Networking
A Local Area Network is known as...
What is a LAN?
WAN means Wide Area Network. A LAN connects devices in one location. a WAN connects LANS.
One acronym you'll see more of? (SD-WAN) - A Software-Defined Wide Area Network. It is a virtual WAN architecture that allows enterprises to leverage any combination of transport services and is cloud-friendly
The purpose of an IT help desk is...
The purpose of a help desk is to provide a centralized resource to answer questions, troubleshoot problems, and facilitate solutions to known problems. In big companies, there are usually 3-4 "levels" in helpdesk teams.
And Desktop teams are closely related - the difference being helpdesk are usually in a call-center type of environment and desktop will come to an employee's desk to solve issues.
Checkpoint, Palo Alto, and Fortigate are examples of...
What are firewalls?
A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules.
The "central" place where a companies' servers reside is....
What is a data center?
Data Centers are complex and companies need people who can provide expertise in security, racking, cabling, and even specialty HVAC to maintain their data centers.
OS stands for what in computing...
What is Operating Systems?
Windows, Mac, Linux and Unix are examples of OS.
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
The market leader in routers and switches...
What is Cisco?
Switches and routers are the backbones of a data network. Switches typically are associated with LANs, routers with WANs.
Both traffic police and IT Service teams use these T-words in their day-to-day work...
What is a ticket?
IT ticketing systems are designed to keep IT teams up to date on the status of IT tickets. Each ticket will contain a technical problem or series of problems, and it is the IT team's responsibility to resolve these issues in a timely manner.
Some of the more common ticketing systems (there are many) include:
Zendesk
ServiceNow (this is not all that ServiceNow does)
JIRA
Spiceworks
Malware, Ransomware, and Phishing are all examples of...
What are cyber-attacks?
Hackers use a variety of attacks to target computer systems, infrastructures, computer networks or personal computer devices to steal, alter or destroy data or information systems.
Ethical Hackers and Penetration Testers work to proactively protect companies by finding weaknesses in systems before a hacker can exploit one.
ITAM is an acronym for IT Asset Management. In IT speak, an "asset" is...
IT assets include hardware and information an organization values. Cell phones, printers, PCs, software licenses, service agreements, etc. are all IT assets.
Companies use products like SolarWinds, ServiceNow and many others to track assets.
This is the "Open Source" version of Unix
What is Linux?
Linux has many different "flavors" including RedHat, SUSE, Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, and others.
Open-source software (OSS) is a type of computer software in which source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the right to use, study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner.
The company provides certification like CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE is...
What is Cisco?
There are different tracks, or specialities of these certs. The levels in each:
1) CCNA
2) CCNP
3) CCIE (to be full certified must complete written and lab test)
Gaps in employment, spelling/grammatical errors in a resume, and poor communication skills are known as this color of flag...
What is Red?
HelpDesk and Desktop folks are a common skill set in IT. It is also common, however, to find a ton of those folks with red flags. Only represent the hard to find candidates w/appropriate work histories, education, and communication. You will burn bridges otherwise.
The acronym of a leader whose "office" heads cyber-security in an enterprise company is...
A chief information security officer (CISO) is the senior-level executive within an organization responsible for establishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy, and program to ensure information assets and technologies are adequately protected.
In billiards a rack is something to set up your balls. In a data center a rack is used for...
Racks contain important equipment including servers, patch panels, routers, switches, and support materials such as rack rails.
It's important to understand the distinction of a Data center engineer (involved in site selection, reference design - redesigning and upgrading facilities and systems - and migration) versus a systems or network engineer. a DC Eng must know how to operate and maintain electrical, cooling, and IT equipment, all of which evolves and changes over time.
This relational database shares the same name as divine prophets from ancient Greece.
What is Oracle?
Other examples of RDBMS, or SQL databases, include SQL Server, Teradata, and Sybase.
NoSQL databases include Mongo, Cassandra, and a bunch of other silly names.
RF is not just the last two letters of barf, in networking world is stands for...
What is Radio Frequency?
RF, site surveys, access points, and WLANs would be things a Wireless Network Engineer would work with.
When looking for a wireless engineer for a corporate role you need to separate the wireless engineers who work in the telecommunications field... they study some of the same concepts but their tools and work are specialized and different.
DR stands for...
What is Disaster Recovery?
Disaster Recovery involves a set of policies, tools and procedures to enable the recovery or continuation of vital technology infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster.
It is related and a component to Business Continuity, which involves planning to keep companies operations going at all times.
CIOs and IT Directors will often need experts/consultants to help in these areas when they are migrating or integrating new systems.
The security certification that focuses on auditing is...
The CISA aka Certified Information Systems Auditor
Other common certifications include:
Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
A portmanteau is a blending of two words to create a new word..like Motel is "Motor" and "Hotel". This portmanteau describes a set of practices that combines development and operations
What is DevOps?
DevOps aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality and is Agile friendly.
In Systems roles we often see job titles of System Architect, Engineer, and ...
What are Administrators?
What's the difference between the 3?
Generally, Systems Architects are focused on high-level design. Systems Engineers deal mostly with the implementation of a network or system. System Administrators or sysadmins manage the ongoing support of those same systems and networks as well as many other aspects of an IT infrastructure.
If you think of building/maintaining a house you have an architect, a foreman, and the carpenters/electrician/etc. The architect is designing the house; he may not know how to hang a joist or run electrical wire, but he knows the standards and rules. The Foreman is in charge of executing on those designs and putting the house together. The electrician is maintaining the electricity and makes sure it doesn't burn down.
The lucky number of layers in networking is...
What is 7?
Often you'll see L2, L3 etc. on resumes or postings - these tell you the type of expertise needed from an engineer.
ITIL stands for...
ITIL, formerly an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a set of detailed practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business.
Infrastructure PMs and leaders should have expert knowledge of ITIL.
ITIL offers five different certification levels:
The two colors often associated w/Security teams are...
What is Red and Blue?
Red teams are focused on penetration testing of different systems and their levels of security programs. They are there to detect, prevent and eliminate vulnerabilities. A blue team is there to find ways to defend, change and re-group defense mechanisms to make incident response much stronger.
Generally speaking, a Security Analyst is more Red and a Security Engineer is blue.
In IT, SAP isn't the blood of a tree...it's an example of what acronym that starts with an "E"
What is ERP?
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business process management software that allows an organization to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business and automate many back-office functions related to technology, services and human resources.
Other common ERP software include Oracle, JDE, Netsuite, and Microsoft Dynamics.
Cumulus, Stratus, and Cirrus are all types of...
What are clouds?
Rain clouds are known as Nimbus clouds. Other fun cloud facts not related to weather include: