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Network World

Buzzword Lexicon

We’ve boiled down the buzz into this quick-scan chart.

By nobody, Network World
September 27, 2004 12:10 AM ET

Business services management	Message archiving
De-perimeterization	Multicore processor servers
Grid middleware	Product information management
Infranets	Storage grids
Linux on the desktop	Wireless data services
Managed VoIP	Wireless security

Business services management (BSM)
A next-generation network management tool that aims to help net executives automate network management, prioritize IT projects, address fixes and improve IT performance based on business need.

Related buzz terms:
Business process management | Business impact management

Questions to ask vendors:

How do you plan to incorporate business process monitoring into your software?
Is change and configuration management part of your software stack?
What experience do you have in business management consulting that would let you help me adequately identify business processes?
What are you doing to make integration of multiple BSM tools easier for me?
What are you doing to make integration between BSM tools and the back-end data sources easier for me?

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De-perimeterization
A security architecture that acknowledges that the perimeter around a corporation no longer exists within today’s extended enterprise. It therefore deemphasizes the firewall, intrusion detection and other perimeter defenses to build a security architecture around policy enforcement, application-level protections and identity management.

Related buzz terms:
Security policy enforcement | Federated identity management

Questions to ask vendors:

In what ways - and at what levels - do you support encryption? In transit? While stored?
Which authentication standards, such as 802.1X, do you support?
How can I use this product to enforce security policies at various levels, network access and individual rights?
How granular is the above policy enforcement features?
How can this product be used to secure access or enforce policies over the extended enterprise?
Once you know who and what is accessing your network, can you assign policies based on their individual roles?
How difficult or easy is it to manage down to the individual level?
Can policies also be applied to network abstracts, such as VLANs or subnets?
What technologies or strategies do you offer to keep the network secure while we wait for perimeter-less networking to emerge and how difficult are they to manage?

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Grid middleware
Another, more trendy term for grid software, which stitches together disparate CPUs so they can operate as one supercomputer.

Related buzz terms:
Grid computing | Open Grid Services Architecture | Web Services Resource Framework

Questions to ask vendors:

What parts of the grid management process do your product automate?
What standards does it support?
Which standards bodies do you belong to?
What is your opinion on the merging of Web services standards with grid standards?

Top

Infranet
A cross-industry standards effort to create a next-generation, business-class, public IP infrastructure with guaranteed quality of service (QoS), reliability and security.

Related buzz terms:
Hosted VPNs | Multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) | QoS services

Questions to ask vendors:

Are you a member of the Infranet Initiative group? If not, do you intend to join the group or support its efforts?
What is the status of MPLS technology within your backbone? Does the provider of your MPLS gear belong to the Infranet Initiative group?
Do you currently interconnect your MPLS backbone with another carrier’s MPLS net?
Do you offer MPLS services? If so, can I use them to run multiple applications at different priorities - with different QoS parameters associated with each priority across the same connection?

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Linux on the desktop
Rising market share indicates that Linux is increasingly working its way onto the desktop, although that share is still miniscule compared to Microsoft’s. Linux advocates are calling for the open operating system to take on Windows in a big way.

Related buzz terms:
Desktop Linux Consortium | Gnome | KDE

Questions to ask vendors:

What apps do you support with your Linux distribution?
What type of support services do you offer? (The vendor’s support staff can be a critical lifeline as your own staff adjusts to the change.)
What cost savings can I anticipate and will those be genuine or short-lived?

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Managed VoIP
Service offered by a carrier in which the carrier provides the premises-based access device, such as a DSL or cable modem, remote-access router or multi-protocol multiplexer, for packetizing voice before it enters the wide area. Carriers also may bundle in IP phone handsets or the software for turning laptops and PCs into voice terminals. Carriers managed the VoIP connections end to end, providing quality-of-service guarantees.

Related buzz terms:
Hosted IP telephony | VPLS | Voice over VPN

Questions to ask vendors:

What QoS features do you offer? And if not already, when will you provide end-to-end QoS?
What premises gear to we get with the managed VoIP package?
Can we use any vendor’s IP telephone handsets?
Can we handle our own moves, adds and changes? Can users program their own handsets?
What can we expect to spend per seat to get all of the following services: local calling, long-distance, Internet access, follow me/find me, unified messaging and audioconferencing?
What interface do you offer for monitoring the health of broadband links and the WAN performance?

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Message archiving
Advanced electronic communication archiving and indexing tools.

Related buzz terms:
Compliance | E-mail retention

Questions to ask vendors:

Is this a stand-alone product or must it be purchased as a suite?
How well does it scale?
How must it be included in a disaster-recovery plan?
How can it be used to search messages?
How can a corporate compliance administrator use this tool to verify e-mail policy compliance?

Top

Multicore processor servers
A multicore processor comes with two processors on a single chip. Multicore processors run at lower frequencies that burn less power than single-core processors.

Related buzz terms:
AMD64 | Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T)

Questions to ask vendors:

Which software vendors 32-bit products have been certified to run on this 64-bit server?
What are the benefits of buying a multi-core system?
Why should I buy this instead of a multi-processor system?

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Product information management
Content management system that manages structured and unstructured product information, while allowing such information to be output in multiple formats and sources ranging from print catalog to XML.

Related buzz terms:
Enterprise content management | Fixed content

Questions to ask vendors:

Is the underlying engine a database, search engine, document management or workflow engine?
What integration standards are supported?
What output methods are supported?
How does the product designate “gold” sources of data?
How does the product ensure version control of all data?

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Storage grids
Grid storage refers to a topology for scaling network-attached storage (NAS)-based storage capacity in response to application requirements, as well as a technology for enabling and managing a single file system so it can span an increasing volume of storage. While the name may infer a relationship with grid computing, the two technologies are unrelated.

Related buzz terms:
Distributed Storage Tank | Clustered storage | Intelligent storage

Questions to ask vendors:

Which vendors’ storage products and which server operating systems will work with your grid storage strategy?
How soon will grid storage be available?
Does the strategy require the rip and replace of existing file systems?
Does the strategy require the deployment of new servers to host file namespace services?
Will specialized agents need to be deployed on all client systems?
What WAN bandwidth is required to make a distributed approach viable?
Which standards does it support and who else supports those standards?
What management tools will the vendor provide?
How will storage allocation and de-allocation be handled?
How does the solution detect and respond to application demands for storage resources or file access?
How will file system metadata be managed? Is there a special agent architecture, a replacement file system or some sort of communication between storage platforms themselves?
What time delays will occur in file directory data in geographically distributed environments?
How will security will be preserved in a universally accessible storage environment?

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Wireless data services
Wide-area high-speed data networks built on top of existing Wi-Fi or cellular infrastructures that will allow users to stay connected via the same carrier, no matter where the logon connection originates.

Related buzz terms:
EV-DO | Wi-Max

Questions to ask vendors:
On EV-DO:

How can I supplement my existing cell service with support for EV-DO? And how much will that cost?
Where do you provide coverage, and what’s your projected build-out plans?
What average throughput speeds can I expect, and will you guarantee those in writing?
Are you offering incentives for early contractual commitments?

On Wi-Max:

How much can I expect to pay for a base station and card?
Will you assist with a site survey to help determine antenna placement, or do you provide tools for such?
With line of sight, how much distance coverage can I expect? And without line of sight?
How do you handle channel parsing?
Do you plan on supporting mobile Wi-Max as well and, if so, when?

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Wireless security
802.11i has been ratified. It incorporates the powerful Advanced Encryption Standard in 802.11x devices, and is the long-awaited fix to the notorious shortcomings of the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol.

Related buzz terms:
802.11X | One-way authentication

Questions to ask vendors: