Glossary

3270

Once rampant family of IBM terminal offerings, where the term now refers to the data stream still widely used for mainframe application access.

5250

IBM terminal family for AS/400 systems, where the term now refers to the data stream still widely used for iSeries application access.

A

ActiveX

Microsoft s strategic object-oriented technology, which applies to COM and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies.

Apache

Doyen of the open -source movement that is particularly active and germane in the areas of XML, Java, and Web server technology.

Applet

Small, mini-applications that run within a Web browser or an applet viewer and have strictly limited access to host resources, in particular any kinds of files.

Application Server

Service-rich (e.g., load balancing) software platforms for executing contemporary applications written in languages such as Java and C++.

AS/400s

Highly successful IBM mini-computer family introduced in 1988. Now referred to as the iSeries.

ASP

Microsoft s server-side scripting technology for creating dynamic Web content.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

A once swaggering, Layer 2 data transfer mechanism, based on the very fast switching of fixed-length, 53-byte cells , which was considered the only way to realize the bandwidth required for supporting multimedia applications.

Authentication

Process of uniquely identifying and validating a person, application, or Web service.

Autonomic Computing

Self-managing, self-healing systems epitomized by IBM s Project eLiza technology.

AWT

Java components for building user interfaces.