Page 577 - Using MIS

Glossary 545

MapReduce A two-phase technique for harnessing the power Moore’s Law A law, created by Gordon Moore, stating that
of thousands of computers working in parallel. During the the number of transistors per square inch on an integrated
first phase, the Map phase, computers work on a task in chip doubles every 18 months. Moore’s prediction has
parallel; during the second phase, the Reduce phase, the proved generally accurate in the 40 years since it was made.
work of separate computers is combined, eventually obtain- Sometimes this law is stated that the performance of a com-
ing a single result. 365 puter doubles every 18 months. Although not strictly true,
Margin The difference between the value that an activity this version gives the gist of the idea. 5
generates and the cost of the activity. 88 Multiuser processing The situation in which multiple users
Market-basket analysis A data mining technique for deter- process the database at the same time. 178
mining sales patterns. A market-basket analysis shows the MySQL A popular open source DBMS product that is li-
products that customers tend to buy together. 361 cense-free for most applications. 170
Maximum cardinality The maximum number of entities Native application A thick-client application that is designed
that can be involved in a relationship. Common examples to work with a particular operating system and sometimes
of maximum cardinality are 1:N, N:M, and 1:1. 181 further limited to work only with a particular mobile device
M-commerce E-commerce transacted using mobile devices. that runs that operating system. 126
142 Net neutrality The idea that all data should be treated
Measure The data item of interest on an OLAP report. It equally as it passes between networks regardless of its type,
is the item that is to be summed, averaged, or otherwise source, or quantity. 218
processed in the OLAP cube. Total sales, average sales, and Network A collection of computers that communicate with
average cost are examples of measures. 356 one another over transmission lines. 211
Megabyte (MB) 1,024 KB. 118 Neural networks A popular supervised data mining tech-
nique used to predict values and make classifications, such
Metadata Data that describes data. 167
as “good prospect” or “poor prospect.” 360
Metrics Measurements used to track performance. 314
Nonvolatile Memory that preserves data contents even
Microsoft Windows The most popular nonmobile cli- when not powered (e.g., magnetic and optical disks). With
ent operating system. Also refers to Windows Server, such devices, you can turn the computer off and back on,
a popular server operating system that competes with and the contents will be unchanged. 119
Linux. 127
Normal forms Definitions of table characteristics that iden-
Minimum cardinality The minimum number of entities that tify various problems to which a table is subject. 184
must be involved on one side of a relationship, typically
zero or one. 194 Normalization The process of converting poorly structured
tables into two or more better-structured tables. 182
Mobile device A small, lightweight, power-conserving, com-
puting device that is capable of wireless access. 139 NoSQL databases Nonrelational databases that support
very high transaction rates processing relatively simple data
Mobile device management (MDM) software Products that structures, replicated on many servers in the cloud. 188
install and update mobile device software, back up and Object Management Group (OMG) A software industry stan-
restore mobile devices, and wipe software and data from dards organization that created a standard set of terms and
devices in the event the device is lost or the employee leaves graphical notations for documenting business processes. 464
the company. Such products also report usage and provide
other mobile device management data. 147 Object-oriented When referring to languages, ones that can
be used to create difficult, complex applications and, if used
Mobile systems Information systems that support users in properly, will result in high-performance code that is easy
motion. 139
to alter when requirements change. 136
Modern-style applications Windows applications that are Off-the-shelf software Software that is used without making
touch-screen oriented and provide context-sensitive, pop- any changes. 131
up menus. 127
Off-the-shelf with alterations software Software bought off
Modules A suite of applications in an ERP system. 263
the shelf but altered to fit an organization’s specific needs. 131
Monetize A social media company’s ability to make money OLAP cube A presentation of an OLAP measure with as-
from its application, service, or content. 308
sociated dimensions. The reason for this term is that some
MongoDB An open source, document-oriented, nonrelational products show these displays using three axes, like a cube in
DBMS. 188 geometry. Same as OLAP report. 357