Industry Terminology – Buzz Words

Audit: (v) Used “to audit” to record the specifications and features on a machine.
              (n) The results of recording the features and specifications of a machine, “the audit”.

Badges: The logo on a machine, usually used when referring to equipment made by one company, but sold by another.
Example: A Brocade^® director badged HP.

Blade: A port card within a director.

Box: A euphemism for a computer or a peripheral. Usually the machine you are currently referring to.

Brokers: A middleman. A company that puts together buyers with sellers but does not take inventory positions.

Call Home: A feature that allows a piece of equipment to self dial the maintenance provider when a problem occurs.

Channel Adapters: The attach point on a processor through which data flows.

Channel Extender: A machine that transmits large amounts of data across large distances.

Channel Partner: A company authorized to sell equipment for a manufacturer.

Chassis: The frame of a director

Connectivity: Connection of data by using either switching or channel extension.

Control Cards: Card that controls a director’s chassis.
                               CTP for McData^®, CP for Brocade^®, Supervisor for Cisco^®.

Customer Service Engineer: KCI term for our field support personnel.

DCX Backbone: Brocade^® terminology for current version of director.

Disk Storage: Direct access disk storage.

Dealers: A company that buys and sells used equipment and maintains inventory.

Dial-in: Feature that allows a maintenance company to dial into a machine to see how it is functioning.

End-Of-Life: Equipment for which the manufacturer has announced end-of-manufacturer and end-of-support dates.

End-Of-Support: Support is no longer available from the manufacturer beyond this date.

End-user: The term used when referring to the company that uses IT equipment.

Enterprise: A large company.

ESCON: IBM term. Enterprise System Connectivity. A system protocol.

Fibre Channel Switching: Allows switching of data for SAN.

FISCON: IBM term. Fiber Connectivity. A system protocol.

Footprint: The space a machine occupies.

Gbps or Gb/s: Gigabits per second, speed of data transfer.

IT: Information Technology.

Legacy: Older equipment, usually referring to end-of-life or end-of-sale equipment.

Machine Room: Data Center.

Network Infrastructure: Switching and channel extension are sometimes referred to as Network Infrastructure.

Network Switching: Allows switching of network connections.

OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer.

Original Ship Ground: The accessories the manufacturer ships with a machine, when the machine is new, (includes manuals, cables, etc.).

Peripheral: Devices that are connected to a processor.

Port: Attach points on a switch or director. A port can attach either a server or storage.

Processor: A computer, usually a large one.

Product Specialist: KCI term for customer engineer who is specialized in a particular product.

QLogic: A manufacturer of switches.

Rack Mount Kit: Shelf or sliding shelves that edge switches are mounted on.

Rail Kit: A shelf or sliding shelf on which to mount an Edge switch.

Recon Center or Refurb Center: Place where independent companies store and refurbish equipment. Terms are used interchangeably.

Refresh: Upgrade to newer technology.

Reseller: A company authorized by a manufacturer to resell a manufacturers product.

RoHS Compliant: European (EU) directive to restrict dangerous levels of lead, cadmium, mercury and several other trace elements in electrical equipment.

SAN: Storage Area Network.

Server: A computer, usually not a mainframe but bigger than a laptop.

SMARTnet: Cisco^® maintenance program.

Specification “Spec”: The configuration of a machine suaully given in terms of the feature codes the machine has.

Storage: Two types: Disk Storage and Tape Storage.

Tape Storage: Sequential storage of data.

Third Party Company: A company that is neither the user nor the manufacturer that sells, maintains or leases equipment.

Vanilla: A machine without additional features.