Application

The overall ease with which a user can move through the screens of an application or the pages of a website.

An architecture where applications can run on a variety of leading hardware and database platforms without the need for changes to the application programs. For example, an application that can run on Oracle or SQL would be considered open from a database platform perspective.

When a user is interacting directly with the application. Each time the user enters information or requests information is considered to be a transaction. Most types of self service are examples of OLTP, like bank ATM’s and enrolling in your benefits online.

A cloud computing model in which a third-party provider delivers hardware and software tools, usually those needed for application development, to users over the internet. A PaaS provider hosts the hardware and software on its own infrastructure.

An architecture in which a single instance of a software application serves multiple customers. Each customer is called a tenant. Tenants may be given the ability to customize some parts of the application, such as color of the user interface (UI) or business rules, but they cannot customize the application's code.