Glossary

     

AIX (Advanced Interactive Executive)

AIX is IBM's version of UNIX.

Applet

The Java name for a small chunk of code that is brought down over the network from a server and executed on a client.

ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency)

The research arm of the Department of Defense. ARPA funded the research of packet-switched networks, which led to the Internet.

Authentication

Verifying that a data transmission from a person (or a process) is indeed from that person (or process). A password is a common method used for authentication.

Awareness

This is a term used with products such as Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing. The more formal term "awareness of presence" is also used. Your Instant Messaging "buddy list" indicates who is online and hence makes you "aware" of the colleagues whom you could "chat" with online.

B2B (Business-to-Business)

Electronic commerce between companies.

Bandwidth

The amount of data that can be transmitted across a particular network. Basic Ethernet has a 10Mbps bandwidth; however, 100Mbps Ethernet and recently Gigabit Ethernet are common for corporate LANs and server farm infrastructure.

bps (bits per second)

The rate of data transmission across a network.

Browser

See [Web browser]

Cache

A cache (pronounced CASH) is a place to store something more or less temporarily. Web pages you request are stored in your browser's cache directory on your hard disk. That way, when you return to a page you've recently looked at, the browser can get it from the cache rather than the original server, saving you time and the network the burden of some additional traffic. You can usually vary the size of your cache, depending on your particular browser.

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A CDN consists of caching servers deployed around the world to form a network and to provide a way to offload web traffic from web servers. CDNs usually reside in co-location centers and have access to large amounts of bandwidth since they are primarily used to offload graphics and streaming media from Web servers.

Certificate

The public key and identity of an entity together with some other information, rendered unforgeable by signing the certificate with the private key of the certifying authority that issued that certificate. In the X9.59 Standard, the term "certificate" shall mean a public-key certificate.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface)

A scripting programming language used on the Internet.

Chat

A feature of most of the popular instant-messaging programs. The chat feature allows you to create your own custom chat room with friends or co-workers

Client

A computer or process that accesses the data, services, or resources of another computer or process on the network.

Collaborative Computing

A method of information sharing using computing. Collaborative computing technologies include groupware and meetingware products. These products are intended to improve personal interaction, group work, and discussion.

CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture)

An architecture and specification for creating, distributing, and managing distributed program objects in a network. It allows programs at different locations and developed by different vendors to communicate in a network through an "interface broker." CORBA was developed under the auspices of the Object Management Group (OMG) and has been sanctioned by both ISO and X/ Open as the standard architecture for distributed objects (also known as components ).

DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

See also [ARPA]

DB2 (DataBase 2)

IBM's relational database software.

DNS (Domain Name System)

The distributed name/address mechanism used in the Internet. It is through the DNS that the domain name of every computer on the Internet gets mapped to its IP address so that each computer can send information back and forth on the Internet.

Domain

Domain is a common term used in computer networks to mean: (1) that part of a network in which the data processing resources are under common control; (2) in TCP/IP, the naming system used in hierarchical networks. Domain is also a term used for a group of Domino servers with the same public Directory.

Domino

The Web-enabled Lotus Notes Server. With Release 4.5 of the Notes product, the Lotus Notes Server was renamed the Domino 4.5 Server in order to emphasize the Web technology built into that version of the server.

EAR (Enterprise Archive)

The .ear file has the same format as a regular .jar file (which is the same as ZIP, incidentally). The .ear file contains everything necessary to deploy an enterprise application on an application server. It contains both the .war (Web Archive) file containing the Web component of the application as well as the .jar file. In addition, there are some deployment descriptor files in XML.

Eclipse

The Eclipse project is an open consortium of software development tool vendors interested in creating a development environment that fosters product integration through plug-and-play, componentized tools. The core of the WebSphere Studio Application Development (WSAD) IDE platform was released as an open-source software project, Eclipse (www.eclipse.org). WebSphere Studio 5.0 is based on Eclipse 2.0.

EJB (Enterprise Java Beans)

EJB technology is the server-side component architecture for the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform. EJB technology enables rapid and simplified development of distributed, transactional, secure, and portable applications based on Java technology.

GB (gigabyte)

A billion bytes of computer or hard-disk memory.

GUI (Graphical User Interface)

A pictorial way of representing to a user the capabilities of a system and the work being done on it.

HACMP (Highly Available Cluster Management Program)

HACMP is designed to allow rapid recovery from a catastrophic failure on a primary AIX machine. It allows switching of hardware resources such as external disk drives and network connections to a backup machine.

Host

In the TCP/IP sense, a computer that allows users to communicate with other host computers on a network. Individual users communicate by using application programs, such as electronic mail and FTP. Also used to refer to a large computer system, such as a mainframe.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

This is the language used to write World Wide Web documents, or pages. It is a subset of ISO SGML.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

This is the protocol used by the World Wide Web to transfer documents between clients and servers.

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol, Secure)

HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP that encrypts data for transmission across the Internet.

IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

For example, the WSAD product is IBM's IDE platform for J2EE application development.

IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol)

A transport protocol used for communication between CORBA object request brokers .

IHS (IBM HTTP Server)

The IBM HTTP Server is based on the open-source Apache HTTP Server, which is the most popular server on the Web. IHS runs on AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows 2000, and Windows NT.

IM (Instant messaging)

IM allows you to maintain a list of people who you want to interact with. You can send messages to any of the people in your list, often called a buddy list or contact list, as long as that person is online. Sending a message opens up a small window where you and your friend can type in messages that both of you can see.

IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol)

IMAP and POP3 are the Internet's standards for e-mail.

Internet

A set of connected networks. The term "Internet" refers to the large and growing public-domain internetwork developed by DARPA that uses TCP/IP. It is shared by universities, corporations, and private individuals.

InterNIC (Internet Network Information Center)

Part of the central authority for the Internet. The InterNIC (sometime called NIC for short) registers new Internet domain names and address ranges.

Intranet

A Web network that connects computers within the same company or organization over a private network. An intranet offers higher security than an Internet Web site because of the private nature of the network.

IP (Internet Protocol)

The network-layer protocol for the Internet protocol suite.

IT

Information Technology.

J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition)

J2EE defines the standard for developing component-based, multi- tier enterprise applications.

JAR (Java Archive)

The JAR file format enables you to bundle multiple files into a single archive file. Typically, a JAR file will contain the class files and auxiliary resources associated with applets and applications.

Java

Sun Microsystems's object-oriented language developed for programming on the Internet. It's been stated that "Java offers the promise that the network will become the computer."

Java Beans

The applet components developed with Java.

JDK (Java Development Kit)

The JDK is the Java Development Kit distributed by JavaSoft, which provides resources for developers to develop Java applications that conform to a set of core JavaSoft APIs.

JMS (Java Message Service)

The JMS API is a messaging standard that allows application components based on the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) to create, send, receive, and read messages. It enables distributed communication that is loosely coupled , reliable, and asynchronous.

JSP (Java Server Page)

JSP is a technology for controlling the content or appearance of Web pages through the use of servlets, small programs that are specified in the Web page and run on the Web server to modify the Web page before it is sent to the user who requested it. JSP is comparable to Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) technology. Whereas a Java Server Page calls a Java program that is executed by the Web server, an Active Server Page contains a script that is interpreted by a script interpreter (such as VBScript or JScript) before the page is sent to the user.

Kbps

Kilo (thousands) of bits per second.

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

A set of protocols for accessing information directories. LDAP is based on the standards contained within the X.500 standard but is significantly simpler.

Linux

An Open Source implementation of UNIX initiated by Linus Torvalds, which runs on many different hardware platforms including Intel, Sparc, PowerPC, and Alpha Processors.

Lotus Notes

A workgroup application for sharing information and building business applications with integrated e-mail.

LotusScript

This is the object-oriented basic language used by Lotus Notes application developers. It is used to perform more complicated tasks than can be done using the Notes formula language.

Lotus Team Workplace

Formerly called "QuickPlace," this is a self-service Web tool for team collaboration. Also

See also [QuickPlace]

Lotus Workplace

An IBM/Lotus offering that combines the collaborative capabilities of Lotus Software with the elements of the WebSphere Portal framework. Lotus Workplace is described as a portal-based collaboration platform.

LPAR (Logical Partitioning)

A system of taking a computer's total resources (processors, memory, and storage) and splitting them into smaller units that each can be run with its own instance of the operating system and applications. Logical partitioning, which requires specialized hardware circuits, is typically used to separate different functions of a system, such as Web serving, database functions, client/server actions, or systems that serve multiple time zones and/or languages.

LTPA (Lightweight Third-Party Authentication)

The LTPA mechanism provides a secure means for conveying the fact that a user has already been authenticated. Use of LTPA tokens is the typical way to set up Single Sign-On (SSO) between WebSphere and Domino.

LZ1 (Lempel-Ziv)

An adaptive data compression algorithm used by Domino 6.

MB (megabyte)

A million bytes of computer or hard-disk memory.

Netscape

A commercial browser that provides an interface to the World Wide Web.

NIC (Network Information Center)

See [InterNIC]

NRPC

Notes Remote Procedure Call.

Packet switching

The transmission of data in small, discrete packages that are sent by different routes through a network and then reassembled at the receiving end.

PC

Personal Computer.

POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3)

POP3 and IMAP are the Internet's standards for e-mail.

Portal

A portal is an internet Web site that allows people to search for information from a number of different Internet sources, as well as the portal Web site itself. In effect, it acts as gateway to the World Wide Web.

QuickPlace

The new name for this Lotus product is "Lotus Team Workplace." This is a self-service Web tool for team collaboration. You can easily create a workspace to work in a secure environment on the Web. It provides a forum for having discussions, sharing and collaborating on documents, scheduling events, and assigning tasks.

RPC

Remote Procedure Call.

RSA

Data encryption standard that is used by the Lotus Notes/Domino products for most encryption requirements. RSA stands for Rivest-Shamir-Adleman, the three developers of the encryption technique.

Servlet

A servlet provides Web developers with a simple, consistent mechanism for extending the functionality of a Web server and for accessing existing business systems. A servlet can almost be thought of as an applet that runs on the server side ”without a face. Java servlets make many Web applications possible.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol)

This protocol utilizes TCP/IP and is a widely used e-mail protocol developed for the Internet.

SOAP (Simple Object Access protocol)

Defines a framework for passing messages between systems over the Internet. SOAP is typically used for executing remote procedure calls. The XML-based SOAP is often called a "message envelope."

SSO (Single Sign-On)

The ability to log into multiple computers or servers with a single action and the entry of a single password. Especially useful where, for example, a user on a LAN or WAN requires access to a number of different servers.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)

The set of applications and transport protocols that uses IP (Internet protocol) to transmit data over a network. TCP/IP was developed by the Department of Defense to provide telecommunications for internetworking.

UDB (Universal DataBase)

This term is usually used with DB2, as in DB2 UDB.

UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration)

An XML-based, platform-independent, Internet-accessible registry in which businesses, software vendors, and programmers can describe the Web services they offer and provide links on how to use them.

Unicode

Unicode provides a unique number for every character ”no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the language. The Unicode Standard has been adopted by such industry leaders as Apple, HP, IBM, JustSystem, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Sun, Sybase, Unisys, and many others. Unicode is required by modern standards such as XML, Java, ECMAScript (JavaScript), LDAP, CORBA 3.0, WML, and so on, and is the official way to implement ISO/IEC 10646.

UNIX

The operating system originally designed by AT&T and enhanced by the University of California at Berkeley and others. Since it was powerful and essentially available for free, it became very popular at universities. Many vendors made their own versions of UNIX available ”for example, IBM's AIX, based on OSF/1. The UNIX trademark and definition have since come under the control of X/Open, which will issue a unifying specification.

URL (Universal Resource Locator)

This is the World Wide Web name for a document, file, or other resource. It describes the protocol required to access the resource, the host where it can be found, and a path to the resource on that host.

UTF-8 (Unicode Transformation Format-8)

UTF-8 is an octet (8-bit) lossless encoding of Unicode characters. It is an efficient encoding of Unicode documents that use mostly US-ASCII characters because it represents each character in the range U+0000 through U+007F as a single octet. UTF-8 is the default encoding for XML.

UTF-16 (Unicode Transformation Format-16)

A 16-bit encoding scheme for Unicode characters. UTF-16 is an efficient way of representing Asian character strings, with each character being represented by two bytes of storage. ASCII characters are usually represented by UTF-8 since one byte of storage is sufficient for ASCII.

WAN (Wide Area Network)

A long-distance network for the efficient transfer of voice, data, and/or video between local, metropolitan, campus, and site networks. WANs typically use lower transfer rates (64 Kbps) or higher-speed services such as a T3, which operates at 45 Mbps. WANs also typically use common-carrier services (communications services available to the general public) or private networking through satellite and microwave facilities.

WAR (Web Archive)

Portlet applications are packaged as Web Archive (.war) files, per the J2EE specifications.

WAS (WebSphere Application Server)

in this glossary to see how WAS fits under the WebSphere umbrella.

See also [WebSphere]

Web browser

An application that provides an interface to the World Wide Web.

Web conferencing

Web conferencing allows you to collaborate using the web to sharing software applications, PowerPoint presentations, or anything running on your PC with others in online meetings.

Web service

A Web-based application that can dynamically interact with other Web applications using an XML message protocol such as SOAP, XML-RPC, or XMLP. Examples of emerging standards for describing, promoting, and discovering these services are ebXML, UDDI, and WSDL, Microsoft's .NET and Sun's Sun ONE are major implementations of the concept. The goal is to enable one application to find another on the Internet that provides a needed service and to seamlessly exchange data with it. If the service is fee-based, payment processing could be included.

Webmaster

A person who manages a Web site ”similar to the network administrator.

WebSphere

IBM's Web server software. A Java-based platform, designed to run on many different operating systems. IBM describes WebSphere as Internet infrastructure software, or middleware, that enables companies to develop, deploy, and integrate next -generation e-business applications. WebSphere supports business applications from simple Web publishing through enterprise-scale transaction processing. IBM identifies WebSphere products as fitting into one of three areas: foundation and tools, business portals, or business integration.

1. Foundation and tools.

   The foundation and tools provide customers with the ability to build, deploy, and manage the creation of J2EE-based Web applications. The products include WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Application Server Express, and WebSphere Studio.

2. Business portals.

   Business portals let organizations extend applications to users in a single, customized environment and also extend the applications to a variety of electronic devices. The products include WebSphere Commerce, WebSphere Portal Server, WebSphere Portal Express, WebSphere Everyplace, and WebSphere Personalization.

3. Business integration.

   Business Integration products provide for integration between new and existing applications in a network. The products include WebSphere MQ, WebSphere Business Integration, IBM CrossWorlds solutions, and adapters and connectors.

WebSphere portal

Software for building and deploying enterprise portals that allow users to interact in highly collaborative settings.

Wide Area Network

See [WAN]

Workplace

See [Lotus Workplace]

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web, or WWW, is a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aimed at giving universal access to a large universe of documents. To access the Web, you use a Web browser that provides hypertext links to jump to information on many different Internet Web servers.

WPS (WebSphere Portal Server)

in this glossary to see how WPS fits under the WebSphere umbrella.

See also [WebSphere]

WSAD (WebSphere Studio Application Developer)

An enterprise development tool from IBM that gleans the best features from VisualAge for Java Enterprise Edition and WebSphere Studio. It supports the full cycle of J2EE development, as well as XML and Web services development.

WSADMIN

WebSphere Administration.

WSDL (Web Services Description Language)

An XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document- or procedure-oriented information. WSDL allows a Web service to describe its capabilities by defining Web services interfaces and describing how to access them.

XML

Short for eXtensible Markup Language, a specification developed by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). XML is designed especially for Web documents; basically, it is a "light" version of SGML. It gives designers the ability to create their own customized tags to provide functionality not available with HTML. The open XML standard is emerging as the method of choice for exchanging information among computer systems.