Glossary

IT terms are often complex, multi-layered, and not always self-explanatory.

More information

Our IT glossary provides clarity

We explain key terms from the areas of enterprise service management (ESM), knowledge management, IT financial management (ITFM), and IT infrastructure—from security to data to endpoint management. Comprehensible, compact, and practical—for IT decision-makers, service managers, and IT teams looking for a quick and reliable overview.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

3

3-2-1 Rule

A

Availability Management

Asset Management

Actual Costs

Allocation Key

Allocation Rule

Amortized Costs

Allocation Metadata (Tags & Labels)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ITSM

Agentic SOC

Audit-Ready Recovery

Archive (Archiving)

Always-Hot Storage

All-Flash Storage

Application-Consistent Backup

Adaptive Authentication (Risk-Based Authentication)

Account Takeover (ATO)

Authentication

Authorization

Access Control

Access Management

API Access Management

Access Policies

Active Directory (AD)

Adversary Intelligence

Attack Surface Management

AI in Cybersecurity

Air Gap

Access Review (Access Certification)

Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)

AI Agent Identity

Automated Deprovisioning

B

Bill of IT

Backup API Integration

Bulk Restore

Backup Integrity

Backup Monitoring

Backup Retention

Backup Scalability

Block Storage

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Breach Prevention

Backup Anomaly Detection

Browser Isolation

Backup as a Service (BaaS)

Backup Isolation

Backup Repository

Backup Orchestration

C

Continual Service Improvement (CSI)

Change Management

Change Advisory Board (CAB)

Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

Chargeback

Contract Management

Cost Pools

Cost Center

CapEx and OpEx

Chatbot

Cryptographic Data Integrity

Cross-Application Backup

Configuration Backup

Containerization

Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)

Cloud Identity

Cloud Detection and Response (CDR)

Cyber Threat Landscape

Cyber Resilience

Cyber Risk Management

Cyber Recovery

Clean Restore

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)

Cybersecurity

Cloud Security

Cloud Backup

Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)

Compliance Automation

Compliance & Security

Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE)

D

Depreciation

Digital Forensics

Data Governance

Data Integration

Digital Communications Governance (DCG)

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

Data Sovereignty

Data Residency

Deduplication

Data Fabric

Device Trust

Digital Identity

Directory Integration

Digital Risk Protection (DRP)

Data Protection

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance)

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

Data Replication

Disaster Recovery (DR)

Data Classification

Data Loss

Data Leakage

Dormant Accounts (Inactive Accounts)

Direct Internet Access (DIA)

DNS Security

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)

E

Escalation Management

Enterprise Service Management (ESM)

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

E-Discovery

Endpoint Security

Endpoint

Email Security

Entitlement Management

Enterprise Browser

F

First Contact Resolution (FCR)

First Level Support (1st Level Support)

Forecast

File Storage

Firewall as a Service (FWaaS)

FIDO2

G

General Ledger (GL)

Granular Restore

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

Global Private Backbone

H

Helpdesk

Hybrid Chargeback

Hybrid Cloud Storage

Hyperscaler Independence

I

IT Service Management (ITSM)

IT Asset Management (ITAM)

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)

Incident Management

ITSM Software (ITSM Tool)

IT Cost Management

ITFM (IT Financial Management)

IT Cost Allocation

IT Budget

IT Operations Management (ITOM)

Immutable Backup

Identity Security

Identity and Access Management

Identity Governance and Administration (IGA)

Identity Backup

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

Identity Federation

Identity Lifecycle Management

Identity Provider (IdP)

Identity Platform

Identity Automation

Identity Orchestration

Identity Management (IdM)

Incident Response

Insider Threat

IT Security

ISO 27001

ISMS (Information Security Management System)

IT Resilience

Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM)

Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)

J

Just-in-Time Access (JIT)

Joiner-Mover-Leaver (JML)

K

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Knowledge Management

Knowledge Base

Kubernetes

Known-Good-State Recovery

L

Lookalike Domain

Least Privilege (Principle of Least Privilege)

Local Internet Breakout

M

Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR)

Mean Time to Response (MTR)

Microsoft 365 Backup

Multi-Tenant Management

Merkle Tree

Metadata Backup

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

MITRE ATT&CK

Mean Time to Detect (MTD)

MITRE Framework

Machine Identity

MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching)

Managed SASE

Microsegmentation

N

Next-Gen SIEM

Network Detection and Response (NDR)

Network Observability

NIS2 (NIS 2 Directive)

Non-Human Identity (NHI)

Network Segmentation

O

Object Storage

OAuth 2.0

OpenID Connect (OIDC)

Object Lock

Offsite Backup

OT Security

Orphaned Accounts

P

Problem Management

Project Controlling

Plan-vs-Actual Variance

Process Automation (ITSM Automation)

Point-in-Time Recovery

Passwordless Authentication

Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Pentesting (Penetration Testing)

Protection Needs Assessment

Phishing-Resistant MFA

Passkeys

Point of Presence (PoP)

Q

Quality of Service (QoS)

R

Release Management

Rate Card (Charging Rate)

Resource Towers (TBM)

Recovery Automation

Recovery Readiness

Recovery Testing

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

Ransomware Protection

Ransomware Recovery

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

S

Service Owner

Service Request Management

Second Level Support (2nd Level Support)

Service Desk

Service Catalog

Service Level Management (SLM)

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Shared Services

Service Costs

Showback

Shared Costs

Self-Service Portal

Security Automation

SOC Modernization

SaaS Backup

Storage as a Service (STaaS)

SaaS Recovery

Storage Virtualization

Single Sign-On (SSO)

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)

Social Login

Secure Access

Security Operations Center (SOC)

Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)

Security Analytics

Security Posture

Sandboxing (Attachment Sandboxing)

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)

Security Operations (SecOps)

SaaS Security

Shared Responsibility Model

SaaS Data Protection

Security Service Edge (SSE)

Secure Web Gateway (SWG)

SaaS Data Ownership

Security Awareness Training

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

Supervision (Communications Surveillance)

Social Media Compliance

Snapshot

Segregation of Duties (SoD)

Service Account

Step-Up Authentication

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN)

Single-Pass Architecture

T

Ticketing System

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

TBM (Technology Business Management)

TBM Taxonomy

Transfer Pricing

Threat Hunting

Threat Intelligence

Threat Actor

Threat Detection and Response

TLS Inspection

U

Unified Storage

User Provisioning

URL Protection

Universal Logout

V

Vendor Independence

Vulnerability Management

Vendor Email Compromise (VEC)

W

Workaround

WORM (Write Once, Read Many)

Workforce Identity

WebAuthn (Web Authentication API)

X

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

XIoT Security

Z

Zero Trust Security

Zero Trust Architecture

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)

Zero-Day Exploit

Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP)