Image courtesy of Steve Tainton.

As technology marches on, so does our vocabulary. New words, phrases and acronyms are probably being coined as we speak.

At the recent Summit 09 in Banff, Alberta, jargon was flying thick and heavy. In response, we've added two particularly hot acronyms to our glossary.

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - This phrase, first coming into use in late 2006, describes the delivery of infrastructure, including data and processing power, as an outsourced service.
  Read more about IaaS.
• Software as a Service (SaaS) - A model whereby software is provided as a service. There are two primary methods of SaaS:
  1. The software is hosted on the provider's web server, and accessed through a web portal, such as a science gateway.
  2. The user can download the application, but it is remotely disabled when the license expires.

Read more about SaaS.

Have glossary terms you think should be included in our glossary? New to grids, clouds, or supercomputing, and wondering what a term means? Send us an email - we'd love to hear from you.

—Miriam Boon, iSGTW