Glossary
No resource would be complete without a comprehensive glossary of terms. We’ve compiled a list of terms and their definitions to better help you navigate.
Business Process Router A specialized networking device that automates the execution of specific business process(es) and appropriate routing and or transformation algorithm(s), given a business document.
Buffered Queue A message queue that resides in memory.
Blocking Communications A synchronous messaging process whereby the requestor of a service must wait until a response is received. See async.
BizTalk A Microsoft-sponsored set of guidelines for publishing XML schemas and using XML messaging to integrate enterprise software programs. BizTalk is part of that company's current thrust around dot-Net technologies. May be 'dead-on-arrival' because its success requires applications vendors to adopt BizTalk technologies that had been developed without their participation, something Oracle, SAP and Siebel, for example, have been loathe to do in the past.
Binding The process whereby a server application and its client are joined across a network through a simple proprietary protocol that typically acknowledges the presence of the other, performing rudimentary security and version control, for example.
Bandwidth The maximum amount of data that can be sent through a connection; usually measured in bits per second.
B2B Business-to-Business refers to electronic commerce conducted between companies and almost exclusively involves system-to-system interactions. In contrast, business-to-consumer is typically system-person interactions. B2B includes products, services and systems such as eMarketplaces, supply chains and EDI products and services.
B2C Business-to-Consumer was made popular through the enormous visibility of companies such as amazon.com, eToys, eBay and others. B2C involves system-person interactions typically through a browser connected to a web site. Many of the products built for this market were also used in early B2B implementations, however the lack of back office integration allowing system-to-system interaction between companies has became the bane of this technology set. See B2B above.
Backbone Most network designs, whether local, metropolitan or wide-area have a system of interconnected hubs where spokes reaching out to lower speed hubs which have spokes that reach out to users (or even lower speed hubs that have spokes that reach out to users, etc). The backbone refers to the series of hub-to-hub connections and the network devices that connect them to form the major
