The Cloud (Definitions)

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

A policy in which employees are encourged to simply use thier own devices for work rather than being provided with additional company-issued devices

Cloud

A term that refers to elastic leasign of pooled computer resources over the Internet

Collaboration

Occurs when two or more people work together to achieve a common goal, result, or product

Communication Systems

Email, VPN’s, instant messaging, and more sophisticated communication systems, dependent on the network technology available in an organization

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

An information system that serves content to Web pages over the Internet. To reduce wait time, data is typically stored and served from many geographic locations

Elastic

In cloud computing, the situation that exists when the amount of resource leased can be dynamically increased or decreased, programmatically, in a short span of time, and organizations pay for just the resources that they use

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A collection of dozens of satellites orbiting the earth that transmit precise microwave signals. A GPS reciever can calculate its position by measuring the distance between itself and several of the satellites

Internet

Global network of networks using universal standards to connect millions of different networks

Local Area Network (LAN)

A telecommunications network that requires its own dedicated channels and that encompasses a limited distance, usually one building or several buildings in close proximity

M-Commerce (Mobile Commerce)

The use of wireless devices, such as smartphones or tablets to conduct both business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce transactions over the Internet

Network

The linking of two or more computers to share data or resources, such as a printer

Network Externality

The larger the number of people using a network, the more valuable that network becomes

Optical Fibre Cable

A type of caple used to connect th computers, printers, switches, and other devices on a LAN

Pooled

The situation in which many different organizations use the same physical hardware

Private Cloud

A proprietary network or a data center that ties together servers, storage, networks, data, and applications as a set of virtualized services that are shared by users inside a company

Protocol

A set of rules and procedures that govern transmission between the components in a network

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Software architecture of a firm built on a collection of software programs that communicate with each other to perform assigned tasks to create a working software application

Transmission Media

Physical media, such as a copper cable and optical fibre cable, or wireless media transmitting light or radio frequencies which transmit electronic signals

Tunnel

A virtual, provate pathway over a public or shared network from the VPN client to the VPN server

Virtual Private Cloud

A subset of a public cloud that has highly restricted, secure access

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A secure connection between two points across the Internet to transmit corporate data. Provides a low-cost alternative to a private network

Web Service Standards

Worldwide standards that programs use to declare what they do, the structure of the data they process, and the ways they will communicate

Web Services

Set of universal standards using Internet technology for integrating different applications from different sources without time-consuming custom coding. Used for linking systems of different organizations or for linking disparate systems within the same organization

Wide Area Network (WAN)

Telecommunications network that spans a large geographical distance. May consist of a variety of cable, satellite, and microwave technologies

Workflow

A process or procedure by which content is created, edited, used, and disposed