IT Glossary
Key Terms To Know In The IT Industry

Virtual Community

A social network of individuals who interact through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals.

You will find this term commonly used in Social Media, Web Services

Virtual Currency

A type of unregulated, digital money, which is issued and usually controlled by its developers, and used and accepted among the members of a specific virtual community.

You will find this term commonly used in E-commerce, Cryptocurrency

Virtual Deployment

The process of deploying software or applications in a virtual environment instead of on physical hardware.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Desktop Environment

A virtualized desktop infrastructure that provides users with access to their desktop environments from anywhere, using any device.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a technology that virtualizes desktop environments by running desktop operating systems and applications on virtual machines hosted in a data center or cloud infrastructure. It allows users to access their desktops remotely from any device.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization, Cloud Computing, General IT

Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI)

A desktop virtualization technology that enables users to access their desktop environments remotely from thin clients or other devices.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Device Context (VDC)

A feature in network devices that allows for the creation of multiple logical devices on a single physical hardware device.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Virtual Device Driver (VxD)

A software component that allows Windows operating systems to communicate with hardware devices at a low level.

You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems

Virtual Directory

In web development, a directory that appears to the user as a single directory but actually maps to multiple directories in the filesystem.

You will find this term commonly used in Web Development

Virtual Disk

A file or set of files that simulates a physical disk drive.

You will find this term commonly used in Storage, Virtualization

Virtual DOM

A concept employed in some JavaScript frameworks which involves an in-memory representation of the UI.

You will find this term commonly used in Web Development

Virtual Event

An online event that involves people interacting in a virtual environment on the web, rather than meeting in a physical location.

You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Web Services

Virtual File System (VFS)

An abstraction layer on top of a more concrete file system, allowing clients to access different types of file systems in a uniform way.

You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems

Virtual Function

In object-oriented programming, a function or method whose behavior can be overridden within an inheriting class by a function with the same signature.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development

Virtual Goods

Non-physical objects and money purchased for use in online communities or online games.

You will find this term commonly used in General IT, E-commerce

Virtual Host

A method of hosting multiple domain names on a single server (or pool of servers).

You will find this term commonly used in Cloud Computing, Networking

Virtual Hosting

Hosting multiple domain names on a single server or IP address.

You will find this term commonly used in Web Hosting

Virtual Hosting Capacity

The capability of a server to host multiple domains or websites on a single server, often using a single IP address.

You will find this term commonly used in Web Hosting

Virtual Inheritance

A C++ technique that ensures a base class is only inherited once when multiple paths in the inheritance hierarchy lead to it.

You will find this term commonly used in Software Development

Virtual Keyboard

A software-based keyboard that allows the user to input data into a device without the need for a physical keyboard.

You will find this term commonly used in User Interface

Virtual LAN

A logical network segment that groups devices together, even if they are not physically connected on the same network switch.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)

A web-based platform for the digital aspects of courses of study, usually within educational institutions.

You will find this term commonly used in Education Technology

Virtual Learning Resource

An online educational material that supports learning processes, accessible through virtual learning environments.

You will find this term commonly used in Education Technology

Virtual Machine (VM)

A virtual machine (VM) is a software-based emulation of a physical computer that runs an operating system and applications, allowing multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical machine, each with its own virtualized hardware.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Hardware

Virtual Machine Backup

A process of creating copies of virtual machine data to protect against data loss or system failures.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK)

A file format that specifies containers for virtual hard disk drives to be used in virtual machines like VMware.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Machine Extension (VMX)

A configuration file that stores settings related to a virtual machine, including its hardware, operating system, and other data.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Machine Image

A file containing the entire state of a virtual machine, including its operating system, applications, and data, used for deployment and backup purposes.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Machine Manager

Software that allows administrators to create, manage, and monitor virtual machines and their resources in a virtualized environment.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Machine Migration

The process of moving a virtual machine from one physical server to another without disrupting its operation.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM)

Software or firmware that creates and runs virtual machines, allowing multiple operating systems to run on a single physical server.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Machine Snapshot

A read-only copy of a virtual machine's disk at a specific point in time, used for backup and recovery purposes.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Machine Template

A pre-configured virtual machine image that serves as a baseline for deploying multiple instances of similar virtual machines.

You will find this term commonly used in Virtualization

Virtual Memory

A memory management technique that provides an illusion of having more memory than is physically available by using disk space as an extension of RAM.

You will find this term commonly used in General IT

Virtual Memory System (VMS)

An operating system feature that uses hardware and software to allow a computer to compensate for physical memory shortages, using a portion of the disk as additional memory.

You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems

Virtual Network Architecture

The design of a computer network that includes both physical and virtual networking components and services.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Virtual Network Embedding

A technique in network virtualization that allows the mapping of virtual network requests onto a physical network infrastructure.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Virtual Network Functions

Software-based network services that can be deployed and managed independently on a virtualized infrastructure.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Virtual Network Interface

A software-based network interface that enables communication between virtual machines and external networks.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Virtual Network Operator

A provider that offers network services by leasing capacity from other telecommunications carriers rather than owning the network infrastructure.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Telecommunications

Virtual Network Peering

The process of connecting two virtual networks to each other, allowing them to behave as though they are a single network.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Cloud Computing

Virtual Patching

A security technique that involves the deployment of a security policy or mechanism to temporarily mitigate a known vulnerability until an official patch is released.

You will find this term commonly used in Cybersecurity

Virtual Path Identifier (VPI)

In networking, part of the label that identifies a particular virtual path link within a network.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking

Virtual Private Cloud

A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a secure and isolated section of a public cloud infrastructure that allows organizations to deploy and manage resources in a dedicated virtual network environment. It provides enhanced security and control over cloud resources.

You will find this term commonly used in Cloud Computing, Networking, Security

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

A virtualized network infrastructure that provides cloud computing resources within a public cloud environment.

You will find this term commonly used in Cloud Computing

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A virtual private network (VPN) is a secure network connection established over a public network, such as the internet, allowing users to access and transmit data securely between remote locations or devices as if they were directly connected.

You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Security, Remote Access

Virtual Private Network as a Service (VPNaaS)

VPNaaS is a cloud-based service that provides Virtual Private Network (VPN) capabilities to users on a subscription basis. It offers secure remote access and data encryption without the need for on-premises VPN infrastructure.