BTE 210: Fundamentals of Business Technology & Innovation - Weeks 5, 6, and 7

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Cloud Computing architecture and deployment models, Data Analytics and Applied Intelligence, and Information Security controls and cyber threats from BTE 210 Weeks 5 through 7.

Cloud Computing (CC)

A method for delivering business and IT services that enables organizations to provision and utilize network and internet resources on demand for data processing and storage without managing the underlying physical infrastructure.

Multitenancy

A software architecture where a single instance of software runs on a server and serves multiple client groups (tenants), each sharing common access with specific privileges.

Elastic Capacity

The degree to which a computing system is able to adapt to workload changes dynamically by provisioning and de-provisioning hardware and computing resources in an autonomic manner.

Utility Computing Paradigm

A pricing model in cloud computing where costs are identical regardless of whether a business runs $1$ instance for $10,000$ hours, $100$ instances for $100$ hours, or $10,000$ instances for $1$ hour.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

A cloud model where applications are centrally hosted, maintained, and delivered over the internet to end users, typically via an ongoing monthly or annual subscription (e.g., Microsoft Office 365, Dropbox).

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

A cloud computing model that provides developers with a pre-configured application-hosting environment to build, deploy, and manage custom software without maintaining operating systems or hardware infrastructure.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

A cloud delivery model where a third-party vendor manages physical server farms, virtualization, and networking, while the client retains complete control over operating systems, storage, and deployed applications.

Separation of Responsibilities

The division of management duties across IT architectures, defining whether the customer or the cloud vendor oversees networking, storage, servers, virtualization, OS, middleware, runtime, data, and applications.

Pizza as a Service Analogy

An illustrative framework comparing cloud computing delivery models to pizza making: On-Premises (made at home), IaaS (take & bake), PaaS (pizza delivered), and SaaS (dined out).

Public Cloud

A deployment model where computing infrastructure and resources are built, owned, operated, and maintained by a third-party provider, shared among multiple tenants, and accessed over the public internet.

Private Cloud

A cloud architecture dedicated exclusively to a single enterprise, hosted either on-premises within the organization's private data center or remotely by a third-party provider.

Hybrid Cloud

A cloud configuration that bridges public and private cloud environments, allowing applications and data to share services and achieve portability across distinct computing infrastructures.

Business Intelligence (BI)

A comprehensive collection of tools, architectures, and processes that capture, store, and analyze data to transform raw data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into business wisdom.

Information Gap

The shortfall between gathering information and effectively utilizing it for business decisions, traditionally seen when analysts spend $80\%$ of their time preparing data and only $20\%$ analyzing it.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

A multidimensional BI analysis technique that enables users to analyze data across multiple dimensions through slicing, dicing, drilling down into fine details, and aggregating data.

Data Mining

A computational process using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and statistical methods to discover hidden patterns and previously unknown relationships within massive datasets.

Decision Support Systems (DSS)

Business intelligence systems combining data and analytical models to solve semi-structured and unstructured problems using what-if analysis, sensitivity analysis, and goal-seeking.

Operational Data

Atomic, real-time transaction data structured in highly normalized relational databases optimized for frequent updates and immediate daily operations.

Decision Support Data

Historical, heavily aggregated, and non-normalized snapshot data structured multidimensionally to support complex read-intensive queries and long-term trend evaluations.

Machine Learning (ML)

A branch of artificial intelligence where algorithms build mathematical models from sample training data to make predictions or automated decisions without being explicitly programmed.

Confusion Matrix

A performance evaluation table for classification models comparing actual outcomes against predicted outcomes to measure overall accuracy, true positives, and false positives.

Information Security

All processes and policies designed to protect an organization's information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.

Unintentional Security Threats

Security vulnerabilities and incidents caused without malicious intent, primarily through employee carelessness, lost devices, weak password practices, or poor physical workspace habits.

Information Extortion

A deliberate attack in which a cybercriminal steals or threatens to steal an organization's confidential data and demands payment to prevent release or to restore access.

SCADA Attacks

Cyberattacks targeting Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems used to monitor and manage industrial and physical processes such as power grids, refineries, and nuclear plants.

Phishing

A deceptive social engineering attack using official-looking emails or electronic messages to trick recipients into revealing credentials, banking details, or sensitive personal data.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

A coordinated cyberattack where an attacker commands a network of compromised machines (bots or zombies) to overwhelm a target server with traffic, causing it to crash.

Trojan Horse

A malicious software program hidden within a seemingly legitimate application that executes its destructive payload only after being activated by the user.

Logic Bomb

A segment of malicious computer code embedded into an organization's existing software designed to stay dormant until triggered by a specific event, date, or time.

Back Door (Trap Door)

A hidden access point or password known solely to an attacker that allows unauthorized entry into a computer network without undergoing normal authentication procedures.

Physical Controls

Security controls designed to prevent unauthorized physical access to an organization's facilities, including perimeter walls, security gates, biometric doors, guards, and alarm systems.

Defense Mechanism Locations

The multi-tiered placement of enterprise security barriers consisting of physical controls at facilities, access controls at internal entryways, and communication controls around corporate networks.

Ransomware as a Service (RaaS)

A cybercrime business model, exemplified by groups like DarkSide, where operators rent out custom-built ransomware software to third-party affiliates in exchange for a share of extortion payments.