Glossary

Software and AI terms, defined in plain English

A

API: An API is the way one piece of software asks another to do something or to hand over a fact, without a person copying it across. It is a contract: named requests, named answers, and a defined error…

C

Cloud computing: Cloud computing means running software and data on rented infrastructure you can scale and pay for as you go, instead of a server under a desk. Done well, you gain a backup you have actually restored…
Core Web Vitals: Core Web Vitals are Google's three measurements of whether a public page feels fast and stable: how quickly the main content appears (LCP), how quickly the page responds to a tap (INP), and whether…

E

ERP: ERP is a single set of facts for the operational work of a business: the order, the stock, the job, and the invoice as one story instead of several spreadsheets. The full name, enterprise resource…

L

LLM: An LLM, a large language model, is software trained on huge amounts of text so it can predict and generate language. It is the engine behind most generative AI tools. It drafts and summarises well. It…

M

Microservices: Microservices split a system into small, separately deployable pieces that talk over APIs. Billing, inventory, and identity can each ship on their own. That helps large teams move independently once a…

R

REST API: A REST API gives each important thing — a customer, an invoice, an order — an address on the web, and uses ordinary HTTP actions to read or change it. The answer is usually JSON. It is popular because…

S

SaaS: SaaS means software you use through a browser on a subscription, running on the vendor's systems rather than a server you own. The vendor handles hosting and upgrades. You trade control for speed…

W

Workflow automation: Workflow automation is software that moves a piece of work through a defined sequence: a trigger, steps, rules, a place for the cases that do not fit, and a record of what happened. It is the ordinary…

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