Big Data For Dummies

Glossary

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abstraction: The idea of minimizing the complexity of something by hiding the details and just providing the relevant information. It’s about providing a high-level specification rather than going into lots of detail about how something works. In the cloud, for instance, in an IaaS delivery model, the infrastructure is abstracted from the user.

access control: Determining who or what can go where, when, and how.

ACID: An acronym for atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability, which are the main requirements for guaranteed transaction processing.

advanced analytics: Algorithms for complex analysis of either structured or unstructured data. It includes sophisticated statistical models, machine learning, neural networks, text analytics, and other advanced data-mining techniques Advanced analytics does not include database query and reporting and OLAP cubes.

API (application programming interface): A defined protocol that allows computer programs to use functionality and data from other software systems.

application life cycle: The process of maintaining a piece of code so that it’s consistent and predictable as it’s changed to support business requirements.

architecture: In information processing, the design approach taken in developing a program or system.

archiving: The process by which a database or file data that’s seldom used or outdated, but that’s required for historical or audit reasons, is copied to a cheaper form of storage. The storage medium may be ...