Glossary of Desktop Virtualisation

Mainframe – Mainframes were extremely large, powerful computers that needed to be housed in dedicated, air conditioned rooms.  They were during the late 1950’s and 60’s the main way to calculate transactions and statistics for banks and other environments.

Back-up – This means copying or replication all of the information on a computer in case there is a technical issue and all of the original information is lost.

Disaster Recovery – Is a process that enables an organisation that has been effected by a disaster to be able to recover and continue operating.  This may entail using the resources of a third party company that will provide, facilities such as office space, phone and computers to be used by the effected company’s personnel until the company can move back to their own offices.

Migration Plan – This is a process that needs to be followed so that software, applications and data can be transferred from one computer system to another.

RAM – Random Access Memory.  RAM is a fast way of storing applications and information rather than a computer having to access the hard disk. This is important because the amount of RAM required by an application may affect performance. RAM, unlike a hard-disk is volatile, i.e. as soon as you turn off a computer, the RAM is cleared.