Glossary
IT and software, in plain words
The vocabulary used across this site, defined without jargon. Every term links to the page that does the work.
30 terms, three groups
If a supplier has used a word at you and you would rather not ask what it means, it is probably here. If it is not, ask us and we will add it.
All terms
IT support and security
- Managed IT support
- An ongoing service where one provider takes responsibility for keeping a business's computers, servers, email and network working, for a fixed monthly fee.
- Break-fix
- Paying an IT provider by the hour when something goes wrong, with no monthly fee and no ongoing responsibility between calls.
- Service level agreement (SLA)
- The part of an IT contract that commits a provider to answering and resolving problems within stated times, usually by severity.
- Remote monitoring and management (RMM)
- Software installed on your computers and servers that lets a provider see their health, apply updates and fix problems without visiting.
- Patch management
- The routine of testing and applying software and operating system updates across every machine in a business, on a schedule.
- Endpoint
- Any device a person uses to reach company systems: a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. It is the industry word for a computer.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Requiring a second proof of identity beyond a password, usually a code from an app, before an account will let someone in.
- Phishing
- An email, text or message designed to trick someone into giving up a password, approving a payment or installing something harmful.
- Ransomware
- Malicious software that encrypts a business's files and demands payment for the key, usually after stealing a copy of them first.
- Cyber Essentials
- A UK government-backed certification confirming a business has five basic technical security controls in place, assessed by questionnaire.
- VPN
- An encrypted connection that lets a computer outside the office reach systems inside it as though it were on the office network.
- Disaster recovery
- The plan for getting a business trading again after systems are lost, defined by how long recovery takes and how much data is lost.
- 3-2-1 backup
- A backup rule of thumb: keep three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one of them off site.
Websites and hosting
- Content management system (CMS)
- Software behind a website that lets someone change the text, images and pages without needing a developer or touching code.
- DNS
- The system that turns a domain name into the address of the server it points at, for websites, email and everything else.
- SSL certificate
- A file installed on a web server that encrypts traffic between a visitor and the site, producing the padlock and the https address.
- Core Web Vitals
- Three measurements Google uses to judge how a page feels to use: how fast it appears, how quickly it responds, how much it shifts.
- Canonical URL
- A tag telling search engines which address is the real one for a page, when the same content can be reached at several addresses.
- Structured data
- Machine-readable code added to a page that states plainly what it is about: a business, a service, a price, an article, a question and answer.
- Managed hosting
- Web hosting where the provider also handles the updates, backups, security and monitoring of the server, rather than only renting you space on it.
- Uptime
- The percentage of time a website or system is available. 99.9% allows about 43 minutes of downtime a month; 99% allows over seven hours.
- Responsive design
- Building a website so one set of pages rearranges itself to suit any screen size, rather than maintaining a separate mobile site.
Software and data
- API
- A defined way for two pieces of software to exchange data automatically, without a person copying it from one to the other.
- Webhook
- A message one system sends to another the moment something happens, so the second system does not have to keep asking.
- CRM
- Customer relationship management software: one place holding every customer, enquiry and conversation, so the history does not live in individual inboxes.
- ERP
- Enterprise resource planning: a single system covering several business functions at once, such as stock, orders, purchasing, finance and scheduling.
- SaaS
- Software you subscribe to and use over the internet, rather than buying once and installing, with the provider running it for you.
- Systems integration
- Connecting separate pieces of software so data moves between them automatically, instead of being exported, retyped or copied by hand.
- Legacy system
- Software a business still depends on that is no longer supported, updated or well understood, and that nobody wants to touch.
- Single source of truth
- The principle that each piece of information should be stored and edited in exactly one place, with everything else reading from it.
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