We use a lot of technology-related acronyms and abbreviations in our daily lives. These terms have become so common and we’ve been using them for so long that we rarely think about what they actually mean. You may know what the acronyms or abbreviations stand for but may not know what they actually mean or what’s their use. Here’s a list of 15 such common technology-related abbreviations with their meaning for your reference.

So the next time your IT person drops any of these in your conversation, you can nod your head and say “I know what it is.”

AWS- Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services is a cloud services platform, which offers compute power, database storage, content delivery, and other functionality that can be rented by individuals, businesses, government agencies, etc. Utilizing AWS, you can obtain large-scale computing capacity more quickly and cheaply than building your own physical infrastructure.

As of 2017, AWS owns a dominant 34% of all cloud computing. Netflix, Twitch, LinkedIn, Facebook, ESPN, Twitter are some of the big names that use AWS for their storage and computing needs. The next time you stream a movie or game online, you know where it's coming from.

Advanced Encryption System is a cryptography standard, which is used to encrypt data to ensure privacy. AES is a symmetric block cipher, i.e. it encrypts blocks of text of a certain size (for example 128 bits) instead of encrypting each character one at a time. The symmetric part refers to the key used for the process; the same key is used to encrypt as well as to decrypt the data.

The story of AES is quite fascinating. AES was initially adopted by the U.S. government but is now used worldwide. The government uses it to encrypt classified documents. For the general public, it may be more interesting to know that it is commonly used in messaging apps such as  WhatsApp, applications such as WinZip, as well as in a range of hardware and technologies we use every day.

An access point (AP) is a piece of network hardware, which connects your wireless devices to your wired network. The AP, which is connected to a router or switch via an Ethernet cable, is the hub via which your wireless devices connect to your wired LAN (we’ll talk about it too).

So the AP simply projects the Wi-Fi signal in a designated area. The next time you need to get a Wi-Fi signal in a new area such as the company terrace, you could simply run an ethernet cable and install an AP in that area.

Application Programming Interface is a software that allows two different applications to communicate with each other. Whenever you are using an app on your phone, you are using an API.

For example, flights on an aggregator such as Kayak or Skyscanner use APIs to interact with the airlines’ website. The API is the interface that has direct access to the information such as flight routes, pricing, baggage options, etc. So when you run a search on such a site, the API takes your query to the airline’s website, gets their response to your request, and then delivers the responses to the online travel service, which then presents you with the results.

Bring Your Own Device is a concept that allows employees to use their personal devices for work. BYOD is very popular among small companies that are just starting out because it frees up capital that would otherwise be tied up in devices. It also offers the added advantage of employee mobility and increased productivity as the employees would already be familiar with their devices and there would be no learning curve.

However, there are some downsides to BYOD, the most important being privacy and security concerns. Much of the issues concerning BYOD can be addressed by using an MDM (another acronym we’ll talk about further down this blog post.)

Most users rely on mouse and trackpads to interact with their computers using the graphical user interface (GUI). But before the mouse, the standard way of interacting with a computer was with a command-line interface, which is a text-based interface for entering commands.

There are different types of CLIs, the most common being the DOS (Disk Operating System) for Windows and the bash shell for Linux and Apple OS, each of which has its own set of command syntax. While most users may never use the CLI, they are handy and are still included in all major operating systems.

Here are some examples of how the command prompt looks for the 3 major operating systems:

• Windows (DOS): C:\>

• OS X (bash shell): My-iMac:/ me$

• Linux (bash shell): [root@myserver /]#

A distributed denial of service is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic of a service, a server, or a network by overwhelming the infrastructure with a flood of fake traffic. In other words, a DDoS attack tries to create a traffic jam on the route to prevent genuine traffic from reaching your service, server, or network.

DDoS attacks are initiated by flooding the bandwidth or resources of a target system. Such attacks are effective as they utilize a network of compromised computers or IoT (Internet of Things) devices as a source of attack traffic. The attackers gain control over a large number of computers or IoT devices by infecting them with malware, and then use the infected devices as a botnet to launch their attacks.

File transfer protocol is a network protocol used for transferring files between a client and a server on a computer network. FTP is one of the many protocols (you may already be familiar with HTTP and HTTPS) that makes the Internet work.

For example, if you want to install WordPress on your webserver to host your website, you will have to use FTP to copy your files to the server. Although it is less common nowadays as most companies use the cloud, some businesses still use FTP to share files. Companies that prefer to keep the files hosted on their on-premises server, use FTP to share files stored on their server. Employees upload files to their FTP server and share links to those files with their colleagues, similar to how you would share a file on Google Drive.

You may already know that IP stands for Internet Protocol and you must have used the term “IP” a million times, but what does it mean?

IP is the principal communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite (we already know the FTP, HTTP, and HTTPS from the previous section). It is a set of rules for the routing and addressing of data so that they can travel across networks and reach the correct destination. When traveling across a network such as the Internet, data is divided into small pieces called packets. Attached to each packet is the IP information, which helps the routers send those packets of data to the right address. Each device or domain connected to the internet has a unique IP address and the packets are directed to the correct IP addresses using the IP information.

An internet service provider is an organization that provides you with access to the internet.

To connect your device such as a laptop to the internet, you need special networking, telecommunications, and routing equipment. An ISP sort of lets users “rent” these special kinds of equipment required to establish an internet connection. ISPs make Internet access possible by routing Internet traffic, resolving domain names, and maintaining the network infrastructure.

ISPs are interconnected to one another and just as individual customers and businesses pay ISPs for Internet Access, those ISPs pay other ISPs, who in turn pay larger ISPs. If you want to learn more about ISP, check out this article about how ISPs work.

A local area network is a computer network that interconnects devices within a limited physical location, such as an office or home. It can be large such as an enterprise network with thousands of users and devices or small such as a home network with one user.

A typical office LAN is made up of cables, APs, switches, routers, and other components, which enable the devices to connect to internal servers and other LANs. A LAN allows the connected devices to use a single internet connection, use shared printers, share files, and even access the connected devices.

A mobile device management software is a type of security and management software that allows IT administrators to monitor, manage, and secure business or personal mobile devices.

An MDM application is an excellent security tool and is greatly appreciated by any system administrator because it provides a unified platform for managing all the different devices across the organization. It gives the IT admin remote access to all company devices, on which the MDM is installed, and allows them to deploy security patches, configure settings, update operating systems and applications. Additionally, they can even allow the admins to remotely wipe the data on the devices in case they are lost or stolen.

Multi-Factor Authentication is a security system, which requires a user to provide multiple types of credentials to verify their identity. Instead of simply asking for the username/password pair, the user is required to provide additional credentials such as a code sent to their phone.

MFA is a simple and effective way of enhancing security. The traditional method of authenticating identity using the username/password pair is less secure nowadays because of data breaches and social engineering. Using an additional credential to authenticate the identity of the user provides a second layer of security to the account. So even if the username/password is stolen, the account will still be safe from cyber-criminals.

Here’re some examples of multi-factor authentication:

• Physical security keys, which can connect to your computer via USB or Bluetooth.

• Small physical devices, which display periodically changing random numbers.

• Biometrics such as a thumbprint or retina scan

• Applications such as Google Authenticator which display time-based One-Time Passwords.

If you’d like to learn more about MFA, check out our blog How To Set Up Two Factor Authentication

Remote desktop protocol is Microsoft’s proprietary protocol that allows users to connect to another computer over a network connection. The RDP allows users to see and use Windows on the connected computer. The RDP allows the remote machine to use its peripherals such as a keyboard and mouse to control the connected computer as if they were sitting in front of it.

RDP connection requires two components- an RDP server and an RDP client. Typically, the computer you are connecting to or “remoting into” is the server, while the computer from which you control the server is the client. Microsoft offers RDP clients for Windows and macOS, while third-party options are available for Linux.

RDP is a useful tool for IT helpdesk as it allows administrators to remotely diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve technical issues that individual users encounter. However, it needs to be used with care as it has the potential to be hijacked and misused by cyber-criminals.

Single Sign-on is an authentication technology that gives users access to multiple applications with a single login credential. It’s like checking your identification once and then letting you access all of your accounts instead of asking you to verify your identity each time you want to access one of your accounts.

SSO is generally used in business environments where applications are assigned to users and managed by an IT team. With SSO you will need to enter your login credentials, i.e. your username/password pair once (along with MFA if it is enforced by your company) and that will give you access to all of your connected SaaS applications. SSO is gaining popularity because on one hand it is simple and convenient for users, and on the other hand it is considered to be more secure.

This is just a small list of the common terms you are likely to encounter in your conversations with your IT team. If you’d like to keep learning more about technology, do sign up for our newsletter.

Are you looking for IT Support without all of the complicated tech jargon? Reach out to us for exceptional, friendly, and personalized IT support for your business.

If you liked the blog, please share it with your friends