This page outlines key advanced IT terms that are essential for professionals in system administration, networking, cloud, and cybersecurity.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Hypervisor | Software that creates and runs virtual machines (VMware, KVM, Hyper-V) |
| Snapshot | A saved state of a VM or system for quick restore |
| Container | Lightweight, isolated environment (e.g., Docker) |
| Orchestration | Automation of container management (e.g., Kubernetes) |
| Bare Metal | Physical server with no virtualization layer |
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| VLAN | Virtual LAN – logically separates network traffic |
| NAT | Network Address Translation – allows internal IPs to access internet |
| Port Forwarding | Redirects communication requests to specific IPs/ports |
| QoS | Quality of Service – prioritizes traffic types |
| Load Balancer | Distributes traffic across multiple servers |
| Proxy Server | Intermediary between user and the internet |
| DNS Propagation | Time it takes for DNS changes to update worldwide |
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Zero Trust | "Never trust, always verify" security model |
| SIEM | Security Info & Event Management system for log analysis |
| IDS/IPS | Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems |
| SSL/TLS | Encrypts web traffic between server and client |
| PKI | Public Key Infrastructure – manages encryption keys and certificates |
| SOC | Security Operations Center – centralized security monitoring |
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| IaaS | Infrastructure as a Service (e.g., AWS EC2, Azure VM) |
| PaaS | Platform as a Service (e.g., Heroku, Google App Engine) |
| SaaS | Software as a Service (e.g., Gmail, Office 365) |
| CI/CD | Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment pipelines |
| Infrastructure as Code (IaC) | Automate infrastructure setup using code (e.g., Terraform) |
| Multi-Tenant | One environment shared by multiple users/applications |
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Uptime Monitoring | Tracks service availability |
| Log Rotation | Automatic archival and removal of old logs |
| Metrics | Quantitative system data (CPU, memory, bandwidth) |
| Alerting | Automated system notifications based on defined thresholds |
| APM | Application Performance Monitoring (e.g., New Relic, Datadog) |
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| RTO | Recovery Time Objective – how fast systems should be restored |
| RPO | Recovery Point Objective – how much data loss is acceptable |
| Full Backup | Complete copy of all data |
| Incremental Backup | Only new or changed data since the last backup |
| Disaster Recovery (DR) | Strategy to restore operations after critical failure |
📘 For foundational concepts, see Basic IT Terminologies