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Government Data Centers: Meeting Increasing Demands (2003)

Chapter: Appendix E: Glossary

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Research Council. 2003. Government Data Centers: Meeting Increasing Demands. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10664.
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Appendix E
Glossary


DATABASE SCHEMA

A definition of the table structures and data types used to store data in a database. All the data in the database adhere to the database schema.


EXTENSIBLE MARKUP LANGUAGE (XML)

Provides its users with capabilities for defining sets of tags that can be used to mark up documents with information about the meaning of the data contained in the documents.


FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP) DOWNLOAD

A user is provided access to data stored on the data center computers, allowing copying of files.


INTERFACE

Means for users to interact with computing and database systems.

INTEROPERABILITY

The ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special effort on the part of the customer.


LINEAGE

Metadata describing where reused structures and types of data came from.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Research Council. 2003. Government Data Centers: Meeting Increasing Demands. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10664.
×

METADATA

Data about data. Includes data about how, when, where and by whom a set of scientific data was named, structured, represented, collected, calibrated, stored, processes, exchanged, etc. Also, data about data distribution, data statistics, data usage, etc.


NETWORK BANDWIDTH

The capacity to move large data files electronically.


OPEN-SOURCE

Software with its source code made available without any restrictions on its redistribution or reuse.


PARSE

To process a data stream and recognize the individual data in the stream by using the schema for the data stream.

PETABYTE

A measure of memory or storage capacity and is 2 to the 50th power bytes or, in decimal, approximately 1,000 terabytes.


QUERY

Language entered by a user of a search engine or database to find data or information.


RANDOM ACCESS

To access individual data directly, as on a CD, computer disk, or computer memory, rather than scanning through data to find individual data, as on a tape.


SCHEMA

A definition of the structures and representation types of a collection of data.

SUBSETTING

The process of computing and making available a subset of the data in a data stream that satisfies a set of specific conditions. This subset may be delivered immediately or may be stored and subsequently delivered when requested by a user.


TERABYTE

A measure of computer storage capacity and is 2 to the 40th power or approximately 1,000 billion bytes (i.e., a thousand gigabytes).


XML schema

A definition of the structures and representation types of data in a collection of XML documents. All the XML documents in the collection defined by the XML schema adhere to the XML schema.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Research Council. 2003. Government Data Centers: Meeting Increasing Demands. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10664.
×

XML Schema

The language in which XML schemas can be defined. Also used to denote the self-describing XML schema that defines all possible XML schemas, including itself.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Research Council. 2003. Government Data Centers: Meeting Increasing Demands. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10664.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Research Council. 2003. Government Data Centers: Meeting Increasing Demands. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10664.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Research Council. 2003. Government Data Centers: Meeting Increasing Demands. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10664.
×
Page 52
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Research Council. 2003. Government Data Centers: Meeting Increasing Demands. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10664.
×
Page 53
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Research Council. 2003. Government Data Centers: Meeting Increasing Demands. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10664.
×
Page 54
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Environmental data centers have been successfully acquiring, disseminating, and archiving data for decades. However, the increasing volume and number of data sets, coupled with greater demands from more diverse users, are making it difficult for data centers to maintain the record of environmental change. This workshop report focuses on technological approaches that could enhance the ability of environmental data centers to deal with these challenges, and improve the ability of users to find and use information held in data centers. Among the major findings are that data centers should rely more on off-the-shelf technology -- including software and commonly available hardware -- and should shift from tape to disk as the primary storage medium. Such technological improvements will help solve many data management problems, although data centers and their host agencies will have to continue to invest in the scientific and human elements of data center operations.

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