Glossary.

22 infrastructure and security terms, defined in plain language.

AI Fabric Datacenter: A complete infrastructure designed to host and run AI workloads — compute (GPU/CPU), high-throughput network, distributed storage and orchestration. Not a single product but an integrated architecture, delivered as a packaged solution from design to production.
DGSSI Compliance: Direction Générale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information — Morocco's national cybersecurity authority, which issues the security directive for sensitive infrastructure.
DNSSI Compliance: Directive Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information — the framework of security rules and measures published by the DGSSI. Not to be confused with the DGSSI itself: the DNSSI is a reference document, not an institution.
DWDM Fibre: Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing — sends many data channels over a single fibre on different wavelengths, multiplying backbone capacity.
EDR Security: Endpoint Detection & Response — endpoint protection with behavioural detection, investigation and real-time incident response.
Ethernet Fabric Networking: A high-throughput, low-latency leaf-spine network architecture purpose-built for AI/GPU clusters and east-west datacenter traffic.
Hardening Security: Securing a system or device by applying a hardened configuration — reducing the attack surface against recognised baselines (CIS, ANSSI).
HPC Compute: High-Performance Computing — clusters of tightly-interconnected servers/GPUs for compute-intensive workloads such as AI training and simulation.
IAM Security: Identity & Access Management — managing digital identities and access rights to information-system resources.
Loi 05-20 Compliance: Morocco's 2020 cybersecurity law mandating security measures for operators of vital and sensitive information systems.
Network Disaggregation Networking: An architecture that separates network hardware (switches, routers) from the software that runs it. Unlike traditional bundled solutions, disaggregation lets you choose hardware and network OS independently — no vendor lock-in, lower cost, full flexibility (e.g. Edgecore + SONiC).
NOC Operations: Network Operations Center — the team and tooling that monitor infrastructure 24/7, detect faults, and coordinate incident response.
O-RAN Telecom: Open Radio Access Network — open, interoperable standards for mobile radio networks, breaking vendor lock-in between radios, baseband, and management.
OCP Datacenter: Open Compute Project — community-driven open hardware designs for servers, storage, and racks that reduce cost and vendor dependence.
OIV / OSE Compliance: Operator of Vital Importance / Operator of Essential Services — categories of organisations subject to reinforced cybersecurity obligations under Loi 05-20.
Pentest Security: A controlled penetration test simulating a real attack to identify exploitable vulnerabilities within a defined scope.
RTO / RPO Resilience: Recovery Time Objective / Recovery Point Objective — how fast you must restore a service, and how much data loss is tolerable, after an incident.
SD-WAN Networking: Software-Defined Wide Area Network — centrally-managed, policy-driven WAN that optimises traffic across MPLS, internet, and LTE links.
SLA Operations: Service Level Agreement — a contractual commitment on availability, response, and resolution times, with defined remedies if missed.
SOC Operations: Security Operations Center — the team and tooling dedicated to continuous monitoring, detection and response to security incidents.
SONiC Networking: Software for Open Networking in the Cloud — an open-source network OS that runs on disaggregated (white-box) switches, decoupling hardware from software.
Zero Trust Security: A security model that trusts no user or device by default — every access request is authenticated, authorised, and continuously verified.