Glossary
ADSL
"Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line"
A form of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service that provides greater bandwidth for so-called downstream (from provider to consumer) traffic at the expense of lesser upstream (from consumer to provider) bandwidth. ADSL is an extremely good value connectivity option.
ASP
"Application Service Provider/Provision"
Hosted software contractor. An ASP operates software at its data center, which customers access online in a centralised manner.
See The Print Network of the Future, Strength in Numbers
Incremental Backup
"Backing up only the files that have changed since the previous backup"
We use this method of backup for both the on and off site daily backups. This method is highly efficient minimising the time needed to backup.
See The Print Network of the Future, Strength in Numbers
Metcalfe's Law
"The usefulness, or utility, of a network equals the square of the number of users"
Metcalfe brought to light that it is not just the number of people using a system that is important, but it is the interactions between those users that truly empower a network. A complete description of Metcalfe's Law and its affect on transaction costs can be found here.
See The Print Network of the Future, Strength in Numbers
Off the Shelf
"Pertaining to equipment already manufactured and available for delivery from stock"
The 'Get What Your Given' approach to Software. Print Evolved, being an online service, is a constantly evolving online application. We do not believe the 'Off The Shelf' method of business is in anyway scalable or efficient.
See The Print Network of the Future, Strength in Numbers
Offsite Backup
"Offsite backup is when an ISP or hosting facility stores their backup media at a remote location"
Offsite backup will protect your data in the event of a disaster, such as a fire, that destroys the hosting facility.
See The Print Network of the Future, Strength in Numbers
"Portable Document Format"
This is a nonstandard proprietary file format originally created by Adobe. Due to its nonstandard nature it is unlikely that this will ever become a truly web enabled format. XML through the use of XSL and XSLT is very powerful and much more web friendly.
See Power, Flexibility and Future Proofing Through Standards.
Protocol
"A set of formal rules describing how to transmit data,
especially across a network"
The World Wide Web Consortium have defined numerous data format and protocol standards in a major effort to streamline the flow of data over the internet.v
See Power, Flexibility and Future Proofing Through Standards.
RAID
"Redundant array of inexpensive disks. The term coined in 1987 by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley to describe a series of redundant architectures used in fault-tolerant disk arrays."
RAID is used in the Print Evolved system to protect your data against hard disk failure.
See The Print Network of the Future, Strength in Numbers
SoC
"Separation of Concerns"
This methodology involves the splitting of tasks into groups according to skill sets. This practice is common with system and workflow engineering. By reducing the amount of skill cross over needed for each task you can reduce complexity, errors and staffing costs.
See Print Management Summary
TCO
"Total Cost of Ownership"
Cost of ownership is the accumulative cost of a system. It includes everything from staffing and machine costs to moral costs and its effect on productivity.
See The False Economy of Ownership
WYSIWYG
"What you see is what you get"
Printing term usually used to say that the screen representation matches the final printed output.
See Template Editing Demonstration
XML
"Extensible Markup Language"
A universal
<parent tag>
<child tag name="value" />
</parent tag>
It is possible to model complex data whilst keeping the context of that data.
See The Print Network of the Future, Strength in Numbers
