Our jargon busting guide

New to the world of hosting, servers and domains? Google is great, but when it comes to techie terms, a quick search can make things even more confusing. Definitions tend to describe the word or phrase using other words or phrases that you’ll then have to Google. And before you know it you’re down a rabbit hole of definition after definition. 

Luckily, we’ve got a guide to some of the most common terms, phrases and acronyms you might hear when delving into these confusing waters, written by someone who was once equally as overwhelmed as you might be.

Antimalware – a type of software program created to protect IT systems and individual computers from malicious software. 

ISO 27001 – an international standard to manage information security. 

Uptime – the time that a machine, like a computer, is in operation. This is shown as a percentage of time that a machine has been working and available. If a system has high uptime, it shows that it’s more reliable.

SLA (Service Level Agreement) – This describes the products or services that will be delivered from a provider to a customer and sets expectations.

AES-256 (Advanced Encryption Standard) – This is a virtually impenetrable encryption algorithm that converts your plain text or date into a Cypher (a code).

SSD (Solid State Drive) – This serves as your computer’s long-term memory, storing and remembering files even when your device is off.

HDD (hard disk drive) – A type of storage used in laptops and desktops. It keeps hold of the stored data, even when the device is off, like SSDs. 
HDDs are cheaper and offer more storage than SSDs, but SSDs are quieter, smaller and faster.

NVMe (nonvolatile memory express) – A type of SSD, which is much faster than other storage options.

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) – An open-source, free server-side scripting language, widely used in web development. 

CPU (Central Processor) – This is the main component of a computer that acts as its control centre. 

RAM (Random-access memory) – Short term-memory where data is stored as the processor needs it. 

ECC RAM (error correction code RAM) – A type of RAM found in servers. It’s mostly used by businesses and professionals. It has an extra memory chip for error detection and correction.

OS (Operating System) – A program that, after initially being loaded into a computer, manages all of the other application programs in a computer.

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) – A company that designs and manufactures computer processors and CPUs (central processors).

EPYC – A brand of microprocessors designed and sold by AMD.

Ryzen Pro – A processor designed by AMD.

Microarchitecture – the digital logic that allows an instruction set to be executed. Or a combination of things which forms a processor.

VM (virtual machine) – A computer resource that uses software instead of a physical computer to run programs and deploy apps.

Virtualisation – This means creating virtual versions of servers, networks and other physical machines. 

Hyper-V – A Microsoft product that lets you create and run a software version of a computer (a virtual machine).

VPN (virtual private network) – A service that lets you search the web safely and securely. It protects your data by hiding the IP address, so you’ll be anonymous.

VPS (Virtual private server) – This type of server spreads resources over several virtual machines (VMs). This means you share server space with others, but get your own resources. So you won’t have to battle for performance and won’t be slowed down.

Dedicated server – Similar to a VPS in that you get your own resources, except on a dedicated server you get the entire server to yourself as well.

Cloud server – This server uses a network of many interconnected virtual servers, which work together as a single server would. So if one server goes down, there’s no disruption to your service, as your resources are replicated across every server in the network.

Shared hosting – This kind of hosting involves multiple users being hosted alongside each other on a single webs server. You won’t know who else you’re sharing with and you’ll get a limited number of resources which have been pre-agreed in your package.

Bare Metal servers – A bare metal server is a physical machine, dedicated to one user. They’re good for demanding applications or heavy workloads due to the extra features and high performance.

Keep it simple

We don’t like to overcomplicate things. Our servers, hosting services and products are all supported 24/7 by our team of experts, here to help with anything you need. If you’re struggling to choose a product or server, our team can give you a hand making that final decision. So, whether you’re looking for web hosting, a domain name, email hosting or a dedicated server, we can help keep things simple.

If you have any questions or need any help, give us a call on 0333 0142 700 or send us a message via live chat.