​​Term

Definition

Accountable Assets

Accountable assets are those which are subject to the controls detailed in DoIT Policy 20-04. Accountable assets are divided between two categories: Capital Equipment and Sensitive Equipment.

Agile Methods (project management)

Agile methods in project management refers to a process by which a team can more rapidly and successfully complete a project by breaking it up into several stages (requirements, minimum viable product, enhancements, testing, delivery) that center on frequent collaboration with stakeholders, continuous improvement, and iteration at every stage.  Examples of specific agile methodologies include Scrum, Kanban, and Adaptive Project Framework.

Antenna

An apparatus designed to emit radio frequency radiation and operate from a fixed location to provide wireless services.

Application

A software program hosted by an information system.

Artifact

A piece of evidence, such as text or a reference to a resource, that is submitted to support a response to a question.

Asset

A major application, general support system, high impact program, physical plant, mission critical system, personnel, equipment, or a logically related group of systems.  Anything that has value to an organization, including, but not limited to, another organization, person, computing device, information technology (IT) system, IT network, IT circuit, software (both an installed instance and a physical instance), virtual computing platform (common in cloud and virtualized computing), and related hardware (e.g., locks, cabinets, keyboards).

Backhaul

(Radio)

Backhaul refers to the transport network that connects the core telecommunications (cable or copper) network and the RAN (Radio Access Network) which underpins the mobile network.  The mobile network is comprised of specific radio receiving areas “cells” of a half- mile (urban) to 20 miles (rural) from the transmitter. 

Basic Input/Output System

A set of computer instructions in firmware which control input and output functions.

Broadband Technology Opportunities Program

A government grant program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to help bridge the technological divide; create jobs; and improve education, health care, and public safety in communities across the country by deploying broadband internet infrastructure.

Cloud Computing

A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

Communication Service

(MDFirst)

The transmission of data by electrical means. It includes (but is not limited to) the transmission of intelligence by telephone lines, telegraph lines, messenger-call, police, fire alarm, and traffic control circuits and circuits used to transmit standard television or radio signals.

Computer

A device that accepts digital data and manipulates the information based on a program or sequence of instructions for how data is to be processed.

Cyber

Refers to both information and communication networks.

Dark Fiber

A strand of unused or un-activated fiber optic cable.

Database

A repository of information or data, which may or may not be a traditional relational database system.

Data Lake

A data lake is a stored collection of raw data, the purpose for which is not yet defined.  This is contrasted with a data warehouse, which is a repository for structured, filtered data that has been processed for a specific purpose.

Data Warehouse

A central repository of structure, integrated data from one or more databases, flat files, web content, or other sources.

Digital Signature

The result of a cryptographic transformation of data that, when properly implemented, provides origin authentication, assurance of data integrity and signatory non-repudiation.  The result of applying two cryptographic functions: a hash function and a digital signature function.

Enterprise 

(organization)

An organization with a defined mission/goal and a defined boundary, using information systems to execute that mission, and with responsibility for managing its own risks and performance.  

Enterprise Architecture

(Information Technology)

The description of an enterprise’s entire set of information systems: how they are configured, how they are integrated, how they interface to the external environment at the enterprise’s boundary, how they are operated to support the enterprise mission, and how they contribute to the enterprise’s overall security posture.

Enterprise Resource Planning System

A system that integrates enterprise-wide information including human resources, financials, manufacturing, and distribution as well as connects the organization to its customers and suppliers.

Firewall

An inter-network connection device that restricts data communication traffic between two connected networks. A firewall may be either an application installed on a general-purpose computer or a dedicated platform (appliance), which forwards or rejects/drops packets on a network. Typically, firewalls are used to define zone borders. Firewalls generally have rules restricting which ports are open.

Flash Drive

A data storage device that is typically small, removable, re-writable, and utilizes a USB interface connector.

Framework

A layered structure indicating what kind of programs can or should be built and how they would interrelate. Some computer system frameworks also include actual programs, specify programming interfaces, or offer programming tools for using the frameworks. A framework may be for a set of functions within a system and how they interrelate; the layers of an operating system; the layers of an application subsystem; how communication should be standardized at some level of a network; and so forth. A framework is generally more comprehensive than a protocol and more prescriptive than a structure.

Governance

Processes and methods that support the oversight and management of unit resources.

Help Desk

A centralized user support service and web/phone contact point that provides technical assistance and problem fixes. 

Hybrid Cloud

The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between clouds).

Implied Consent

(Electronic Recording)

Consent that is received through an individual’s continued participation following notification of the initiation of or prior activation of an electronic recording.

Information Resources

Information and related resources, such as personnel, equipment, funds, and information technology.

Information Technology

Any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem of equipment that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information by the executive agency. For purposes of the preceding sentence, equipment is used by an executive agency if the equipment is used by the executive agency directly or is used by a contractor under a contract with the executive agency which: (i) requires the use of such equipment; or (ii) requires the use, to a significant extent, of such equipment in the performance of a service or the furnishing of a product. The term information technology includes computers, ancillary equipment, software, firmware and similar procedures, services (including support services), and related resources.

Infrastructure

Facilities, systems, and utility devices that create a communications or computing network (voice, data, video, mobile, or satellite) and related hosting capabilities.  This includes data centers, server rooms, wiring closets, air conditioning and power devices, cable plants, interconnections to external networks, and related structures, hardware, software, firmware, and equipment controllers.

Intake Process

A DoIT process for receiving internal and external requests for technical assistance from a service team.  This includes MD State unit requests.

Last Mile

The final connection from a voice or data broadband provider’s local network to the end user.  The local links which provide service to the retail customer.

Machine Learning

A subset of artificial intelligence (AI) referring to the concept that computer programs can automatically learn from and adapt to new data without being assisted by humans. Deep learning techniques enable this automatic learning through the absorption of huge amounts of unstructured data such as text, images, or video.

Major Information Technology Development Project

Any technology development project meeting the criteria as established in Maryland Code, SF&P Article, § 3A-301.

Massively Parallel Processing

The coordinated processing of a program by multiple processors that work on different parts of the program, with each processor using its own operating system and memory. Typically, MPP processors communicate using some messaging interface. In some implementations, up to 200 or more processors can work on the same application. An “interconnect” arrangement of data paths allows messages to be sent between processors. Typically, the setup for MPP is more complicated, requiring thought about how to partition a common database among processors and how to assign work among the processors. An MPP system is also known as a “loosely coupled” or “shared nothing” system.

Middle Mile

The fiber optic link between the backbone fiber optics or core network to the broadband provider’s  local network plant to the internet services providers’ core network, local network plant or telecommunications exchange. It does not typically connect the end-user.

Multifactor Authentication

An authentication system that requires more than one distinct authentication factor for successful authentication. Multifactor authentication can be performed using a multifactor authenticator or by a combination of authenticators that provide different factors. The three authentication factors are something you know (e.g., password or PIN), something you have (e.g., cryptographic identification device), and something you are (e.g., biometric).

network Maryland

The Maryland State government’s high-speed data network for public sector use, operated by DoIT.  Requests for services are made to DoIT using NSR or CSR forms.

Open Systems Interconnection Model

Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a seven-layer conceptual model that characterizes and standardizes the communication functions of a telecommunication or computing system without regard to its underlying internal structure and technology.  The layers are: physical, data, network, transport, session, presentation, and application.  Layer 8 is the user.

Plain Ordinary (Old) Telephone Service

Voice-grade telephone service employing analog signal transmission over copper wire loops. POTS was the standard service offering from telephone companies from 1876 until the mid-1980s when the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and Basic Rate Interface (BRI) was introduced, followed in the late 1990s by cellular telephone systems, and Voice-over-IP (VoIP).  POTS is still the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world. The term reflects the technology that has been available since the introduction of the public telephone system in the late 19th century, in a form mostly unchanged despite the introduction of Touch-Tone dialing, electronic telephone exchanges and fiber-optic communication into the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

Private Cloud

The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization comprising multiple consumers (e.g., business units). It may be owned, managed, and operated by the organization, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises.

Program Manager

The person responsible for the ongoing operation of a program office and the successful delivery of products and services to internal and external customers, within the constraints of available resources (e.g., budget, assets. Time, people) and quality standards.

Project Manager

The person responsible for the start-to-finish definition, execution, and delivery of a product or service within designated targets for cost, schedule, and performance.

Property Officer

Reports directly to the DoIT CFO and performs the duties described in the DGS Inventory Control Manual under Section III, .01, A.: Duties of Property Officers. The DoIT Property Officer also maintains a list of DoIT Accountable Officers.

Quality of Service

The measurable end-to-end performance properties of a network service, which can be guaranteed in advance by a Service Level Agreement between a user and a service provider, so as to satisfy specific customer application requirements. Note: These properties may include throughput (bandwidth), transit delay (latency), error rates, priority, security, packet loss, packet jitter, etc.

Qubit

the basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical system, one of the simplest quantum systems displaying the peculiarity of quantum mechanics. Examples include: the spin of the electron in which the two levels can be taken as spin up and spin down; or the polarization of a single photon in which the two states can be taken to be the vertical polarization and the horizontal polarization. In a classical system, a bit would have to be in one state or the other. However, quantum mechanics allows the qubit to be in a coherent superposition of both states simultaneously, a property which is fundamental to quantum mechanics and quantum computing.

Receiving Officer

DoIT or unit employee assigned the responsibility of receiving incoming merchandise as a primary or secondary responsibility, and who is not otherwise designated as an Accountable Officer.

Recording

The storage of audio, video, or text transcription of an electronic communication in any format.

Router

A computer that is a gateway between two networks at OSI Layer 3 and that relays and directs data packets through that inter-network. The most common form of router operates on Internet Protocol packets.

Rural Area

Any State area, as confirmed by the latest decennial census of the Bureau of the Census, which is not located within: 1. A city, town, or incorporated area that has a population of greater than 20,000 inhabitants; or 2. An urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to a city or town that has a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants. For purposes of the definition of rural area, an urbanized area means a densely populated territory as defined in the latest decennial census of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Server

A computer or device on a network that manages network resources. Examples include file servers (to store files), print servers (to manage one or more printers), network servers (to manage network traffic), and database servers (to process database queries).

Small Cells / Microcells

Wireless facilities involving antennas, no more than three cubic feet in volume, that can be mounted to a light pole, street sign, or some other vertical support structure (electrical-transmission tower or utility pole) no more than 50 feet in height.

Software as a Service

The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Storage Area Network

(storage network)

A storage area network (SAN) or storage network is a computer network which provides access to consolidated, block-level data storage. SANs are primarily used to access data storage devices, such as disk arrays and tape libraries from servers so that the devices appear to the operating system as direct-attached storage. A SAN typically is a dedicated network of storage devices not accessible through the local area network.  Although a SAN provides only block-level access, file systems built on top of SANs do provide file-level access and are known as shared-disk file systems.

Supercomputer

A computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer.  Supercomputer use is also  referred to as High Performance Computing (HPC). The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS).  Supercomputers which can perform over 1017 FLOPS (a hundred quadrillion FLOPS, 100 petaFLOPS or 100 PFLOPS).   Since 2017, the world’s fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems.  Supercomputers play an important role in the field of computational science, and are used for a wide range of computationally intensive tasks in various fields, including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling (computing the structures and properties of chemical compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals), and physical simulations.

Task Order Request for Proposals

A Maryland State government standard document that is prepared by the Department of General Services (DGS) to solicit qualified industry providers for a comprehensive proposal for delivering an IT product or service.       

Telework

Agency-approved work locations for employees and contractors.  The DBM policy for telework can be found Here.

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

A set of rules that govern the connection of computer systems to the internet.  The TCP/IP suite has four layers (Application, Transport, Internet, Link) that can be mapped to the seven layers of the OSI networking model.  The TCP group of protocols provide reliable, ordered, and error-checked delivery of a stream of octets (bytes) between applications running on hosts communicating via an IP network. The IP group of protocols provide end-to-end data communication by specifying how data should be packetized, addressed, transmitted, routed, and received.  The most widely version in use is TCP/IP Version 4.  TCP/IP Version 6 usage is growing as it provides more robust addressing, security, and more efficient packet processing.

Unserved

A State rural area where broadband service may be available but no facilities-based service providers offer minimum connectivity speeds of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload.

Universal Serial Bus

An industry standard that establishes specifications for cables and connectors, as well as protocols for connection, communication, and peripheral devices.

Virtualization

(for servers and computers)

The simulation of the software and/or hardware upon which other software runs.  Virtualization is a process for system administrators and users to create multiple simulated computing environments within one piece of hardware. Instead of using multiple pieces of hardware to run more than one operating system, virtualization creates a type of virtual barrier—called a hypervisor—to separate digital functions normally requiring multiple physical units. Essentially, virtualization uses software to act as hardware. 

Voice-Over-Internet Protocol

A term used to describe the transmission of packetized voice using the internet protocol (IP) and consists of both signaling and media protocols.

Wireless Fidelity

(network)

Wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are used for local area networking of devices and internet access.

Workflow

The process to accomplish a business objective or deliver a product or service.