Technical glossary
Storage, firewall, PLC, log retention… the terms that appear in quotes and meetings, in plain words.
Do not decide on a quote without understanding the words in it. This glossary explains the terms our customers ask about most, in one paragraph each, and shows how we do that work.
5
- 5651 Logging (Turkish Internet Access Records)
- Turkish Law 5651 regulates publications on the internet and the obligations of access providers. Workplaces, hotels, cafés, dormitories and schools that give others internet acces…
A
- Active Directory
- Active Directory is the directory service that manages a company's users, computers, groups and permissions from one centre. An employee reaches every PC, file server and printer …
B
- Backup vs. Archive
- A backup is a regular copy of live data taken so it can be restored after corruption, deletion or ransomware; its purpose is a quick return to the previous state and it usually co…
C
- Cat6 and Cat6A Cable
- Cat6 and Cat6A are performance categories of copper network cable. Cat6 carries 1 Gbit/s up to 100 metres and 10 Gbit/s over short runs (about 55 metres); it is the common choice …
D
- DICOM
- DICOM is the international standard for storing medical images (X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound) and transferring them between devices. A DICOM file carries not only the image but the …
- Disaster Recovery
- Disaster recovery is the plan and infrastructure prepared in advance to bring information systems back into operation after fire, flood, hardware failure, ransomware or human erro…
E
- EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response)
- EDR is the endpoint security approach that goes beyond classic antivirus. Antivirus recognises known malicious files by signature; EDR watches behaviour on the computer: which pro…
F
- Fibre Optic Cable
- Fibre optic cable carries data as light instead of electricity. It is used for distances beyond copper's 100-metre limit (between buildings, across factory sites, long corridors),…
- Firewall
- A firewall is the device or software that sits between the company network and the internet and decides by rules which traffic may pass. It blocks incoming requests by default and…
H
- HIS (Hospital Information System)
- The HIS is the core software that runs all administrative and clinical processes of a hospital or healthcare provider: admissions, outpatient clinics, inpatient stays, test orders…
- HL7
- HL7 (Health Level Seven) is the messaging standard that lets software in healthcare institutions exchange patient, appointment, order and result information. Classic HL7 v2 messag…
- HMI (Human-Machine Interface)
- An HMI is the touch screen on the machine: the operator starts and stops the machine from it, selects recipes and sees alarms. It talks directly to the PLC; unlike SCADA it focuse…
- Hotspot (Guest Wi-Fi)
- A hotspot is wireless internet access for guests or customers that is separate from the company network and identifies the user. On connecting, a welcome page opens; the user regi…
- Hypervisor
- A hypervisor is the software layer that makes virtualisation possible: it shares the physical server's CPU, memory, disk and network card between virtual machines and isolates eac…
I
- IEC 62443
- IEC 62443 is the international series of standards for the cybersecurity of industrial automation and control systems (PLC, SCADA, HMI, field networks). It differs from office IT …
- ISO/IEC 27001
- ISO/IEC 27001 is the international standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It requires a business to identify its information assets (customer data, contrac…
K
- KVKK (Turkish Personal Data Protection Law)
- Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data regulates under which conditions personal data (name, ID number, phone, health information, camera footage, location) may be collec…
M
- MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)
- Multi-factor authentication means asking for a second proof in addition to the password when logging in: a code from an app on the phone, an SMS, a hardware key or a fingerprint. …
- Modbus
- Modbus is the most widespread and oldest open communication protocol for exchanging data between industrial devices. It comes in two forms: Modbus RTU runs over an RS485 serial li…
N
- NAS (Network Attached Storage)
- A NAS is a storage device that connects straight to the network and shares files as folders. Users reach it like a network drive; it is the most common solution for accounting fil…
- NVR and DVR (Camera Recorders)
- A DVR is the recorder analogue cameras connect to over coaxial cable; it digitises the picture inside the unit. An NVR is the recorder IP cameras connect to over network cable; th…
O
- OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)
- OEE is the measure that shows in one percentage how productively a machine or line really runs. It has three factors: availability (how much of the planned time it ran), performan…
- ONVIF
- ONVIF is an open interface standard created so that IP cameras and recorders from different manufacturers can talk to each other. An ONVIF-compliant camera can connect to another …
- OPC UA
- OPC UA (IEC 62541) is the modern communication standard that lets PLCs and machines on the factory floor talk securely and vendor-independently to higher-level software (SCADA, ME…
P
- Predictive Maintenance
- Predictive maintenance means measuring a machine's condition continuously, predicting a failure before it happens and doing the maintenance exactly when needed. It differs from re…
- PLC (Programmable Logic Controller)
- A PLC is the industrial computer that controls machines and production lines. It reads signals from sensors and buttons, drives outputs such as motors, valves and pneumatic cylind…
- PoE (Power over Ethernet)
- PoE is the standard that carries both data and electrical power over a network cable. IP cameras, wireless access points, IP phones and some sensors run from the Ethernet cable al…
R
- Ransomware
- Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts files on computers and servers and demands money to unlock them. It usually enters through a fake e-mail attachment, a remote deskto…
- RPO and RTO
- RPO (Recovery Point Objective) states, as a time span, how much data may be lost at most in a disaster: an RPO of one hour means backups at least hourly. RTO (Recovery Time Object…
S
- SAN (Storage Area Network)
- A SAN is a separate storage network that presents disk space to servers at block level, as if the disk were plugged in directly. It gives raw space rather than files; virtualisati…
- SCADA
- SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) is the monitoring and control software that brings a plant's PLCs, meters and field devices onto one screen. The operator sees the…
- SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
- A SIEM collects the logs produced by firewalls, servers, directory services, antivirus and applications in one place, correlates them and turns suspicious patterns into alarms. Ev…
- Storage
- Storage is the shared system that holds a company's data: not the disk of a single PC but a separate device or server that several servers and users reach over the network, with d…
- Structured Cabling
- Structured cabling is running the data, telephone, camera and access-point cables of a building in a planned, labelled and documented way according to standards. Every outlet goes…
U
- UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)
- A UPS keeps devices such as servers, switches, recorders and PLCs running from a battery when the mains fails or the voltage fluctuates. Its purpose is not to run for days but to …
V
- Virtualisation
- Virtualisation means running several independent virtual servers (virtual machines) on one physical server. Each virtual machine has its own operating system, memory and disk; the…
- Vibration Analysis
- Vibration analysis determines the health of rotating machines (motors, pumps, fans, gearboxes, compressors) by measuring the vibration of their casing. Each fault type leaves its …
- VLAN (Virtual LAN)
- A VLAN is a way to create several isolated logical networks on one physical network. Devices on the same switch cannot see each other if they are in different VLANs; traffic betwe…
- VPN (Virtual Private Network)
- A VPN builds an encrypted tunnel between two points over the internet and makes a remote device or branch part of the company network. It has two uses: a site-to-site VPN joins th…
- VPS (Virtual Private Server)
- A VPS is a virtual slice of a physical server in a data centre reserved for you: your own operating system, admin rights and fixed resources (CPU, memory, disk); you share the har…
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