Terms

A set of rules and conditions that describe the appropriate use of and access to Services or Products

08 Dec 2020 

Property of information being accessible and usable by an authorised party

08 Dec 2020 

An entry in an accounting database identifying the quantitative usage of Resources by Users

08 Dec 2020 

Set of actions carried out within a Process

08 Dec 2020 

A predefined collection of software Products that are deployed together so that it appears as a single undivisible Service or application that implements one or more IT Capabilities

08 Dec 2020 

Set of actions to evaluate the Capability level of a Process or the overall maturity level of a Management System

08 Dec 2020 

An asset is anything having value to the organisation. Assets can be tangible and intangible and are not only physical goods or hardware. They can also include, but not only, software, information, infrastructure, and people.

Assets can be managed in different categories, like:

• Primary Asset
• Information Asset
• Supporting Asset
• IT Asset

26 Apr 2023 

The technical entity operated by/for the Community to bind attributes, that may be used in authorisation decisions, to subjects

05 Jul 2021 

Systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which the audit criteria are fulfilled

Note 1: Audit evidence is typically based on documented information, information provided during an audit interview, and information gathered through observation
Note 2: Audit criteria may be based on requirements from a management system (including policies, processes and procedures), agreements (including service level agreements and underpinning agreements), contracts, standards or legislation
Note 3: An audit may be an internal audit, if it is conducted under the direct responsibility of the organisation or federation that is subject to the audit, or an external audit, if it is conducted by an external party
Note 4: Both internal and external audits should be conducted by skilled and experienced auditors, and auditors should not audit their own work or areas of responsibilities to ensure the impartiality of the results

08 Dec 2020 

Ability of a Service or service component to fulfil its intended function at a specific time or over a specific period of time

08 Dec 2020 

The rationale of how an organisation creates, delivers, and captures value

11 Dec 2020 

The ability of an organisation, person, process, application, configuration item, or IT service to carry out an activity

11 Dec 2020 

Achieved level of effectiveness of an individual process or general aspect of management

11 Dec 2020 

The maximum extent to which a certain element of the infrastructure (such as a Configuration Item) can be used.

Note: It could also be the maximum transaction throughput of a system

11 Dec 2020 

A plan used to manage the resources required to deliver IT services. The plan contains details of current and historic usage of IT services and components, and any issues that need to be addressed (including related improvement activities). The plan also contains scenarios for different predictions of business demand and costed options to deliver the agreed service level targets.

11 Dec 2020 

Person responsible for the production and maintenance of the capacity plan for a service. This person is responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining the plan and acts as main contact point in case of incidents and customer complains related to the service capacity.

11 Dec 2020 

A Resource Centre that conforms to the requirements specified in the Resource Centre Registration and Certification Procedure

11 Dec 2020 

Alteration (such as addition, removal, modification, replacement) of a Configuration Item (CI) 

11 Dec 2020 

Assignment of items to defined groups based on common attributes, relations or other criteria

Note 1: Items that are subject to classification may include documents, records (such as incident records or change records), services, configuration items (CIs), etc. Defined groups may include categories (such as incident categories or change categories) or priority levels.

Note 2: The act of classification often comprises the application of more than one classification scheme. For instance, an incident record might be assigned to a technical incident category such as ‘software related’, ‘network related’, etc., and also to a priority level like ‘low priority’, ‘medium priority’, etc. The assignment of various incidents, service requests, changes and problems to an affected CI is also a classification.

Note 3: Besides the presentation and analysis of relationships, classification is often used as input for controlling the workflow of a process, e.g. by assigning a priority level to an incident.

11 Dec 2020 

A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics (on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, measured service), three service models (Software as a Service or SaaS, Platform as a Service or PaaS, Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS), and four deployment models (private cloud, community cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud).

11 Dec 2020 

A Platform deployed on top of an Infrastructure Platform providing Capabilities useful across multiple (if not all) research communities irrespective of their scientific domain and enabling the collaboration within and across communities.

11 Dec 2020 

A Platform that provides a set of Services customised for the needs of a specific community to enable their Users to run specific applications

11 Dec 2020 

Sum of knowledge, skills and experience that an individual or group needs to effectively take on a specific Role

11 Dec 2020 

Property of information not being accessible to unauthorised parties

11 Dec 2020 

State of a specified set of attributes, relationships and other relevant properties of one or more Configuration Items (CIs)

Note: The documented configuration of a number of CIs at a given point in time is called a configuration baseline, which is usually taken prior to the deployment of one or more changes to these CIs in the live environment.

11 Dec 2020 

Element that contributes to the delivery of one or more Services or Service Components therefore requiring control of its Configuration

Note 1: CIs can vary widely, from technical components (e.g. computer hardware, network components, software) to non-technical items such as documents (e.g. service level agreements, manuals, license documentation). Note 2: The data necessary for effective control of a CI is stored in a CI record. In addition to attributes of the CI, the CI record likely includes information on relationships it has with other CIs, service components and services. CI records are stored in a configuration management database (CMDB).

11 Dec 2020 

Store for data about Configuration Items

Note: A CMDB is not necessarily a single database covering all configuration items (CIs). It may rather be composed of multiple physical data stores.

11 Dec 2020 

Extent to which requirements are met in some context

Note: the term compliance is generally used as a synonym for conformity. However, sometimes conformity is used in the context of adherence to internal regulations and requirements as defined by policies, processes and procedures, while compliance is used in the context of adherence to external requirements, such as laws, standards and contracts.

11 Dec 2020 

Property of a Service to maintain all or parts of its functionality, even in exceptional circumstances

Note: Exceptional circumstances include emergencies, crises or disasters which affect the ability to provide services over extended periods of time.

11 Dec 2020 

Organisation or part of an organisation that commissions a Service Provider in order to receive one or more Services

Note: A customer usually represents a number of Users

11 Dec 2020 

A data lake is a system or repository of data stored in its natural or raw format, usually object blobs or files.

15 Feb 2022 

A data warehouse is a system used for reporting and data analysis and is considered a core component of business intelligence. 

15 Feb 2022 

Information and its supporting medium

Note: Examples of documents include Policies, plans, Process descriptions, Procedures, SLAs, Contracts or Records of activities to be preformed. 

11 Dec 2020 

Extent to which the goals and expectations connected are met

Note: In a management system, effectiveness is mostly measured against the defined goals of the processes that are subject to this system.

11 Dec 2020 

Degree of ability to meet goals and expectations with minimum consumption of resources

Note 1: In a management system, efficiency is mostly considered in the context of the processes that are subject to this system. Note 2: Resources may be human, technical, informational or financial.

11 Dec 2020 

NGIs, EIROs, ERICs and such other legal entities, in their own capacity or as representative of a consortium, that contribute to the objective of the foundation. They do not have voting rights in the EGI Council and cannot bid to deliver internal services of the EGI Foundation.

For more information on the governance and full list of benefits, see the brochure "Joining the EGI Federation"

11 Dec 2020 

The EGI Federation plus the served research communities, the technology providers or any other organisation linked via an agreement with the EGI Foundation and contributing to the mission of the EGI Federation

11 Dec 2020 

Federation and management platform for the EGI Federation necessary for the coordinated provisioning of the EGI infrastructure. The EGI Core enables service providers to harmonise interfaces and integrate into a unified hub, while simultaneously engaging with research communities to comprehend their needs, facilitate easier access, and promote innovation. The EGI Core supports the objectives of the EGI Federation strategy and of the EGI Service Strategy. Service components are grouped in the EGI Foundation Core and EGI Federation Core.

05 Dec 2023 

Sergio Andreozzi 

EGI Core Activities and Services are human activities and technical services co-financed by the EGI Foundation that support the day-by-day running of the EGI Infrastructure as a federation of distributed data centres. Core Activities and Services are necessary for the delivery the EGI Service portfolio.The term is used internally by the EGI Foundation, Executive Board and Council in support to the definition of the EGI Foundation annual budget and the distribution of Activities and Services among the participants of the EGI Foundation.

05 Jul 2023 

Supervisory authority consisting of one representative for each Participant and Associated Participant of the EGI Foundation

15 Feb 2022 

EGI Foundation, EGI Foundation Participants and Associated Participants, their linked organisations (e.g. service and resource providers) represented within EGI Foundation that contribute to the objectives of the foundation

11 Dec 2020 

EGI Core components delivered by EGI Participants or by their represented organisations.

05 Dec 2023 

Sergio Andreozzi 

The legal entity whose objective is to coordinate and develop, in collaboration with its Participants, the EGI infrastructure that provides long-term distributed compute and storage resources for performing research and innovation activities.

11 Dec 2020 

EGI Core components delivered by staff of the EGI Foundation.

05 Dec 2023 

Sergio Andreozzi 

The digital infrastructure resulting from the federation of EGI Participants' facilities providing advanced computing services for research and innovation.

02 Oct 2023 

NGIs, EIROs, ERICs and such other legal entities, in their own capacity or as a representative of a consortium, that contributes to the objective of the foundation. Among the various benefits, they have voting rights in the EGI Council and they can bid to deliver internal services of the EGI Foundation. 

For more information on the governance and full list of benefits, see the brochure "Joining the EGI Federation"

11 Dec 2020 

Combination of digital technology, computational resources, and communications to support collaborative work and research

11 Dec 2020 

Change of responsibility for a case (such as an incident, service request, problem or change) or activity to another individual or group

Note: There are two basic types of escalation: Hierarchical escalation transfers responsibility (temporarily) to someone with a higher level of authority. Functional escalation transfers responsibility to someone with a different set of competencies or privileges required to handle the case or activity

11 Dec 2020 

The EUGridPMA (European Policy Management Authority for Grid Authentication) is the international organisation to coordinate the trust fabric for e-Science grid authentication in Europe. It collaborates with the regional peers APGridPMA for the Asia-Pacific and The Americas Grid PMA in the International Grid Trust Federation.

See also:

• http://www.eugridpma.org/

20 Oct 2021 

A legal organisation and member of the EIROforum that has extensive expertise in the areas of basic research and the management of large, international infrastructures, facilities and research programmes.

11 Dec 2020 

Initiative to offer researchers a virtual environment with open and seamless services for storage, management, analysis and re-use of research data, across borders and scientific disciplines.

03 Jun 2021 

A unified research area open to the world based on the Internal Market, in which researchers, scientific knowledge and technology circulate freely and through which the Union and its Member States strengthen their scientific and technological bases, their competitiveness and their capacity to collectively address grand challenges.

11 Dec 2020 

Situation in which multiple parties, the federation members, jointly contribute to the delivery of services to customers without being organised in a strict hierarchical setup or supply chain

11 Dec 2020 

Individual, organisation or body that works together with other federation members in a federation to provide one or more services

Note: Often, federation members will not be bound together by strict contractual agreements.

11 Dec 2020

Body that acts to coordinate a set of federation members

11 Dec 2020 

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). 

11 Dec 2020 

A computing paradigm that focuses on the efficient execution of compute intensive, tightly-coupled tasks. Given the high parallel communication requirements, the tasks are typically executed on low latency interconnects which makes it possible to share data very rapidly between a large numbers of processors working on the same problem. HPC systems are delivered through low latency clusters and supercomputers and are typically optimised to maximise the number of operations per seconds. The typical metrics are FLOPS, tasks/s, I/O rates.

11 Dec 2020 

A computing paradigm that focuses on the efficient execution of a large number of loosely-coupled tasks. Given the minimal parallel communication requirements, the tasks can be executed on clusters or physically distributed resources using grid technologies. HTC systems are typically optimised to maximise the throughput over a long period of time and a typical metric is jobs per month or year.

11 Dec 2020 

The organisation with which an End User is affiliated, operating the Identity Provider by itself or through an Agent. It is responsible for managing End Users' identity data and authenticating them.

11 Mar 2022 

The International Grid Trust Federation (IGTF) is a body to establish common policies and guidelines between its Policy Management Authorities (PMAs) members and to ensure compliance to this Federation Document amongst the participating PMAs.

See also

• http://www.igtf.net/
• EGI IGTF Release
• EGI IGTF Release Process

20 Oct 2021 

Action or set of actions carried out to increase the level of conformity, effectiveness or efficiency of a management system, process or activity, or to increase the quality or performance of a service or service component.

Note: An improvement is usually implemented after an opportunity for improvement has been identified, for instance during a service review, audit or management review

05 Jul 2023 

Unplanned disruption of operation in a service or service component, or degradation of service
quality versus the expected or agreed service level or operational level according to service level
agreements (SLAs), operational level agreements (OLAs) and underpinning agreements (UAs).

11 Dec 2020 

Any information that has value to the organisation and needs to be protected from loss, unauthorised disclosure or modification, as any of this would have a negative impact on one or more primary assets.

See Asset, Primary Asset, Supporting Asset and IT Asset.

26 Apr 2023 

Preservation of confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of information

11 Dec 2020 

Means of controlling or treating one or more risks to information security

11 Dec 2020 

Occurrence or previously unknown situation indicating a possible breach of information security

Note: An occurrence or situation is considered a potential breach of information security if it may lead to a negative impact on the confidentiality, integrity and / or accessibility of one or more information assets.

11 Dec 2020 

Single information security event or a series of information security events with a significant probability of having a negative impact on the delivery of services to customers, and therefore on the customers’ business operations

11 Dec 2020 

An expression used to mean 'performed on computer or via computer simulation'

11 Dec 2020 

The quality management system of the EGI Foundation for both services and portfolio/project management.

It includes the following parts:

• Core Management System (CMS) - ISO 9000: The management system was implemented to plan, implement, monitor and continually improve all services and processes under the responsibility of the EGI Foundation.
• General Service Management (SMS) - ISO 9000: The management system was implemented to deliver all services covered by the service catalogue of the EGI Foundation.
• IT Service Management (ITSMS) - ISO 20 000: The management system was implemented to deliver all IT services covered by the service catalogue of the EGI Foundation.
• Project Management Information System (PMIS) - ISO 9000: An information system to support all aspects of portfolio and project management. It provides the logical organization of the information required for an organization to enter into and execute projects successfully.

22 Apr 2022 

Property of information not being subject to unauthorised modification, duplication or deletion

11 Dec 2020 

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.

11 Dec 2020 

Any piece of IT equipment like hardware or software that needs to be controlled.

• IT assets can be part of one or more supporting assets.
• See Asset, Primary Asset, Information Asset and Supporting Asset

26 Apr 2023 

Service that is enabled by the use of information technology (IT)

11 Dec 2020 

Entirety of activities performed by an IT service provider to plan, deliver, operate and control IT services offered to customers

Note: The activities carried out in the ITSM context should be directed by policies and structured and organised by processes and supporting procedures.

11 Dec 2020 

Metric that is used to track the performance, effectiveness or efficiency of a service or process

Note: KPIs are generally important metrics that will be aligned to critical success factors and important goals. KPIs are therefore a subset of all possible metrics, intended to allow for monitoring a service or process.

11 Dec 2020 

Problem which has not (yet) been corrected, but for which there is a documented workaround or temporary fix to prevent (excessive) negative impact on service

11 Dec 2020 

Periodic evaluation of the suitability, maturity and efficiency of the entire management system by its accountable owner(s), from which opportunities for improvement are identified and follow-up actions are determined

Note: The accountable owner of a management system is usually a top management representative of the organisation operating the management system. In a federation, the accountable owner is usually one person nominated by top management representatives of all organisations (i.e. federation members) involved.

11 Dec 2020 

Entirety of policies, processes, procedures and related resources and capabilities aiming at effectively performing management tasks in a given context and for a given subject

Note 1: A management system is generally intangible. It is based on the idea of a systematic, structured and process-oriented way of managing.
Note 2: While documentation (such as process definitions, procedures and records) and tools (such as workflow support and monitoring tools) can be parts of a management system, management system considerations are not limited to the questions of documentation and tool support.
Note 3: With respect to (IT) service management and the FitSM standard series, the idea of a service management system (SMS) is a central concept, where the context of the management system is the organisational context of the service provider, and the subject is to plan, deliver, operate and control (IT) services.

11 Dec 2020 

Achieved overall effectiveness of a service management system, based on the combination of the capability levels of its processes and general aspects of management

11 Dec 2020 

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.

11 Dec 2020 

The national federation of shared computing, storage and data resources that delivers sustainable, integrated and secure distributed computing services to the national research communities and their international collaborators. The federation is coordinated by a National Coordinating Body providing a single point of contact at the national level and has official membership in the EGI Council through an NGI legal representative.

Note: the name comes from "National Grid Infrastructure", which is now deprecated

11 Dec 2020 

An organisation that has the exclusive responsibility for strategic decisions and overall management of an NGI. The organisation can perform or delegate the Role of NGI legal representative.

11 Dec 2020 

The legal organisation that has the exclusive mandate delegated through the National Coordinating Body to legally represent an NGI at the national and international level and serves as the NGI representative member in the EGI Council. The NGI Legal Representative may also perform the function of the National Coordinating Body.

11 Dec 2020 

Case or situation where a requirement is not fulfilled

Note: This may also be referred to as noncompliance.

11 Dec 2020 

An ICT ecosystem is open when it is capable of incorporating and sustaining Interoperability, collaborative development and transparency, while increasing capacities to create flexible, service-oriented ICT applications that can be taken apart and recombined to meet changing needs more efficiently and effectively.

11 Dec 2020 

Opening of the creation  and dissemination of scholarly knowledge towards a multitude of stakeholders, from professional researchers  to citizens 

11 Dec 2020 

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.

11 Dec 2020 

Documented agreement between a service provider and another part of the service provider’s organisation or a federation member to provide a service component or subsidiary service needed to allow provision of services to customers

11 Dec 2020 

Reference / target value for a parameter used to measure the performance of a service component, listed in an operational level agreement (OLA) or underpinning agreement (UA) related to this service component

Note: Typical operational targets might include availability or allowed resolution times for incidents

11 Dec 2020 

A centre offering operations services on behalf of one or more Resource Infrastructure Providers.

11 Dec 2020 

A potential area where an organisation can proactively enhance its performance. This includes improvements to processes, products, services, business models, branding, customer experience, and other key elements of organisational success. OFIs are identified through customer feedback, data analysis, audits, management reviews, benchmarking, and strategic analysis. An OFI does not indicate non-compliance with existing standards.

28 Mar 2024 

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.

11 Dec 2020 

A partnership is a formal collaboration between two or more entities (organizations, institutions, companies, etc.) that work together towards a shared goal or mutual benefit. In a partnership, all parties contribute resources, expertise, and efforts to achieve common objectives. Partnerships can take various forms, such as joint projects, long-term agreements, or memorandums of understanding, and often involve shared decision-making, responsibilities, and risks. The relationship is typically characterized by a high level of trust, mutual dependency, and alignment of strategic interests.

19 Sep 2024 

An IT system composed by hardware and/or software components providing a compatibility layer that enables upper-level platforms or user applications to run.

11 Dec 2020 

A Service Provider that brings together software components from different Technology Providers or use external services (e.g. from the Collaboration Platform) to meet the needs of a particular consuming research community.

11 Dec 2020 

 A Service Provider that ensures the Services deployed as part of an Infrastructure or Community Platform are operating effectively on the distributed resources for their consuming community.

11 Dec 2020 

Documented set of intentions, expectations, goals, rules and requirements, often formally expressed by top management representatives in an organisation or federation

Note: Policies are then realised in processes, which are in turn made up of activities that people carry out according to defined procedures.

11 Dec 2020 

The process for the review, approval and revision of Policies and Procedures

11 Dec 2020 

Review after the implementation of a change that determines if the change was successful

Note: Depending on the specific type and complexity of the change, the post implementation review may vary widely in its depth.

11 Dec 2020 

The main goals and capabilities of the organisation, allowing it to operate and justifying its purpose.

See Asset, Information Asset and Supporting Asset.

26 Apr 2023 

Relative importance of a target, object or activity

Note: Often incidents, service requests, problems and changes are given a priority. In the case of incidents and problems, priority is usually based on the specific impact and urgency of the situation.

11 Dec 2020 

Underlying cause of one or more incidents that requires further investigation to prevent incidents from recurring or reduce the negative impact on services

11 Dec 2020 

Specified set of steps or instructions to be carried out by an individual or group to perform one or more activities of a process

11 Dec 2020 

Structured set of activities, with clearly defined responsibilities, that bring about a specific objective or set of results from a set of defined inputs

Note: Generally, a process consists of a number of activities used to manage services, if the process is part of a service management system (SMS).

11 Dec 2020 

An individual with the overall responsibility on the operations of a process part of the EGI IMS

09 Feb 2022 

An individual with the overall responsibility on the governance of a process part of the EGI IMS

09 Feb 2022 

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 characterised by the combined aspects of service support performance, service operability performance, service integrity and other factors specific to each service.

11 Dec 2020 

Documentation of an event or of the results of performing a process or activity

11 Dec 2020 

Period of time following an incident within which a product or service must be resumed, or activity must be resumed, or resources must be recovered.

02 May 2023 

Set of one or more changes to configuration items (CIs) that are grouped together and deployed as a logical unit

11 Dec 2020 

A storage location from which software packages may be retrieved and installed on a computer.

11 Dec 2020 

Documented proposal for a change to be made to one or more configuration items (CIs)

11 Dec 2020 

A group of scientists or researchers from different universities, institutes or other organisations working together for a common goal.

11 Dec 2020 

Facilities, resources and services used by research communities to conduct research and foster innovation in their fields. Where relevant, they may be used beyond research, e.g. for education or public services. They include: major scientific equipment (or sets of instruments), knowledge-based resources such as collections, archives or scientific data, e-infrastructure such as data and computing systems and communication networks, any other dedicated research infrastructure — whether 'single-sited', 'virtual' or 'distributed'.

11 Dec 2020 

A physical or virtual entity that is consumed from an e-Infrastructure through IT Services.

11 Dec 2020 

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.

11 Dec 2020 

An individual who is responsible for installing, operating, maintaining and supporting one or more Resources or IT Services in a Resource Centre

11 Dec 2020 

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.

11 Dec 2020 

 A federation of Resource Centres.

11 Dec 2020 

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 NGIs.

11 Dec 2020 

 Uncertain event or condition that if it occurs, has a negative (threats) or positive (opportunities) effect on an objective.

19 Jan 2022 

A database of identified risks with the associated analysis and response planning as well the estimation of risk occurrence and the history of their treatment.

19 Jan 2022 

Set of responsibilities and connected behaviours or actions collected into a logical unit that can be assigned to an individual or group

Note: An individual may take over multiple roles.

11 Dec 2020 

Period of time following an incident within which a product or service must be resumed, or activity must be resumed, or resources must be recovered. The following levels are defined in the context of EGI:

• VERY SHORT: up to 1 day
• SHORT: up to 2 days
• MEDIUM: up to 5 days
• LONG: more than 5 days 

02 Nov 2023 

A community-specific set of tools, applications, and data collections that are integrated together via a web portal or a desktop application, providing access to Resources and Services.

11 Dec 2020 

A particular branch of scientific knowledge; "the science of genetics"

21 May 2021 

Way to provide value to customers through bringing about results that they want to achieve

Note: In the context of the FitSM standard series, when referring to services, usually IT services are meant

11 Dec 2020 

Criteria that must be fulfilled by the time a new or changed service is deployed and made available to customers / users

Note: SAC are defined when a new or changed service is designed, and they may be updated or refined during the development or transition phase. They may cover functional and non-functional aspects of the specific service to be deployed. SAC are part of the service design and transition package (SDTP).

11 Dec 2020 

Customer-facing list of all live services offered along with relevant information about these services

Note: The service catalogue can be regarded as a filtered version of and customers’ view on the service portfolio.

11 Dec 2020 

Logical part of a service that provides a function enabling or enhancing a service

Note 1: A service is usually composed of several service components
Note 2: A service component is usually built from one or more configuration items (CIs)
Note 3: Although a service component underlies one or more services, it usually does not create value for a customer alone and is therefore not a service by itself

11 Dec 2020 

Amount of time of unavailability of the service that the business can tolerate. This is part of the business impact analysis for each service, also referred to as tolerance level.

The following levels are defined: short (1 day), medium( 2 days), long (5 days)

01 Jun 2022 

Entirety of plans for the design and transition of a specific new or changed service

Note: An SDTP should be produced for every new or changed service. It may consist of a number of documented plans and other relevant information, available in different formats, including a list of requirements and service acceptance criteria (SAC), a project plan, communication and training plans, technical plans and specifications, resource plans, development and deployment schedules / timetables, etc.

11 Dec 2020 

Documented agreement between a customer and service provider that specifies the service to be provided and the service targets that define how it will be provided

11 Dec 2020 

A defined quantitative measure of some aspect of the level of service that is provided. The Indicator is a measure of the service level provided by a service provider to a customer. SLIs form the basis of Service Level Targets, which in turn form   form the basis of Service Level Agreements.

11 Dec 2020 

Entirety of activities performed by a service provider to plan, deliver, operate and control services offered to customers

Note 1: The activities carried out in the service management context should be directed by policies and structured and organised by processes and supporting procedures.
Note 2: In the context of the FitSM standard series, when referring to service management, usually IT service management is meant.

11 Dec 2020 

Overall plan for implementing and operating a service management system (SMS)

11 Dec 2020 

Overall management system that controls and supports management of services within an organisation or federation

Note: The SMS can be regarded as the entirety of interconnected policies, processes, procedures, roles, agreements, plans, related resources and other elements needed and used by a service provider to effectively manage the delivery of services to customers

11 Dec 2020 

A choice of utility and warranty that the customer can/should specify when commissioning the service.

Note: An option can be defined by a name, a description and attributes (described with a name and possible values)

11 Dec 2020 

An individual with the overall responsibility of a given service

09 Feb 2022 

Internal list that details all the services offered by a service provider, including those in preparation, live and discontinued

Note: For each service, the service portfolio may include information such as its value proposition, target customer base, service description, relevant technical specifications, cost and price, risks to the service provider, service level packages offered, etc.

11 Dec 2020 

Organisation or federation (or part of an organisation or federation) that manages and delivers a service or services to customers

11 Dec 2020 

Report that details the performance of a service versus the service targets defined in service level agreements (SLAs) – often based on key performance indicators (KPIs).

11 Dec 2020 

User request for information, advice, access to a service or a pre-approved change

Note: Service requests are often handled by the same process and tools as incidents.

11 Dec 2020 

Periodic evaluation of the quality and performance of a service together with the customer or under consideration of customer feedback, from which opportunities for improvement are identified, follow-up actions to increase the value of the service are determined

11 Dec 2020 

Reference / target values for a parameter used to measure the performance of a service, listed in a service level agreement (SLA) related to this service

Note: Typical service targets might include availability or resolution time for incidents

11 Dec 2020 

A combination of products, services, and intellectual property focused on solving a problem (opportunity) that creates and/or drives value (measurable) and can be significantly standardised. The solutions components can be from either the provider and one or more partners, and the solutions implementer can be the provider, the partner, the customer itself, or a combination of the three. 

11 Dec 2020 

A document, established by consensus and approved by a Standards Organisation, 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.

11 Dec 2020 

A chartered organisation tasked with producing Standards and specifications, according to specific and strictly defined requirements, procedures and rules. 

Standards developing organisations include recognised standardisation bodies such as : 1) 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 standardisation 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).

11 Dec 2020 

External organisation that provides a (supporting) service or service component(s) to the service provider, which they need to provide services to their customers / users

11 Dec 2020 

Any information processing system, service or service component (including applications and cloud services) or part of the physical / environmental or communication infrastructure which realises / supports the hosting, processing, storage, transfer or protection of information assets.There should be vulnerability assessments for the supporting assets, and identification of risks to take informed decisions and put in place appropriate measures, like to to reduce the risks to an acceptable level.

See Asset, Primary Asset, Information Asset, and IT Asset.

26 Apr 2023 

Delivers the software, services and/or support required by any client or customer. Technology Providers can be community-specific as organisations or projects that develop or deliver software for specific user communities or customisation for specific requirements. They can also be generic as open-source software collaborations or commercial software providers that deliver technology spanning multiple user communities or domains for general infrastructure purposes.

11 Dec 2020 

Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) are a method of estimating the technology maturity of components during the acquisition process. For non-technical components, you can specify “n/a”. For technical components, you can select them based on the following definition from the EC:

• TRL 1 – basic principles observed
• TRL 2 – technology concept formulated
• TRL 3 – experimental proof of concept
• TRL 4 – technology validated in lab
• TRL 5 – technology validated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
• TRL 6 – technology demonstrated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
• TRL 7 – system prototype demonstration in operational environment
• TRL 8 – system complete and qualified
• TRL 9 – actual system proven in operational environment (competitive manufacturing in the case of key enabling technologies)

17 Feb 2022 

Senior management within an organisation who has authority to set policies and exercise overall control of the organisation

11 Dec 2020 

The Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) is a simple system to control sharing of potentially sensitive information.

Information sharing happens from an information source, towards one or more recipients. TLP is a set of four labels used to indicate the sharing boundaries to be applied by the recipients. The four TLP labels are: TLP:RED, TLP:AMBER, TLP:GREEN, and TLP:CLEAR.

• The source is responsible for ensuring that recipients of TLP-labeled information understand and can follow TLP sharing guidance.
• The source is at liberty to specify additional sharing restrictions. These must be adhered to by recipients.
• If a recipient needs to share information more widely than indicated by the TLP label it came with, they must obtain explicit permission from the source.

15 Jun 2023 

Documented agreement between a service provider and an external supplier that specifies the underpinning service(s) or service component(s) to be provided by the supplier, together with the related service targets

Note 1: A UA can be seen as a service level agreement (SLA) with an external supplier where the service provider is in the customer role.
Note 2: A UA may also be referred to as an underpinning contract (UC).

11 Dec 2020 

See Underpinning agreement

11 Dec 2020 

The integrated set of software components contributed by Technology Providers and packaged for deployment as production-quality services in EGI

11 Dec 2020 

Individual that primarily benefits from and uses a service

11 Dec 2020 

Benefit to a customer and their users delivered by a service

Note: Value should be considered as a composition of the utility (fitness for purpose) and warranty (fitness for use, covering sufficient availability / continuity, capacity / performance and information security) connected to a service.

11 Dec 2020 

A promise of Value to be delivered and a belief from the customer/client of value that will be experienced. A value proposition can apply to an entire organisation, or parts thereof, or client accounts, or Products or Services.

11 Dec 2020 

A representation of the file system of a virtual machine, usually including a pre-configured operating system (OS) environment and a set of pre-installed applications.

11 Dec 2020 

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). The VOs of EGI are listed in the 'Operations Portal': https://operations-portal.egi.eu/vo/a/list

11 Dec 2020 

An individual responsible for the membership registry of a VO including its accuracy and integrity.

11 Dec 2020 

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).

11 Dec 2020 

Domain specific environments or combination of environments that provide the researcher with easy access to the services deployed to enable their data analysis activities, whether through command line interfaces or higher-level generic tools that simplify the data analysis process.

11 Dec 2020 

A group of individuals spread across different organisations that are brought together for typically small scale projects, which cut across existing organisational structures

11 Dec 2020 

Vulnerability Assessment is the proactive examination of software in order to find vulnerabilities that may exist. While this work is no longer being carried out by EGI members work is continuing.

First Principles Vulnerability Assessment

Members of the University of Wisconsin / Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Middleware Security and Testing Group have developed First Principles Vulnerability Assessment techniques for assessing software for vulnerabilities and carried out assessments of several major middleware systems, found significant vulnerabilities in many of them, then helped the developers with remediation strategies. Assessing further packages is planned.

Some of this work is continuing at the University of Wisconsin https://research.cs.wisc.edu/mist/

A vulnerability assessment of singularity has been carried out and the report made available in February 2020 - see http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104612

Some of their work and related security topics is reported at https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/98549

Other information

For some earlier work see also EGEE/GridPP information at:

• EGEE/GridPP Vulnerability Detection

21 Oct 2021 

Means of circumventing or mitigating the symptoms of a known error that helps to resolve incidents caused by this known error, while the underlying root cause is not permanently eliminated

Note 1: Workarounds are often applied in a situation, when the actual root cause of (recurring) incidents cannot be resolved due to lack of resources or ability.
Note 2: A workaround may consist of a set of actions to be carried out by either the provider or the user of the service.
Note 3: A workaround is also referred to as a temporary fix or temporary solution

11 Dec 2020 

A software system that enables scientific communities to compose and execute a series of computational or data manipulation steps, or a workflow, in a scientific application on IT resources.

11 Dec 2020