Barcodes are machine-readable information that is usually represented as a 2-color (mainly black and white) graphic.

A distinction is made between so-called 1D barocdes, stacked barcodes and 2D barcodes.

1D barcodes consist of bars and gaps of different width and in different arrangement, which encode into certain information. Depending on the symbology, a different set of characters can be encoded. For example, with the symbology 2 out of 5 Interleaved, only pairs of digits can be encoded, while with Code 39, uppercase letters and some special characters can also be encoded. 1D barcodes encode the same information over the entire height. Their capacity reaches up to about 40 characters per barcode.

Stacked barcodes are barcodes consisting of several horizontally arranged elements, each element corresponding in structure to a 1D barcode. An example of a stacked barcode is the PDF417 barcode. Since this type of barcode, unlike 1D barcodes, does not encode the same information over the entire height, but different information per segment, its capacity is much higher than that of 1D barcodes and is several hundred characters.

2D barcodes are barcodes that encode the information 2-diminsional and have a high capacity of up to 3000 characters – depending on symbology and encoding type. The smallest elements of these barcodes correspond to bits from electronic data processing. The most popular 2D barcode at present is the QR code, which has found its way into almost all business sectors: Banking, insurance, travel, manufacturing, industry, etc. Other well known 2D barcode symbologies are Datamatrix and Aztec.

More information about the different barcode symbologies can be found here.

Backup of data. Backups can be categorized in different ways, e.g. by interval (e.g. daily, monthly…), type (full or incremental) or creation type (manual, automatic).

Appliance is a device with a specific function. For example, the BENS Server is an appliance that is primarily used for processing print data.

ANSI stands for American National Standards Institute. It is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of standards for products, services, processes, systems and personnel in the United States. Many ANSI standards correspond to corresponding ISO standards that are used worldwide.

AFP is the abbreviation for Advanced Function Presentation Data Stream. It is a device-independent file format developed by IBM for the presentation of documents and information (similar to PDF). AFP files can be printed with the BENS Server. For this, the user needs additional, chargeable modules. The AFP data are converted to Postscript or PCL5 and printed on industry standard printers.

AFP (Advanced Function Presentation) is a portable document format defined by IBM that is generated on IBM computers (e.g. I-Series). It could be compared to Adobe’s PDF format. Similar to PDF, AFP data is not print data per se, but must first be converted into print data. In order to be printed, AFP files have to be converted into IPDS print data. For the BENS Server there is an AFP/IPDS plugin, with which these files can be printed via the LPR protocol.

The person who has the most rights for a given system.

Active Directory (AD) is the directory service implemented on Microsoft Windows servers.
The goal of Active Directory is to map the real network structures of a company. This includes various objects, such as computers, services, groups, users, file shares, etc.
The directory service stores the objects and mapping lists in an internal database.
The system administrator can manage and monitor the various objects.
Active Directory is protected from unauthorized access by password protection with associated rights.

SaaS is an acronym for the term Software as a Service. It is one of the cloud solutions along with IaaS and PaaS. From a service perspective, SaaS means software as a service or subscription software. With on-demand software, there are no high acquisition costs and the IT management and other services or maintenance and updates are handled by the SaaS provider. With SaaS, a user’s customer or employee data no longer resides on the user’s own computer, but with the SaaS provider. However, the user remains responsible for the correct processing of the data in accordance with legal requirements.