Glossary
SMB software, in plain English
Definitions for the acronyms and concepts that show up across the CloudIP platform.
- 1099-NEC
- IRS form for reporting non-employee compensation paid to US contractors. Generated and e-filed by CloudIP HR.
- ACD
- Automatic Call Distribution. Routes inbound calls to the right agent based on skill, queue, or rule.
- ACH
- Automated Clearing House. The US bank-to-bank payment network used for direct deposits and bank debits.
- API
- Application Programming Interface. The programmatic way to read or write data in a software system.
- AVAS
- Audio/visual answering service. Modern usage refers to AI voice agents that answer phones autonomously.
- Bare-metal recovery
- Restoring an entire server, including OS and applications, to identical or replacement hardware from a backup image.
- BOM
- Bill of materials. The list of components that go into a finished product, used in inventory and manufacturing.
- Buy Box
- On Amazon, the prominent buy section on a product page. Winning the Buy Box drives most of a listing's sales.
- CAC
- Customer acquisition cost. Total marketing and sales spend divided by new customers acquired in the same period.
- CMS
- Content management system. The software layer for editing and publishing the content of a website.
- COGS
- Cost of goods sold. The direct cost attributable to producing the goods or services a business sells.
- EDR
- Endpoint Detection and Response. Modern endpoint security with behavioral detection and isolation.
- FSMA
- Food Safety Modernization Act. US food safety law including traceability rules covered in the CloudIP FSMA module.
- GAAP
- Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The US standard for double-entry bookkeeping used by CloudIP's default chart.
- GL
- General ledger. The full set of accounts in a double-entry bookkeeping system.
- HACCP
- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. Food-safety methodology referenced by FSMA.
- HIPAA
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. US law governing protected health information (PHI).
- hreflang
- HTML attribute that signals the language and regional targeting of a page to search engines.
- I-9
- US employment eligibility verification form completed during onboarding.
- Immutable backup
- A backup snapshot protected by retention locks at the storage layer so it cannot be deleted before its retention window expires.
- IVR
- Interactive Voice Response. Phone-tree menus that route callers based on selections.
- KDS
- Kitchen Display System. Restaurant terminal that shows orders to the kitchen with prep timers.
- MFA
- Multi-factor authentication. Combination of password plus a second factor (TOTP, WebAuthn) for sign-in.
- MSP
- Managed Service Provider. A company that manages IT for other businesses, typically including backup, security, and hardware.
- OG image
- Open Graph image. The preview image that appears when a URL is shared on social platforms.
- PBX
- Private Branch Exchange. A business phone system, now usually delivered as cloud PBX.
- PCI
- Payment Card Industry. The standards (PCI DSS) for handling card data securely.
- PHI
- Protected Health Information. Health-related data subject to HIPAA.
- PII
- Personally Identifiable Information. Data that can identify an individual.
- POS
- Point of Sale. Hardware and software that processes sales — retail, restaurant, or service.
- PTO
- Paid Time Off. Combined vacation, sick, and personal leave tracked per employee.
- RPO
- Recovery Point Objective. The maximum acceptable amount of data loss in a recovery scenario, measured as time.
- RTO
- Recovery Time Objective. The maximum acceptable downtime in a recovery scenario.
- SaaS
- Software as a Service. Software delivered as a cloud subscription rather than as installed software.
- SAML
- Security Assertion Markup Language. Standard for federated authentication used by enterprise SSO providers.
- SLA
- Service Level Agreement. Commitment to a standard of service — uptime, response time, or resolution.
- SOC 2
- A widely-used security audit standard for SaaS vendors covering security, availability, and confidentiality.
- SSO
- Single Sign-On. Federated authentication that lets one identity provider grant access to many applications.
- TLS
- Transport Layer Security. The encryption protocol behind HTTPS.
- TOTP
- Time-based One-Time Password. The 6-digit codes generated by authenticator apps.
- UCaaS
- Unified Communications as a Service. Cloud-delivered phones, video, SMS, and meetings.
- VAT
- Value-Added Tax. International tax similar to sales tax; relevant for tenants outside the United States.
- VSS
- Volume Shadow Copy Service. Windows facility for application-consistent snapshot creation.
- W-2
- IRS form reporting employee wages and withholdings. Generated and e-filed by CloudIP HR.
- WebAuthn
- Web Authentication standard for passwordless or hardware-key authentication via passkeys or YubiKeys.