- Industry: Consulting
- Number of terms: 1807
- Number of blossaries: 2
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Gartner delivers technology research to global technology business leaders to make informed decisions on key initiatives.
Virtual reality (VR) provides a computer-generated 3D environment that surrounds a user and responds to that individual’s actions in a natural way, usually through immersive head-mounted displays and head tracking. Gloves providing hand tracking and haptic (touch sensitive) feedback may be used as well. Room-based systems provide a 3D experience for multiple participants; however, they are more limited in their interaction capabilities.
Industry:Technology
A virtual private network (VPN) is a system that delivers enterprise-focused communication services on a shared public network infrastructure and provides customized operating characteristics uniformly and universally across an enterprise. The term is used generically to refer to voice VPNs. To avoid confusion, IP-based data services are referred to as data VPNs. Service providers define a VPN as a WAN of permanent virtual circuits, generally using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) or frame relay to transport IP. Technology providers define a VPN as the use of encryption software or hardware to bring privacy to communications over a public or untrusted data network.
Industry:Technology
A virtual network operator (VNO) is an entity that does not own a telecom network infrastructure but provides telecom services by purchasing capacity from telecom carriers.
Industry:Technology
A virtual matrix organization uses resources (people) that are also directly responsible for, or part of, other lines of business.
Industry:Technology
A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a hardware-like architecture, which executes predefined instructions in a fashion similar to a physical central processing unit (CPU). A VM can be used to create a cross-platform computing environment that loads and runs on computers independently of their underlying CPUs and operating systems. A notable example is the Java Virtual Machine, the environment created on a host computer to run Java applets. Although VMs have existed longer than Java, Java has made VMs highly visible.
Industry:Technology
A virtual LAN (VLAN) is a set of systems that, regardless of higher-layer addressing or location, is designated as a logical LAN and treated as a set of contiguous systems on a single LAN segment. Virtual LANs can be proprietary or standardized using the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1Q. Typical grouping parameters for VLANs include the port number of the hub, switch or router, the higher-layer protocol such as Internet Protocol (IP) or Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), the Media Access Control (MAC) address, and the traditional subnet. The goal of VLANs is to provide simpler administration, simple moves/adds/changes to network devices, and partitioning at the MAC layer.
Industry:Technology
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is the practice of hosting a desktop operating system within a virtual machine (VM) running on a centralized server. VDI is a variation on the client/server computing model, sometimes referred to as server-based computing.
The term was coined by VMware for its VMware server and Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM).
Industry:Technology
In asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), a virtual channel (VC) is a communications track between two nodes giving the bandwidth needed for a virtual connection across the network.
Industry:Technology
A virtual assistant (VA) is a conversational, computer-generated character that simulates a conversation to deliver voice- or text-based information to a user via a Web, kiosk or mobile interface. A VA incorporates natural-language processing, dialogue control, domain knowledge and a visual appearance (such as photos or animation) that changes according to the content and context of the dialogue. The primary interaction methods are text-to-text, text-to-speech, speech-to-text and speech-to-speech.
Industry:Technology
Gartner defines videoconferencing as communication by individuals or groups using systems that support image, voice and data transfer over digital networks or telephone circuits. Videoconferencing systems can take the form of large, dedicated units for group meetings or can be integrated with desktop personal computers.
Industry:Technology
