The acronym UAT stands for User Acceptance Testing and decribes the final part of software development. In this phase the product is given to users of a sample with the aim of simulating a real usage and determining a behaviour in a realistic scenario.
HVM stands for Hardware Virtual Machine and defines a type of virtualization used by Xen which consists in a full emulation of a PC, including processor, video card, disk controller, network interfaces, etc.. HVM virtualization is the most flexible virtualization technique, yet it penalizes performances for every operation must be simulated via software.
The Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) technology is a new feature of Windows Server 2016, available only with the Datacenter version. It requires at least 2 nodes with 2 SSDs and 4 additional disks each in order to work. The peculiarity of this system is the capability of using hosts with integrated storage (SATA, SAS or NVMe) instead of external ad-hoc solutions to realize an overall secure, scalable and high performing system. In its broader configuration, S2D can work with 16 hosts and up to 400 drives for a total storage capacity in the order of the Petabyte, with disks hot-add capability. Communication between nodes requires 10GbE network hardware with remote-direct memory access (RDMA).
Resilient File System (ReFS) is the new file system by Microsoft introduced in Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 (and 8.1 as a consequence), which finally comes to a stable version in Server 2016. It was born to optimize data management and guarantee integrity and persistence to damages, even in the case of large data sets and regardless of the underlying hardware structure. Key points of ReFS are integrity, availability, scalability and proactive correction of errors.
A Zombie VM is a virtual machines with issues (subtle, most times) that provoke an anomalous resource usage of the host it runs on, also after being detached. A synonym of Zombie VM is Orphan VM.
The term Data Lake comes from the Big Data world and describes a "save everything" approach here each piece of data is stored, be it structured or not. Data Lake represents a large repository composed by data thus collected and easily accessible.
The term Rainbow Table identifies a table used in the cryptography sphere for the research of clear ciphering keys. The table is a compromise between running time and the request of resources needed to decrypt keys in hash format, generated by a certain ciphering function. This technique was conceived by Martin Hellman, but only in a theoric way as it would require too many Terabytes of memory to store all possible hashes. Later Philippe Oechslin optimized this concept so that it could be used in practice.
HTML5 is a markup language for the creation of Web pages, first published in October 2014. It’s conceived as the successor of HTML4 and as the substitute framework of Adobe Flash. One of the main features is the capability of storing (within the browser’s local cache) a large quantity of data that can be used by Web-based applications also without an Internet connection. HTML5 is more secure, flexible and lighter than Flash.
The tem File Descriptor describes a non negative integer value, peculiar of Linux/Unix operating systems, that identifies a certain file, socket or running process (that is making I/O operations) within the system. This ID is generated by the kernel and it's used and ID index in tables of active entities.
XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language and defines a markup language that is based on a specific syntax to define and control the meaning of the elements contained in a text. The main characteristic of XML is creating custom tag, hence the name eXtensible.
XML is also often used to export data in a standard format from a proprietary database.
The term Ads (Advertising) is a generic term for all advertising communication techniques that are used to promote a certain product. In the IT world it’s commonly found while browsing the Web as banners inside Web pages that capture the attention of the reader.
You can limit or block Ads while browsing by installing an “Ad-blocker”.
The term Ad-blocker defines a browser component (if talking about Web browsing) which can intercept and block ads within a Web page that can be annoying, hinder the experience and slow the loading because of all those extra ads content.
Crontab is a UNIX command that creates a table (or list) of commands that the operating system will execute automatically according to a certain schedule. The crontab command creates a file called Crontab file.
The acronym ACL stands for Access Control List and basically defines a table used by an operating system, or a firmware (ie network devices) where access rights to resources are specified for each user. Every object in the system has a specific security attribute which identifies its own ACL and regulates the usage by part of users according to the assigned privileges.
The term Domain Controller (DC) defines a specific role typical of the Windows Server operating system that is assigned to the host that will manage the authentication of users in a domain environment. A DC can be Primary (PDC) or Backup (BDC); the former periodically sends an up-to-date copy of the users database to BDCs (which can be more than one) in order to guarantee uptime if it fails.
FQDN is the acronym for Fully Qualified Domain Name, which is the part of the URL that univocally identifies the server it’s being contacted across the Internet. The FQDN includes the second-level domain and all related subdomains, which basically is anything is left of the TLD extension (xxxx.example.com, xxx2.example.com etc.).
The term crawler describes a type of software the visits Web sites available on the Internet and checks content and information with the aim of creating search engines indexes and keeping them up-to-date. One of the particular features of a crawler is being able to visit each single page of a Website by also following any additional external links present.
The term Custom TLD, or Custom Top Level Domain, indicates those domain names that have been introduced and recognized by the ICANN association since April 2012. The most known TLDs like the historical .com, .net. and .org are now sided by custom domains and from then it’s possible to buy and use extensions such as .car, .home, .hobby and even .organization_name.
Eye-Fi is the name of a technology used with memory cards to transfer data from the card to the destination device in a wireless manner.
Usually memory cards with Eye-Fi capabilities are used with digital cameras.
The term Dynamic DNS, or DDNS, describes a mechanism with which a DNS system is automatically updated as soon as the associated IP address (or domain) is changed.
A classic application of DDNS is when a host with a public IP must be in perfect correspondence with the same domain name.
In order to work, a DDNS requires a client to be installed on the host which owns the interested IP address or, as an alternative, it’s often integrated with the firmware of gateways and routers.
The term public key infrastructure (PKI) usually describes the set of technologies that allow users on the Internet to establish secure connections to Web sites, services and other users. Such connections are secure thanks to the use of private and public encryption keys, which are provided by a dedicated authority called Certification Authority.
Bugzilla is an open source Web platform developed by the Mozilla Foundation that is used to track bugs in software. Within the Mozilla Foundation, Bugzilla is used to track bugs related to the project of the association itself, like Firefox and Thunderbird.
Any user can open a ticket with Bugzilla so that developers can start to work on it.
The term sniffer describes a software tool capable of intercepting (sniffing) data on a network, thus forcing a network card to accept packets that are not addresses to it. That allows the sniffer to grab all traffic without needing any authorization. For instance a password sniffer can analyze and record all the traffic on the network and collect all packets containing a password.
The term subnet mask indicates a 32-bit number that defines how many bits of the IP address of a host describe the network the host belongs to and how many the number of hosts belonging to the same network.
Usually it’s expressed in the form 255.255.255.0 or /24.
In general, 16 and 24-bit subnet masks are used, that is, the first N bits defines the network and the remaining describe single hosts.
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The term Edge Computing refers, when used in the cloud-based infrastructure sphere, the set of devices and technologies that allows...
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The acronym SoC (System on Chip) describes particular integrated circuit that contain a whole system inside a single physical chip:...
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The acronym PtP (Point-to-Point) indicates point-to-point radio links realized with wireless technologies. Differently, PtMP links connects a single source to...
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Hold Down Timer is a technique used by network routers. When a node receives notification that another router is offline...
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In the field of Information Technology, the term piggybacking refers to situations where an unauthorized third party gains access to...
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Adapter Watch is a tool that shows a complete and detailed report about network cards. Download it here.
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DNS DataView is a graphical-interface software to perform DNS lookup queries from your PC using system-defined DNS, or...
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SolarWinds Traceroute NG is a command line tool to perform advanced traceroute in Windows environment, compared to the...
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GURU advisor will be at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 22nd to 25th 2016!
MWC is one of the biggest conventions about the worldwide mobile market, we'll be present for the whole event and we'll keep you posted with news and previews from the congress.
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