IT Glossary
Key Terms To Know In The IT Industry

Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)

The average time required to repair a failed component, device, or system and return it to operational status.

You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Hardware

Mechanical Keyboard

A type of keyboard that uses individual mechanical switches for key press detection. Known for durability and distinct tactile feedback.

You will find this term commonly used in Hardware, Peripherals

Media Access Control (not MAC Address)

The process by which devices determine which device has control over the transmission medium at any time.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Media Conversion

The process of changing one media format to another, for example, converting digital data between different types of physical media like fiber optic and copper cables.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Data Transmission

Media Gateway

A device or software that converts media streams between disparate telecommunications networks such as PSTN, SS7, Next Generation Networks, or IMS.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Telecommunications

Media Integration

The process of combining different media types such as text, audio, video, and graphics into a single cohesive presentation.

You will find this term commonly used in Media, Web Development

Megabyte

A unit of digital information storage equal to 1,048,576 bytes (2^20 bytes).

You will find this term commonly used in General IT

Megabyte (MB)

A unit of digital information storage equal to 1,024 kilobytes (KB) or approximately one million bytes.

You will find this term commonly used in General IT

Member Function

A function that is defined within a class in object-oriented programming.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development

Memory

The component of a computer system that stores data and instructions for processing by the CPU.

You will find this term commonly used in General IT

Memory Address

A unique identifier for a memory location where data can be accessed and stored by a program.

You will find this term commonly used in Hardware, Software Development

Memory Compaction

The process of consolidating free memory space in computing to minimize fragmentation and make better use of available memory.

You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems, Memory Management

Memory Forensics

The analysis of volatile data in a computer's memory dump to investigate and identify potential security incidents or malicious activities.

You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity, Forensics

Memory Leak

A situation in software where a program does not release the memory it has allocated, leading to reduced performance or system crashes.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development

Memory Management

The process of controlling and coordinating computer memory, assigning blocks to various tasks to optimize overall system performance.

You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems, Software Development

Memory Mapped File

A segment of virtual memory that has been assigned a direct byte-for-byte correlation with some portion of a file or file-like resource.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Operating Systems

Memory Overcommitment

A feature in virtualization allowing more virtual memory to be allocated to virtual machines than the physical hardware actually has, banking on not all memory being used at the same time.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization, Cloud Computing

Memristor

A non-volatile electronic memory device that is being developed, which can retain data without power and has the potential to store more data in a smaller space than current memory technologies.

You will find this term commonly used in Hardware, Electronics

Menu Driven Interface

A type of user interface that offers users options from a menu. The user selects an option by navigating through the menu and making a selection.

You will find this term commonly used in UI/UX Design, Software Development

Mesh Network

A mesh network is a decentralized network topology where each node relays data for the network, allowing for dynamic and self-healing communication paths.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Wireless Communication

Mesh Networking

A network topology in which each node relays data for the network. All nodes cooperate in the distribution of data in the network.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Mesh Topology

A network topology where each node connects directly to an arbitrary number of other nodes, organizing the network as a mesh for direct peer-to-peer communication.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Mesh Wi-Fi

A system of devices acting as a single Wi-Fi network that can blanket a large area, providing better coverage and eliminating dead zones.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Telecommunications

Message Authentication Code (MAC)

A short piece of information used to authenticate a message and to provide integrity and authenticity assurances on the message.

You will find this term commonly used in Security, Cybersecurity

Message Broker

Middleware that translates a message from the formal messaging protocol of the sender to the formal messaging protocol of the receiver.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Networking

Message Digest

A cryptographic hash function containing a string of digits created by a one-way hashing formula. Message digests are designed to protect the integrity of a piece of data or media to detect changes and alterations to any part of a message.

You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity, Data Integrity

Message Passing Interface (MPI)

A standardized and portable message-passing system designed to function on a wide variety of parallel computers, facilitating communication between processes.

You will find this term commonly used in Parallel Computing, Networking

Message Queue

A form of asynchronous service-to-service communication used in serverless and microservices architectures.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Networking

Message Signature

A digital code (generated and authenticated by public key cryptography) attached to an electronically transmitted message to verify its contents and the sender's identity.

You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity, Networking

Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM)

Software or hardware infrastructure supporting sending and receiving messages between distributed systems.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Software Development

Metadata

Data that provides information about other data, such as file size, creation date, or author.

You will find this term commonly used in General IT

Metadata Catalog

A repository of data descriptions and dataset information, making it easier for analysts and data scientists to find, understand, and manage data.

You will find this term commonly used in Data Management

Metadata Discovery

The process of identifying and extracting metadata from various data sources, which is essential for data management and integration projects.

You will find this term commonly used in Data Management

Metadata Extraction

The process of identifying and extracting key information from various types of data, such as file properties or database records.

You will find this term commonly used in Data Management

Metadata Harvesting

The process of collecting metadata from various sources to provide a consolidated view of information across systems.

You will find this term commonly used in Data Management, Web Development

Metadata Management

The process of organizing, storing, and managing metadata to ensure its accuracy, consistency, and usability.

You will find this term commonly used in General IT

Metadata Repository

A metadata repository is a centralized database or system that stores and manages metadata, providing a unified view and access to metadata across an organization's IT systems and applications.

You will find this term commonly used in Data Management

Metadata Synchronization

The process of ensuring that metadata (data about data) remains consistent and up to date across different systems, databases, or storage locations.

You will find this term commonly used in Data Management, Networking

Method Chaining

A programming technique that allows multiple methods to be called on the same object in a single line of code.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development

Method Overloading

A feature that allows a class to have more than one method having the same name, if their parameter lists are different.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Programming

MIB (Management Information Base)

A database used for managing the entities in a communication network. It is used in Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) for network monitoring.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Micro-Optimization

The process of making very small changes in a system's code or configuration to improve performance, often at a very detailed or low level.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Performance Optimization

Micro-SIM

A smaller version of a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card used in mobile devices for storing data identifying the mobile subscriber.

You will find this term commonly used in Telecommunications

Micro-Virtualization

A security technology that isolates individual tasks on a computer in their own virtual environments, preventing malware from affecting other tasks or the system at large.

You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity, Virtualization

Microblog

A form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group.

You will find this term commonly used in Social Media

Microblogging

A form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group.

You will find this term commonly used in Social Media, Web Development

Microblogging Platform

An online platform that allows users to post short messages or updates. Examples include Twitter and Tumblr.

You will find this term commonly used in Social Media, Communication

Microcode

A layer of hardware-level instructions or data structures involved in the implementation of higher-level machine code instructions in complex instruction set computers, typically for the purpose of improving performance, security, or both.