Resources

Technology glossary

129 technology terms explained in plain English, for business owners and managers who work with technology teams.

A

A/B testing Data: A controlled experiment in which two versions of a page, screen or message are shown to different groups of users at the same time. The results are compared to see which version performs better against a chosen goal, such as sign-ups or completed purchases.Related: Feature flag, Product analytics
Acceptance criteria Delivery: The specific, testable conditions a feature must meet before it is accepted as complete. Writing them before development starts gives the client and the delivery team a shared, unambiguous picture of what will be built.Related: User story, User acceptance testing (UAT)
Agile Delivery: An approach to software delivery that works in short cycles, releases usable increments often and adjusts the plan based on feedback. It favours collaboration and working software over long upfront specifications.Related: Scrum, Sprint, Backlog
AI agent AI: A software system built around a language model that can plan steps and use tools, such as searching documents, calling APIs or updating records, to complete a task. Well-designed agents work within defined permissions and hand decisions back to a person where needed.Related: Large language model (LLM), Guardrails, Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
API (application programming interface) Web: A defined way for one piece of software to request data or actions from another. APIs let a website, mobile app, payment provider or internal system work together without each needing to know how the others are built.Related: REST API, GraphQL, API gateway, Webhook
API gateway Cloud: A single entry point that sits in front of a set of backend services and routes each incoming request to the right one. It usually also handles shared concerns such as authentication, rate limiting, logging and caching.Related: API (application programming interface), Microservices
App store review Mobile: The check that Apple and Google carry out before an app or an app update is published in their stores. Apps must follow each store's published guidelines on content, privacy, payments and behaviour, so these rules are taken into account from the design stage.Related: Native app, In-app purchase, Over-the-air (OTA) update
Auto-scaling Cloud: A cloud feature that adds computing capacity automatically when demand rises and removes it when demand falls. It helps an application stay responsive during traffic peaks without paying for idle servers the rest of the time.Related: Load balancer, Serverless, High availability (HA)
Availability zone Cloud: A physically separate data centre location within a cloud provider's region, with its own power, cooling and networking. Running an application across more than one zone means a failure in a single facility does not take the whole service down.Related: High availability (HA), Disaster recovery (DR)

B

Backend Web: The server-side part of an application that users do not see directly. It stores and processes data, applies business rules, handles security and exposes APIs that websites and mobile apps call.Related: Frontend, API (application programming interface), Database
Backlog Delivery: An ordered list of features, fixes and improvements still to be done on a product. The product owner keeps it prioritised so the team always works on the most valuable items first.Related: User story, Sprint, Agile
Backup Data: A copy of data stored separately from the original so it can be restored after deletion, corruption, ransomware or hardware failure. A backup only counts once a restore has actually been tested.Related: Disaster recovery (DR), Recovery point objective (RPO), Encryption at rest
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) IoT: A short-range wireless technology designed for devices that need to run for long periods on small batteries. It is widely used to connect wearables, sensors, beacons and medical devices to phones and gateways.Related: Internet of Things (IoT), IoT gateway, Sensor
Business intelligence (BI) Data: The tools and practices used to turn business data into reports and dashboards that support decisions. BI typically draws on a data warehouse so that figures are consistent across departments.Related: Data warehouse, ETL (extract, transform, load), Product analytics

C

Canary release Delivery: Rolling out a new version to a small share of users first and watching its error rates and performance before releasing it to everyone. If problems appear, only a few users are affected and the release can be stopped.Related: Feature flag, Observability
CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery) Delivery: An automated pipeline that builds and tests every code change as soon as it is committed, then prepares it for release. With continuous deployment, changes that pass every check go to production automatically, so releases become small, frequent and routine.Related: DevOps, Unit testing, Version control, Infrastructure as code (IaC)
Cloud migration Cloud: Moving applications, data and infrastructure from on-premises servers or another provider into a cloud platform. Approaches range from moving systems largely as they are to redesigning them to use managed cloud services.Related: Cloud-native, Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
Cloud-native Cloud: Software designed from the start to run in the cloud, typically using containers, managed services, automation and horizontal scaling. Cloud-native systems are built to tolerate failures and to be updated frequently without downtime.Related: Container, Kubernetes, Microservices, Serverless
Computer vision AI: A field of AI that lets software interpret images and video, for example to detect objects, read labels, count items or inspect products for defects. Accuracy depends heavily on the quality and variety of the images used for training.Related: Machine learning (ML), Optical character recognition (OCR), Edge computing
Container Cloud: A lightweight package that bundles an application with everything it needs to run, so it behaves the same on a laptop, a test server and production. Containers start quickly and make deployments repeatable.Related: Kubernetes, Microservices, Cloud-native
Content delivery network (CDN) Web: A network of servers spread across many locations that stores copies of a site's images, scripts and pages close to users. Serving content from a nearby location cuts load times and absorbs traffic spikes.Related: Latency, Static site generation (SSG)
Content management system (CMS) Web: Software that lets non-technical staff create, edit and publish website content without changing code. It usually includes roles and permissions, drafts, scheduling and a media library.Related: Headless CMS, Static site generation (SSG)
Core Web Vitals Web: A small set of standard metrics that measure real users' experience of a web page: how fast the main content loads, how quickly the page responds to input and how stable the layout is while loading. They are widely used as performance targets for public websites.Related: Search engine optimisation (SEO), Latency, Server-side rendering (SSR)
Cross-platform app Mobile: A mobile app built from one shared codebase that runs on both iOS and Android. It can reduce the cost of building and maintaining two apps, while native code is still used where a feature needs deep access to the device.Related: Native app, Progressive web app (PWA), Software development kit (SDK)
Cross-site scripting (XSS) Security: A vulnerability in which an attacker gets malicious script to run in other users' browsers through a website, often to steal sessions or data. It is prevented by validating input, encoding output correctly and setting strict browser security policies.Related: OWASP Top 10, Web application firewall (WAF), Penetration testing

D

Data lake Data: A central store that holds large volumes of raw data in its original formats, from structured tables to logs, images and sensor readings. Data is shaped only when it is read, which makes lakes flexible but means they need good cataloguing to stay useful.Related: Data warehouse, ETL (extract, transform, load), Data pipeline
Data pipeline Data: An automated series of steps that moves data from where it is produced to where it is needed, cleaning and transforming it along the way. Pipelines can run on a schedule or continuously as new data arrives.Related: ETL (extract, transform, load), Data warehouse
Data warehouse Data: A database designed for analysis and reporting rather than day-to-day transactions. It brings together cleaned, structured data from many systems so that reports across the organisation draw on one consistent source.Related: Business intelligence (BI), ETL (extract, transform, load), Data lake
Database Data: Software that stores an application's data in an organised way and lets it be queried and updated safely. Relational databases organise data in linked tables, while NoSQL databases use other models such as documents or key-value pairs.Related: SQL, NoSQL database, Backup
Deep linking Mobile: A link that opens a specific screen inside a mobile app, such as a product page or an order, rather than just launching the app. If the app is not installed, the link can fall back to the website or the app store.Related: Native app, Push notification
DevOps Delivery: A way of working that brings software development and IT operations together, with shared responsibility for building, releasing and running a system. It relies on automation, monitoring and fast feedback to ship changes safely and often.Related: CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery), Infrastructure as code (IaC), Observability
Digital twin IoT: A software model of a physical asset, process or site that is kept up to date with live data from sensors. It lets teams monitor condition, test changes and predict problems without touching the real equipment.Related: Internet of Things (IoT), Sensor, Predictive maintenance
Disaster recovery (DR) Cloud: The plans, systems and procedures for restoring IT services after a major failure such as a data centre outage, cyber attack or accidental deletion. A DR plan is defined by its recovery objectives and is proven only by regular testing.Related: Recovery point objective (RPO), Recovery time objective (RTO), Backup, Availability zone
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) Security: An attack that floods a website or service with traffic from many machines at once to make it unavailable to real users. Protection usually combines a CDN, a web application firewall and network-level filtering from the hosting provider.Related: Web application firewall (WAF), Content delivery network (CDN)

E

Edge computing IoT: Processing data close to where it is produced, on a device, gateway or local server, rather than sending everything to a central cloud. It reduces delay and bandwidth use and keeps working when the connection drops.Related: IoT gateway, Internet of Things (IoT), Latency
Embeddings AI: Lists of numbers that represent the meaning of a piece of text, an image or other content, produced by an AI model. Items with similar meaning end up with similar numbers, which makes semantic search and recommendations possible.Related: Vector database, Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Semantic search
Encryption at rest Security: Encrypting data while it is stored on disks, in databases or in backups, so that it is unreadable to anyone who obtains the storage without the keys. Managing those keys carefully is as important as the encryption itself.Related: Secrets management, Backup
ETL (extract, transform, load) Data: A process that pulls data out of source systems, cleans and reshapes it, and loads it into a target such as a data warehouse. A common variation, ELT, loads raw data first and transforms it inside the warehouse.Related: Data pipeline, Data warehouse, Data lake

F

Feature flag Delivery: A switch in the code that turns a feature on or off without a new release. Flags allow teams to ship unfinished work safely, release features to selected users and turn off a problem feature instantly.Related: Canary release, A/B testing, CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery)
Fine-tuning AI: Further training an existing AI model on a smaller, task-specific dataset so that it follows a particular style, format or domain more reliably. It is often compared with retrieval-augmented generation, which supplies knowledge at query time instead of changing the model.Related: Large language model (LLM), Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Training data
Firmware IoT: The low-level software that runs directly on a device's hardware, such as a sensor node, controller or appliance. It controls the hardware and handles communication, and in connected products it is usually updated remotely.Related: Over-the-air (OTA) update, Internet of Things (IoT)
Fixed-price engagement Delivery: A commercial model in which an agreed scope is delivered for an agreed price. It suits work that can be clearly defined upfront, and changes to scope are handled through a formal change request.Related: Time and materials (T&M), Statement of work (SOW), Minimum viable product (MVP)
Frontend Web: The part of a website or application that users see and interact with in their browser or on their device. Frontend work covers layout, interaction, accessibility and performance, and it talks to the backend through APIs.Related: Backend, Single-page application (SPA), Responsive design

G

GraphQL Web: A query language for APIs that lets the client ask for exactly the data it needs in a single request. It is useful when different screens or apps need different shapes of the same data.Related: API (application programming interface), REST API
Guardrails AI: Controls placed around an AI system to keep its behaviour safe and on-task, such as input and output filters, topic limits, permission checks and human approval steps. They reduce the risk of harmful, off-brand or incorrect responses reaching users.Related: AI agent, Hallucination, Large language model (LLM)

H

Hallucination AI: When an AI language model produces an answer that sounds confident but is factually wrong or invented. Grounding the model in trusted documents, asking it to cite sources and evaluating outputs systematically all reduce the risk.Related: Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Guardrails, Large language model (LLM)
Headless CMS Web: A content management system that stores and manages content but does not control how it is displayed. Content is delivered through an API, so the same articles or product data can feed a website, a mobile app and other channels.Related: Content management system (CMS), API (application programming interface), Static site generation (SSG)
High availability (HA) Cloud: Designing a system so it keeps running when individual components fail, usually by removing single points of failure and running redundant copies. The target level of availability is agreed against the cost of achieving it.Related: Availability zone, Load balancer, Service level agreement (SLA)

I

In-app purchase Mobile: A payment made inside a mobile app for digital content, features or subscriptions. App stores set rules on which purchases must use their own billing systems, so the payment approach is decided early in the design.Related: App store review, Native app
Incident response Security: The prepared process an organisation follows when a security breach or major outage happens: detect, contain, fix, recover and learn. A written plan with named roles shortens the time to recovery and limits damage.Related: Observability, Disaster recovery (DR)
Inference AI: Using a trained AI model to produce an output, such as a prediction, classification or generated text, from new input. Inference cost and speed are key factors when running AI features in production.Related: Machine learning (ML), Large language model (LLM), Edge computing
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) Cloud: A cloud model in which a provider rents out basic computing resources such as virtual servers, storage and networks. The customer manages the operating system and everything above it, which gives the most control of the cloud service models.Related: Platform as a service (PaaS), Software as a service (SaaS), Virtual private cloud (VPC)
Infrastructure as code (IaC) Cloud: Defining servers, networks, databases and other infrastructure in version-controlled files rather than setting them up by hand. Environments can then be created, reviewed and rebuilt consistently and quickly.Related: DevOps, CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery), Version control
Integration testing Delivery: Testing that checks whether separate parts of a system work correctly together, for example an app with its database or a backend with a payment provider. It catches problems that unit tests on individual pieces cannot.Related: Unit testing, CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery)
Internet of Things (IoT) IoT: Physical devices fitted with sensors, processors and connectivity so they can send data and receive commands over a network. An IoT solution usually spans the device, its firmware, the connectivity, a cloud platform and the apps people use.Related: Sensor, IoT gateway, MQTT, Firmware
IoT gateway IoT: A device that collects data from nearby sensors and machines, often over short-range or industrial protocols, and forwards it securely to the cloud. Gateways can also filter, store and process data locally when the connection is poor.Related: Edge computing, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), MQTT

K

Kubernetes Cloud: An open-source platform for running and managing containers across a cluster of machines. It handles deployment, scaling, restarts and networking automatically, which suits larger systems made of many services.Related: Container, Microservices, Cloud-native, Auto-scaling

L

Large language model (LLM) AI: An AI model trained on very large amounts of text that can understand and generate language, answer questions, summarise documents and write code. Business uses typically combine an LLM with company data, guardrails and human review.Related: Prompt engineering, Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Fine-tuning, Hallucination
Latency Web: The delay between a request being made and the response arriving, usually measured in milliseconds. Lower latency makes applications feel faster and matters most for interactive and real-time features.Related: Content delivery network (CDN), Edge computing
Least privilege Security: The principle of giving every user, service and device only the access it needs to do its job, and nothing more. It limits the damage a compromised account or component can cause.Related: Role-based access control (RBAC), Zero trust, Secrets management
Legacy modernisation Delivery: Updating or replacing older systems that have become costly, risky or hard to change, while keeping the business running. Approaches range from re-hosting and refactoring to rebuilding parts of the system step by step.Related: Technical debt, Cloud migration
Load balancer Cloud: A service that spreads incoming traffic across several servers so no single one is overwhelmed. It also stops sending traffic to servers that fail health checks, which improves availability.Related: Auto-scaling, High availability (HA)
LoRaWAN IoT: A low-power, long-range wireless networking protocol for IoT devices that send small amounts of data infrequently, such as meters and environmental sensors. It trades data speed for range and very long battery life.Related: Internet of Things (IoT), IoT gateway, Sensor

M

Machine learning (ML) AI: A branch of AI in which software learns patterns from data rather than following hand-written rules. Common business uses include forecasting demand, detecting fraud, classifying documents and recommending products.Related: Training data, Inference, MLOps
Microservices Cloud: An architecture that splits an application into small, independent services, each responsible for one business capability and deployable on its own. It helps large teams move independently but adds operational complexity.Related: API gateway, Container, Kubernetes
Minimum viable product (MVP) Delivery: The smallest version of a product that delivers real value to early users and lets the business test its key assumptions. Feedback from the MVP shapes what is built next.Related: Proof of concept (PoC), Agile, Backlog
MLOps AI: The practices and tooling for deploying, monitoring and updating machine learning models reliably in production. It covers versioning data and models, automated retraining and watching for drops in accuracy over time.Related: Machine learning (ML), DevOps
MQTT IoT: A lightweight publish-and-subscribe messaging protocol widely used to connect IoT devices to the cloud. Devices publish messages to topics on a central broker, which passes them to any system subscribed to those topics, keeping bandwidth and power use low.Related: Internet of Things (IoT), IoT gateway, WebSocket
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) Security: A sign-in method that requires two or more different kinds of proof, such as a password plus a code from an authenticator app or a hardware key. It blocks most attacks that rely on stolen passwords alone.Related: Single sign-on (SSO), Zero trust
Multi-tenant architecture Cloud: A design in which one running application serves many customers (tenants) while keeping each customer's data separate. It is the usual model for SaaS products because it keeps hosting and maintenance efficient.Related: Software as a service (SaaS), Role-based access control (RBAC)

N

Native app Mobile: A mobile app built specifically for one platform, iOS or Android, using that platform's own languages and tools. Native apps get the fullest access to device features and the most platform-consistent behaviour.Related: Cross-platform app, Progressive web app (PWA), App store review
Natural language processing (NLP) AI: The area of AI concerned with understanding and producing human language. It powers tasks such as classifying emails, extracting details from documents, analysing sentiment and running chat assistants.Related: Large language model (LLM), Machine learning (ML), Optical character recognition (OCR)
NoSQL database Data: A family of databases that store data in formats other than linked tables, such as documents, key-value pairs, wide columns or graphs. They suit flexible or fast-changing data and certain high-scale workloads.Related: Database, SQL, Time-series database

O

OAuth Security: An open standard that lets a user grant one application limited access to their data in another service without sharing their password. It is the mechanism behind buttons such as connecting an app to a calendar or a cloud drive.Related: OpenID Connect (OIDC), Single sign-on (SSO)
Observability Cloud: The ability to understand what is happening inside a running system from the data it produces, mainly logs, metrics and traces. Good observability lets teams spot and diagnose problems quickly, often before users notice.Related: DevOps, Incident response, Service level agreement (SLA)
Offline-first Mobile: Designing an app to work fully without a network connection, storing data on the device and syncing with the server when a connection returns. It matters for field staff, travel and areas with patchy coverage.Related: Native app, Progressive web app (PWA), Edge computing
OpenID Connect (OIDC) Security: An identity layer built on top of OAuth that lets an application confirm who a user is, not just what they have allowed. It is widely used for single sign-on and for signing in with an existing account from another provider.Related: OAuth, Single sign-on (SSO)
Optical character recognition (OCR) AI: Technology that converts text in images or scanned documents into machine-readable text. Combined with language models, it is used to extract data from invoices, forms and identity documents automatically.Related: Computer vision, Natural language processing (NLP)
Over-the-air (OTA) update IoT: Delivering new firmware or software to devices remotely over a wireless connection, without physical access. A safe OTA system verifies each update's authenticity and can roll back if an update fails.Related: Firmware, Internet of Things (IoT)
OWASP Top 10 Security: A widely referenced list of the most critical security risks to web applications, published by the OWASP Foundation, a non-profit security organisation. Development and testing teams use it as a baseline checklist for secure coding.Related: Cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, Penetration testing

P

Penetration testing Security: An authorised, simulated attack on an application or network by security specialists to find weaknesses before real attackers do. The output is a report of findings ranked by severity, with recommended fixes.Related: OWASP Top 10, SQL injection, Cross-site scripting (XSS)
Platform as a service (PaaS) Cloud: A cloud model in which the provider manages the servers, operating system and runtime, and the customer simply deploys application code. It reduces operational work in exchange for less control over the underlying environment.Related: Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Software as a service (SaaS), Serverless
Predictive maintenance IoT: Using sensor data and analytics to predict when equipment is likely to fail, so it can be serviced just before a breakdown rather than on a fixed schedule. It reduces unplanned downtime and unnecessary servicing.Related: Sensor, Machine learning (ML), Digital twin
Product analytics Data: Tracking how people actually use a website or app, such as which features they use, where they drop off and how often they return. It turns product decisions from opinion into evidence.Related: A/B testing, Business intelligence (BI)
Progressive web app (PWA) Web: A website built with modern browser features so it can be installed on a phone's home screen, work offline and, on supported platforms, send notifications. It offers an app-like experience without going through an app store.Related: Native app, Cross-platform app, Offline-first
Prompt engineering AI: Designing the instructions, context and examples given to a language model so that it produces reliable, useful output. In production systems prompts are versioned and tested like any other code.Related: Large language model (LLM), Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Guardrails
Proof of concept (PoC) Delivery: A small, focused piece of work that tests whether a technical idea is feasible before committing to full development. Unlike an MVP, a proof of concept is usually not meant for real users.Related: Minimum viable product (MVP), Agile
Push notification Mobile: A message sent from a server to a user's device that appears even when the app is not open. Used well, notifications bring users back for timely, relevant events; overused, they lead users to switch them off.Related: Native app, Deep linking, Progressive web app (PWA)

R

Recovery point objective (RPO) Cloud: The maximum amount of data, measured in time, that a business can accept losing after an incident. If the RPO is one hour, backups or replication must capture changes at least every hour.Related: Recovery time objective (RTO), Disaster recovery (DR), Backup
Recovery time objective (RTO) Cloud: The maximum time a system can be unavailable after an incident before the impact becomes unacceptable. It sets how quickly services must be restored and therefore shapes the recovery design and its cost.Related: Recovery point objective (RPO), Disaster recovery (DR), High availability (HA)
Refactoring Delivery: Restructuring existing code to make it clearer and easier to change without altering what it does for users. Regular refactoring is the main way teams keep technical debt under control.Related: Technical debt, Unit testing
Responsive design Web: Building web pages so their layout adapts to any screen size, from phones to large monitors. One responsive site replaces separate mobile and desktop versions.Related: Frontend, Progressive web app (PWA), User experience (UX) design
REST API Web: A widely used style of web API in which data is organised as resources with their own addresses and manipulated with standard web methods such as GET and POST. Its simplicity and predictability make it the default choice for many integrations.Related: API (application programming interface), GraphQL
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) AI: A technique that finds relevant passages from an organisation's own documents or data and gives them to a language model along with the user's question. The model's answer is then grounded in current, trusted information and can cite its sources.Related: Embeddings, Vector database, Large language model (LLM), Hallucination
Role-based access control (RBAC) Security: Granting permissions to roles, such as admin, manager or viewer, and then assigning users to those roles. It keeps access consistent and easy to audit as people join, move and leave.Related: Least privilege, Single sign-on (SSO), Multi-tenant architecture

S

Scrum Delivery: A popular agile framework in which a small team works in sprints, with defined roles such as product owner and scrum master and regular events for planning, review and improvement. It gives stakeholders a predictable rhythm of demos and decisions.Related: Agile, Sprint, Backlog
Search engine optimisation (SEO) Web: Improving a website's content, structure and technical performance so search engines can understand it and rank it for relevant searches. Technical SEO covers areas such as page speed, crawlable markup, metadata and sitemaps.Related: Core Web Vitals, Server-side rendering (SSR), Static site generation (SSG)
Secrets management Security: Storing, distributing and rotating sensitive values such as API keys, database passwords and certificates in a dedicated secure service, rather than in code or configuration files. Access is logged and limited to the systems that need it.Related: Least privilege, Encryption at rest, Infrastructure as code (IaC)
Semantic search AI: Search that matches the meaning of a query rather than its exact words, so a search for 'cancel my plan' can find an article titled 'ending your subscription'. It is usually powered by embeddings stored in a vector database.Related: Embeddings, Vector database, Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
Sensor IoT: A component that measures something in the physical world, such as temperature, motion, pressure, light or location, and converts it into data. Sensor choice and calibration largely determine the accuracy of an IoT system.Related: Internet of Things (IoT), Time-series database
Server-side rendering (SSR) Web: Generating a page's HTML on the server for each request, so the browser receives a ready-to-display page. It helps first-load speed and search visibility, particularly for content that changes often or is personalised.Related: Static site generation (SSG), Single-page application (SPA), Search engine optimisation (SEO)
Serverless Cloud: A cloud model in which code runs in response to events and the provider handles all server management and scaling. Costs track actual usage, which suits irregular workloads, though very steady high loads can be cheaper on other models.Related: Platform as a service (PaaS), Auto-scaling, Cloud-native
Service level agreement (SLA) Delivery: A formal commitment between a service provider and a customer that defines the expected level of service, such as availability, support hours and response times, and what happens if it is missed. It is measured against agreed indicators.Related: High availability (HA), Observability, Incident response
Single sign-on (SSO) Security: Letting users sign in once with one identity and then access several applications without logging in again. It improves convenience and lets an organisation enforce sign-in policies and remove access from one place.Related: OpenID Connect (OIDC), OAuth, Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Single-page application (SPA) Web: A web application that loads once and then updates the screen in the browser as the user interacts, instead of fetching a new page each time. It feels fast and app-like, but needs care for first-load performance and search visibility.Related: Server-side rendering (SSR), Frontend, API (application programming interface)
Software as a service (SaaS) Cloud: Software delivered over the internet on a subscription basis, with the provider handling hosting, updates and maintenance. Customers use it through a browser or app rather than installing and running it themselves.Related: Multi-tenant architecture, Platform as a service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
Software development kit (SDK) Mobile: A package of code libraries, tools and documentation that makes it easier to build on a platform or integrate a service, such as payments, maps or analytics. Each SDK added to an app also adds size, maintenance and privacy considerations.Related: API (application programming interface), Native app, Cross-platform app
Sprint Delivery: A short, fixed-length period of work, usually a few weeks, at the end of which the team delivers a tested increment of the product. Each sprint begins with planning and ends with a review and a retrospective.Related: Scrum, Agile, Backlog
SQL Data: The standard language for querying and managing data in relational databases. Most business systems, from accounting packages to e-commerce platforms, store their core records in databases accessed with SQL.Related: Database, NoSQL database, SQL injection
SQL injection Security: An attack in which malicious input is crafted so that an application runs unintended database commands, potentially exposing or deleting data. It is prevented by using parameterised queries and never building database commands directly from user input.Related: OWASP Top 10, SQL, Penetration testing
Staging environment Delivery: A copy of the production setup used to test releases under realistic conditions before they go live. Clients often use staging for review and sign-off.Related: User acceptance testing (UAT), CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery)
Statement of work (SOW) Delivery: A document that sets out exactly what a project will deliver, including scope, deliverables, milestones, responsibilities, assumptions and acceptance terms. It is the reference point for both parties throughout the engagement.Related: Fixed-price engagement, Time and materials (T&M), Acceptance criteria
Static site generation (SSG) Web: Building all of a website's pages as ready-made HTML files ahead of time, then serving them from a CDN. Static sites are fast, secure and inexpensive to host, and suit content that does not change with every visit.Related: Server-side rendering (SSR), Content delivery network (CDN), Headless CMS

T

Technical debt Delivery: The future cost created when shortcuts or outdated choices make a codebase harder to change. Like financial debt it can be a sensible trade-off, but if left unmanaged it slows every new feature and raises the risk of defects.Related: Refactoring, Legacy modernisation
Time and materials (T&M) Delivery: A commercial model in which the client pays for the actual time and resources spent on the work. It suits projects where requirements are expected to evolve, and it is usually paired with regular reporting and agreed budget checkpoints.Related: Fixed-price engagement, Statement of work (SOW), Agile
Time-series database Data: A database optimised for storing and querying measurements recorded over time, such as sensor readings, server metrics or prices. It handles high write volumes and time-based queries efficiently.Related: Sensor, Internet of Things (IoT), NoSQL database
TLS (Transport Layer Security) Security: The encryption protocol that secures connections between browsers, apps and servers, protecting data in transit and shown by HTTPS in a web address. It replaced the older SSL protocol, although certificates are still often called SSL certificates.Related: Encryption at rest, Zero trust, Web application firewall (WAF)
Training data AI: The examples a machine learning model learns from. Its quality, volume, accuracy of labels and coverage of real-world cases largely decide how well the model performs and how fair its results are.Related: Machine learning (ML), Fine-tuning

U

Unit testing Delivery: Automated tests that check small, individual pieces of code, such as a single function, in isolation. They run in seconds, catch mistakes as soon as they are made and make refactoring safer.Related: Integration testing, CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery)
User acceptance testing (UAT) Delivery: The final stage of testing, in which the client or real users confirm that the software meets the agreed requirements and works for their everyday tasks. Passing UAT is usually the condition for go-live.Related: Acceptance criteria, Staging environment
User experience (UX) design Web: Designing how a product works for the people who use it, from research and user journeys to wireframes, prototypes and usability testing. Its companion, user interface (UI) design, defines the visual layer: layout, typography, colour and components.Related: Responsive design, Frontend
User story Delivery: A short description of a feature from the point of view of the person who needs it, often written as who wants what and why. Stories are paired with acceptance criteria and form the items of the product backlog.Related: Acceptance criteria, Backlog, Agile

V

Vector database AI: A database designed to store embeddings and quickly find the items whose meaning is closest to a query. It is a core component of semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation systems.Related: Embeddings, Semantic search, Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
Version control Delivery: A system that records every change to code and configuration, who made it and why, and lets teams work in parallel and roll back safely. Git is a widely used example.Related: CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery), Infrastructure as code (IaC), Technical debt
Virtual private cloud (VPC) Cloud: A logically isolated private network inside a public cloud, in which an organisation controls its own address ranges, subnets and traffic rules. Sensitive components such as databases are kept in private subnets that are not reachable from the internet.Related: Zero trust, Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

W

Web application firewall (WAF) Security: A filter that inspects incoming web traffic and blocks requests that match known attack patterns, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting, before they reach the application. It adds a protective layer but does not replace secure code.Related: SQL injection, Cross-site scripting (XSS), Distributed denial of service (DDoS)
Webhook Web: An automatic notification one system sends to another's web address when a specific event happens, such as a payment succeeding or a form being submitted. It lets systems react immediately without repeatedly asking whether anything has changed.Related: API (application programming interface), REST API
WebSocket Web: A protocol that keeps a two-way connection open between a browser or app and a server, so either side can send messages at any time. It powers real-time features such as chat, live dashboards and collaborative editing.Related: API (application programming interface), Latency, MQTT

Z

Zero trust Security: A security model that trusts no user, device or network by default, even inside the company network. Every request is verified based on identity, device health and context, and access is granted with least privilege.Related: Least privilege, Multi-factor authentication (MFA), Single sign-on (SSO)

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