The ‘Three Letter Acronym’ sometimes appears to be a language of its own, within every day conversation from travel (AKL, LAX, SYD) to finance (GBP, EUR, AUS, NZD) and of course more commonly text language (LOL, BTW etc.)
Translating human to Geek with some business speak, here are some common acronyms and brief meanings to assist you during information technology (I.T.) discussions:
BCP: Business Continuity Planning – continue to operate if a failure event occurs
CBA: Cost Benefit Analysis
CRM: Customer Relationship Management – system for managing client interactions and database.
CSS: Cascading Style Sheet. It is used by web pages to help keep the proper format.
DR: Disaster Recover and plan. Remediation and recovery plans in a state of Disaster.
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language. It is the language used to create Web pages for display in Web Browsers
ICT: Information and Communications Technology
LAN: Local Area Network. Your immediate workplace/ workspace network.
MSA: Managed Service Agreement, Containing charges services outside of the SLA
MSP: Managed Service Provider (Like Stratus Blue) – Providing managed services for IT support and operational continuity
NAS: Network Attached Storage. A cheaper alternative to a data file store than a server.
OS: Operating System, like Windows 10, Windows 7, or MacOS X
OTS/OOTB: ‘off the shelf’ / Out of the Box
PNP: Plug and play. No configuration or set up – it just works!
PHP: PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page. It is now a recognised term for a software programming language
RAM: Random Access Memory – runs the OS and software in a computer
RDS: Remote Desktop Services – also known as terminal services.
RDP: Remote Desktop Protocol – connect another computer over a network connection.
SLA: Service Level Agreement. Agreement which defines response criteria, financial and operating implications.
SQL: Structured Query Language. Coding language used in a database.
SSD: Solid State Drive. The common modern replacement of the hard disk drive (HDD). SSDs have no moving parts so are quicker, quieter and cost less to maintain!
UFB: Ultra-fast broadband.
VPN: Virtual Private Network – private connections through public networks.
WAN: Wide Area Network – multiple branches or cloud based applications use a WAN to communicate with each other.
WWW: World Wide Web. We all know what the internet means to us.
XaaS: This is something (X) as a service. Software as a service, desktop as a service, infrastructure as a service or “Stratus Blues Business CLaaS” – Cloud as a service.
If you want more information or business support, get in contact with us: assist@stratusblue.co.nz.
By Tony Snow, Director, Stratus Blue
“I write for this magazine to help educate and communicate the great community it serves.”
