Glossary

Actor model

The actor model in computer science is a mathematical model of concurrent computation that treats "actors" as the universal primitives of concurrent computation. In response to a message that it receives, an actor can: make local decisions, create more actors, send more messages, and determine how to respond to the next message received.

Akka

Akka is a toolkit and runtime for building highly concurrent, distributed, and resilient message-driven applications on the JVM.

Backup

A backup, or the process of backing up, refers to the copying and archiving of computer data so it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event.

Cluster

A computer cluster consists of a set of loosely or tightly connected computers that work together so that, in many respects, they can be viewed as a single system. Unlike grid computers, computer clusters have each node set to perform the same task, controlled and scheduled by software.

Distributed database

A distributed database is a database in which storage devices are not all attached to a common processing unit such as the CPU, and which is controlled by a distributed database management system.

Fault tolerance

Fault tolerance is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of (or one or more faults within) some of its components. If its operating quality decreases at all, the decrease is proportional to the severity of the failure, as compared to a naively designed system in which even a small failure can cause total breakdown.

Key-value database

A key-value store, or key-value database, is a data storage paradigm designed for storing, retrieving, and managing associative arrays, a data structure more commonly known today as a dictionary or hash.

NoSQL database

A NoSQL (originally referring to "non SQL" or "non relational") database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data which is modeled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases.

Scala

Scala is a general purpose programming language. Scala has full support for functional programming and a very strong static type system. Designed to be concise, many of Scala's design decisions were inspired by criticism of the shortcomings of Java.

TCP

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a core protocol of the Internet protocol suite. It originated in the initial network implementation in which it complemented the Internet Protocol (IP). Therefore, the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP. TCP provides reliable, ordered, and error-checked delivery of a stream of octets between applications running on hosts communicating over an IP network.