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Glossary V1
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EGI Glossary (draft)
Why a Common Glossary
The EGI Community is composed by a large number of heterogenous actors who contribute to providing or consuming services for e-Science. Policy makers produce policies and procedures that govern the EGI processes; dissemination experts write articles for communicating the progress and results in using or evolving EGI; end-users write papers on research results achieved through the infrastructure; technology providers report on the advancement of technology components that enable EGI to operate and so on.
From many parties, it has been often expressed the need to identify a common set of terms which definition is agreed and shared so to improve the understanding and consistency of documents. In the current scenario, several independent glossaries exist sometimes with not consisten definitions.
The goal of the EGI Glossary is to address this problem by identifying and maintaining a shared set of terms across all the functional areas of EGI in order to enable a consistent understanding and usage within a well-defined scope. The EGI Glossary is maintained by the EGI Glossary Coordination Group who collect feedback from the whole EGI community through the EGI policy boards.
This page contains the first version of the EGI Glossary of terms, still under discussion within the community. This draft builds on the work of the SPG Glossary, the Resource Centre OLA Glossary, a number of TCB terms, and try to leverage external glossaries such as OGF PGI Glossary and the ITIL Glossary.
In its current version, the EGI Glossary aims at minimising the usage of the term "EGI" in the definitions following a requirement from SPG. The goal is to simplify the writing of policies and procedures that can be re-used by other e-infrastructures.
How to Report your Feedback
Please, provide your feedback to the proposed terms and definitions to Sergio Andreozzi (previous feedback is in this page).
How to Reference
- EGI Glossary - latest version: http://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Glossary
- EGI Glossary - Version 1: http://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Glossary_V1
- A term definition in the latest EGI Glossary: http://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Glossary#TERM_NAME
- A term definition in the EGI Glossary Version 1: http://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Glossary_V1#TERM_NAME
Terms and Definitions
- Where a definition of a term includes another term, those related terms are given initial capitals
- The form 'See also Term X, Term Y' is used at the end of a definition where an importan related term is not used with the text of the definition itself
| Term | Abbr. | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| An entry in an accounting database identifying the quantitative usage of Resources by Users. | ||
| AUP | A set of terms and conditions applicable to the Users of an IT Infrastructure. | |
| The technical implementation of a Capability. An Appliance may be delivered in a single, monolithic Package, or it may be delivered as a set of components that are grouped into a set of Packages. In the latter case all packages must be installed to provide the complete Appliance. | ||
| ASP | An external service provider that provides IT Services using applications running at the Service Provider's premises. Users access the Applications by network connections to the Service Provider (Source: ITIL) | |
| The ability of an IT Service to carry out an activity. A capability may be 1) functional if providing an Activity for the direct benefit of the User; 2) operational if providing an Activity for supporting the Operations of an IT Infrastructure; 3) security if related to security aspects. A Capability may depend on others Capabilities. A Capability is defined and delivered by one or more Interfaces supported by one or more technology providers. | ||
| CRC | A Resource Centre that conforms to the requirements specified in the Resource Centre Registration and Certification Procedure. | |
| A legally binding Agreement between two or more parties. (Source: ITIL) The rules and constraints description for interaction via the Interface associated with the Contract; a Contract represents the unit of service specification in the technology neutral architecture. (Source: TMF) | ||
| Organisation based in Amsterdam established to coordinate and manage the infrastructure (EGI) on behalf of its participants: National Grid Initiatives (NGIs) and European Intergovernmental Research Organisations (EIROs). | ||
| A four-year project, co-funded by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme (contract number: RI-261323), helping to establish a sustainable, reliable e-Infrastructure that can support researchers’ needs for large-scale data analysis. | ||
| An IT Infrastructure for instant access to data, remote instruments, "in silico" experimentation, as well as the setup of Virtual Research Communities and/or Virtual Organisations. | ||
| EGI | Federation of resource providers set up to deliver sustainable, integrated and secure computing services to European researchers and their international partners. | |
| EIRO | European Intergovernmental scientific Research Organisation that have extensive expertise in the areas of basic research and the management of large, international infrastructures, facilities and research programmes. | |
| An e-Infrastructure which is composed of autonomous (maintaining their own policies) e-Infrastructure providers. | ||
| GoA | The designed service quality, also known as guaranteed QoS, used as a comparison with delivered (measured) QoS. A Service Provider commits a particular GoS to their Customers and then the QoS is a measurement of what was actually delivered. (Source: TMF) | |
| IT Infrastructure that is concerned with the integration, virtualisation, and management of services and resources in a distributed, heterogeneous environment that supports collections of users and resources (Virtual Organisations) across traditional administrative, trust and organisational boundaries (real organisations). (Source: OGF GFD-I.181) | ||
| GI | An approved body that provides grid computing services or represents grid providers in a region, country or group of countries. Grid Initiatives may be organized in larger bodies, creating a hierarchical structure, with primary GIs federated in secondary GIs etc. In Europe, the primary GIs are created at national level forming National Grid Initiatives (NGIs), and are federated in the European Grid Initiative (EGI.eu). The infrastructure and middleware supporting the GIs on all levels constitute a Grid. The GI is a Single Point of Contact for a VO, representing the Grid as a whole. The added value of a GI may range from a simple aggregation (GI as “mediator”) to full integration (GI as “service provider”) of the underlying resources. | |
| Any event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and which causes or may cause an interruption to, or a reduction in, the quality of that service. (Source: ISO 20000-1) Problem Unknown underlying cause of one or more incidents. (Source: ISO 20000-1) | ||
| Interoperability is the ability of systems, people and organisations to provide services to and accept services from other systems, people and organisations and to use the services so exchanged to enable them to operate effectively together | ||
| See Capability | ||
| All of the hardware, software, networks, facilities, etc. that are required to develop, test, deliver, monitor, control or support IT Services. The term IT Infrastructure includes all of the information technology but not the associated people, Processes and documentation. (Source: ITIL V3) | ||
| A Service provided to one or more Users by a Resource Centre or a Resource Infrastructure Provider. An IT Service is based on the use of Information Technology and supports the User Business Processes. An IT Service is made up from a combination of people, Processes and technology and should be defined in a Service Level Agreement. An IT Service provides one or more IT Capabilities. (Source: ITIL V3, adapted) | ||
| MoU | An agreement that clarifies the relationships, responsibilities and communication channels between two or more parties that may share services, clients, and resources. The MoU is used when both parties do not want to pursue a contract that is legally binding (generally). Formal contracts can be intimidating therefore MoUs are the better option for some communities. However, it can also be used to regulate the relationship between parties. | |
| NGI | National Grid Infrastructures are legal organisations that (a) have a mandate to represent their national Grid community in all matters falling within the scope of EGI.eu, and (b) are the only organisation having the mandate described in (a) for its country and thus provide a single contact point at the national level. | |
| A standard is open if meets the following criteria: All stakeholders have the same possibility of contributing to the development of the specification and public review is part of the decision-making process; The specification is available for everybody to study; Intellectual property rights related to the specification are licensed on FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) or royalty-free terms in a way that allows implementation in both proprietary and open source software. | ||
| A standard is open if meets the following criteria: All stakeholders have the same possibility of contributing to the development of the specification and public review is part of the decision-making process; The specification is available for everybody to study; Intellectual property rights related to the specification are licensed on FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) or royalty-free terms in a way that allows implementation in both proprietary and open source software. | ||
| OLA | An Agreement between an IT Service Provider and another part of the same Organisation. An OLA supports the IT Service Provider’s delivery of IT Services to Customers. The OLA defines the goods or Services to be provided and the responsibilities of both parties. | |
| A centre offering operations services on behalf of the Resource Infrastructure Provider. | ||
| A structured software unit suitable for automated installation on a computer. A Package may specify dependencies on other packages, so that either a specific version of that package, or a minimum version of that package may satisfy that dependency. | ||
| Clear, formal and mandatory statement and position of general nature adopted by the IT Infrastructure governance bodies. | ||
| A Product consists of a well-defined set of specific packages, each in a specific version. Different versions (whether major, minor, or revision) of the same Product may share a subset of packages of the same version, that do not change between the compared versions. | ||
| Step by step written and approved specification of how to complete a specific task or process. | ||
| A solution delivered by Technology Providers to EGI and provides the functionality for one, sometimes more Capabilities as one single, undividable unit. Consequently, a Product may comprise of one or more Appliances. | ||
| QoS | The collective effect of service performance that determine the degree of satisfaction of a user of the service. Note that the quality of service is characterized by the combined aspects of service support performance, service operability performance, service integrity and other factors specific to each service. (Source: TMF) | |
| A physical or virtual entity that is consumed from an e-Infrastructure through IT Services. | ||
| RC | The smallest resource administration domain in an e-Infrastructure. It can be either localised or geographically distributed. It provides a minimum set of local or remote IT Services compliant to well-defined IT Capabilities necessary to make resources accessible to Users. Access is granted by exposing common interfaces to Users. | |
| An individual who is responsible for installing, operating, maintaining and supporting one or more resources or IT Services in a Resource Centre. | ||
| An individual who leads the Resource Centre operations, and is the official technical contact person in the connected organisation. He/she is locally supported by a team of Resource Centre administrators. | ||
| RI | A Resource Infrastructure is a federation of Resource Centres. | |
| RP | The legal organisation responsible for any matter that concerns the respective Resource Infrastructure. It provides, manages and operates (directly or indirectly) all the operational services required to an agreed level of quality as required by the Resource Centres and their user community. It holds the responsibility of integrating these operational services into EGI in order to enable uniform resource access and sharing for the benefit of their Users. The Resource infrastructure Provider liaises locally with the Resource Centre Operations Managers, and represents the Resource Centres at an international level. Examples of a Resource infrastructure Provider are the European Intergovernmental Research Organisations(EIRO) and the National Grid Initiatives (NGIs) | |
| Means of delivering value to Users by facilitating outcomes they want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks (Source: ITIL V3, adapted) | ||
| A Document listing all IT Services, with summary information about their SLAs and Customers. The Service Catalogue is created and maintained by the IT Service Provider and is used by all IT Service Management Processes. (Source: ITIL) | ||
| The core IT Service Management Processes that have a Tactical or Strategic focus. In ITIL these are Service Level Management and Capacity Management. Service Delivery is also used to mean the delivery of IT Services to Customers. (Source: ITIL) The supplier activities necessary to provide the service. (Source: TMF) | ||
| SDM | Service Delivery Management provides guidelines for managing the delivery of SLA-aware IT services through their lifecycle including: planning; monitoring and reporting on capacity, availability, continuity, and security; managing changes and releases in a controlled manner; maintaining accurate information on the infrastructure and its configuration; and handling incidents and user requests, and resolving and avoiding problems. | |
| A service element comprises one or more network or service resources that are combined with other service elements to provide a service. (Source: TMF) | ||
| A service that has been instantiated for a Customer. (Source: TMF) | ||
| See Resource Centre | ||
| A package that is resolved from dependency declarations within a Package, that sources either from the Technology Provider's own Repository, or from any additional repository except OS distribution repositories. (Note: EPEL is an example of such a repository that is not an OS repository.) | ||
| SLA | An Agreement between an IT Service Provider and a Customer. The SLA describes the IT Service, documents Service Level Targets and specifies the responsibilities of the IT Service Provider and the Customer. A single SLA may cover multiple IT Services or multiple Customers. | |
| SLM | The Process responsible for negotiating Service Level Agreements, and ensuring that these are met. SLM is responsible for ensuring that all IT Service Management Processes, Operational Level Agreements, and Underpinning Contracts, are appropriate for the agreed Service Level Targets. SLM monitors and reports on Service Levels, and holds regular Customer reviews. (Source: ITIL) | |
| A document, established by consensus and approved by an SDO, which provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context. Compliance is not compulsory | ||
| SDO | A chartered organisation tasked with producing standards and specifications, according to specific, strictly defined requirements, procedures and rules.
Standards developing organisations include: 1) recognised standardisation bodies such as international standardisation committees such as the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), the three European Standard Organisations: the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) or the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), national standardization organisations such as ANSI; 2) fora and consortia initiatives for standardisation such as the Open Grid Forum (OGF) or the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) | |
| An IT Capability defined in the UMD Roadmap. | ||
| UMD | The integrated set of software components contributed by technology providers and packaged for deployment as production-quality services in EGI. | |
| A person who uses the IT Service on day-to-day basis. (Source: ITIL V3) | ||
| VO | A group of people (e.g. scientists, researchers) with common interests and requirements, who need to work collaboratively and/or share resources (e.g. data, software, expertise, CPU, storage space) regardless of geographical location. They join a VO in order to access resources to meet these needs, after agreeing to a set of rules and Policies that govern their access and security rights (to users, resources and data). | |
| An individual responsible for the membership registry of a VO including its accuracy and integrity. | ||
| VRC | A group of large-scale research collaborations, or a number of separate VOs grouped according to research domain or computational technique. The group shares information and experience in achieving their goals through the usage of an e-Infrastructure (e.g., best practices, applications, training material). |
Concept Map
