Conference buzzwords … what’s on your list?

I go to too many conferences and have my very own list of Bingo Buzzwords including apps, APIs, analytics, blockchain, cloud and more.  There are four specific words that are used often however, which make my crawl a little.  The reason is that I don’t think anyone knows what they mean by them.   The four words are infrastructure, ecosystem, framework and architecture.  I may be wrong, but the words are often bomb dropped into any reply to a question about technology – along with interoperability and standards – and I sometimes feel a little bemused.  Does this person know what they’re talking about?

In terms of blockchain developments, we see a future that firstly needs a framework of standards for interoperability to ensured that the financial ecosystem of players can exchange messages in a standardised architecture.  This will ensure that our current infrastructure can be migrated safely, securely and with resilience.

WTF?

I could throw in many more bingo words – scalability, reliability, millennials, Generation Y and so on – but it’s those first four that really get me because they are not interchangeable but very specific.

• Infrastructure is a collection of physical or virtual resources that supports an overall IT environment:  server, storage and network components;

• Ecosystem is the network of software and servers provided by many players, that build a larger system than the original provider created, to provide increased value. A good example is Apple and Android telephones, which have many players providing apps to enhance the platform’s functionality;

• Framework is the structure that allows access and interchangeability of software components on the ecosystem, and could be APIs or other modular systems that can be plugged into the system; and

• Architecture is the technology specifications, models and guidelines agreed amongst participants to create a coherent framework.

Something like that anyway,, and the only reason I’m blogging about it is that it’s far too easy to just bandy these words around.

Thanks Dilbert