastructure and services.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing / Software Development

A suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail, file storage, and YouTube.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing, Web Services

A suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail, file storage, and YouTube.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing

A real-time messaging service that allows you to send and receive messages between independent applications.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing / Networking

A fully-managed database service that makes it easy to set up, maintain, manage, and administer your relational databases on Google Cloud Platform.

Commonly used in Database Management / Cloud Computing

A RESTful online file storage web service for storing and accessing data on Google Cloud Platform infrastructure.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing / Data Storage

Integrates Google’s machine learning expertise with applications to classify images and detect objects, faces, and landmarks.

Commonly used in AI / Cloud Computing

A free cloud service based on Jupyter Notebooks for machine learning education and research. It provides a collaborative environment for TensorFlow, PyTorch, and other frameworks.

Commonly used in AI / Education

The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) component of Google Cloud Platform which is built on the global infrastructure that runs Google’s search engine, Gmail, YouTube, and other services.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing