This glossary contains definitions for IBM InfoSphere Identity
Insight terminology.
A
- account
- See identity.
- address hygiene
- The process that normalizes and standardizes address
information to correct possible errors and transpositions and to enable
optimal matching and linking between entities. Additional address
correction software can be used to enhance the address hygiene process.
- alert
- A message or other indication that signals an event has occurred.
See also role alert and attribute alert.
- application monitor
- The component that monitors pipeline errors, status, and statistics
and that sends routing information to pipelines. The application monitor
is installed with the pipeline, however it can be installed separately
as well.
- application monitor database
- The database that stores the routing and monitoring information
for the pipelines. See also entity database and Configuration
Console database.
- attribute
- A characteristic or trait that describes a person, organization,
place, or item. See also entity and identity.
- attribute alert
- An alert that identifies entities that match a specified set of
attributes.
- attribute alert generator
- A set of attributes, which the customer defines, that the pipeline
uses to compare with the incoming attributes of identities. If the
attributes match, the pipeline generates an attribute alert.
- attribute type
- A specific classification of an attribute. The supported attribute
types are characteristics, numbers, names, addresses, and e-mail addresses.
See also attribute.
C
- candidate builder
- The configured set of attributes that are used to build the candidate
list. See also candidate list and attributes.
- candidate list
- The list of entities that have the potential to match the incoming
identity. The candidate list is built by retrieving those entities
that share certain attributes (such as numbers and addresses) with
the incoming identity, based on the attributes that are specified
in the candidate builder. During the re-resolve process, the list
of entities are matched to the new composite entity.
- candidate threshold
- The minimum score at which a particular attribute value must match
between the incoming identity and an existing entity to satisfy the
resolution rule. See also resolution rule.
- characteristic
- A user-defined trait or property that is associated with an identity
that is not commonly expressed as a name, number, address, or e-mail.
This attribute allows users to extend the product by defining customizable
entity attributes that are meaningful to their data sources. See also attribute and identity.
- cleansed pipeline search (CPS)
- Synonym for search.
- CME Admin (Central Messaging Engine Administrator)
- See application monitor.
- CME Admin node
- See Configuration Console.
- Configuration Console
- The graphical user interface that you use to configure the system,
monitor data and route messages, and view reports.
- Configuration Console database
- The database that stores the configuration settings for the Configuration
Console. See also application monitor database and entity
database.
- configuration utility
- A utility that is used after installation to modify configuration
settings for database configuration and WebSphere Application Server
logging. It can also be used to apply fixes to the Configuration Console
and the Visualizer.
- conflict
- See role alert.
- conflict rules
- See role alert rules.
D
- daemon
- A program that runs unattended to perform continuous or periodic
functions, such as network control.
- data mapping
- A defined mapping between the data in a UMF file and the corresponding
tables and table columns in the entity database. A data mapping must
exist to successfully load data into the entity database.
- data quality management (DQM)
- The pipeline process that checks the data for required values,
valid data types, and valid codes, and also corrects the data by providing
default values, formatting numbers and dates, and adding new codes,
if that has been configured. Data quality management includes address
hygiene and name standardization processing. See also address
hygiene and name standardization.
- data source
- The data that contains the identities that you want to load into
the entity database. Data sources contain identifying data (unique,
personal identifiers for an identity) and non-identifying data (other
attributes and data points for an identity). The identity records
in the data source must be exported as Universal Message Format (UMF)
before they can be loaded into the entity database. Examples of data
sources include, but are not limited to, employee databases, watch
lists, vendor lists, customer lists, and so on.
- data source account
- When referring to the specific instance in a data source, see identity.
- When referring to the unique ID for a specific instance in a data
source, see external ID.
- data source code
- The user-defined identifier for the data source.
- data source record
- See identity.
- data source reference
- See external reference.
- degrees of separation
- A measurement of the relationship between two entities. The measurement
is a positive integer greater than or equal to zero that defines the
minimum number of entities involved in a chain of relationships not
including the root entity. For example, if two entities are related,
those entities are 1 degree separated, and have a 1-degree relationship.
See also relationship.
- detach
- The process of de-coupling an inbound identity from an entity
and verifying again that it should still be associated with that entity.
- disclosure
- A user-defined relationship between two identities in two separate
entities.
- document types
- See UMF input documents.
- DQM
- See data quality management.
- DQM rule
- A rule that defines how data is processed by the data quality
management (DQM) processes and DQM functions. DQM rules apply to specific
UMF segments. When you define a DQM rule, you define the DQM function,
the specific parameters, and the order in which the rule is processed.
See also data quality management and UMF segment.
E
- element
- (1) See attribute and attribute type.
- (2) In markup languages such as SGML, XML, and HTML, a basic unit
consisting of a start tag, end tag, associated attributes and their
values, and any text that is contained between the two.
- entity
- A collection of one or more identities that represent the same
person, organization, place, or item. See also identity.
- entity database
- The database that stores identities, entities, and data that is
used for relationships, resolutions, and alerts. The entity database
might also store configuration, routing, and monitoring settings,
if users did not choose to create a separate application monitor database
and Configuration Console database. See also application monitor
database and Configuration Console database.
- entity model
- The set of user-defined attributes that define an entity in the
system. See also attributes and entity.
- entity resolution
- The process that compares one or more identities and determines
if they represent the same entity or two different entities. If two
identities are determined to represent the same person, organization,
place, or item, they are resolved into a single entity; otherwise,
they are unresolved into two separate entities.
- event
- An event represents information about something that happened
in the business domain, such as "a customer opens an account" or "a
customer wires money". In the Event Manager feature, events contain
attributes, which are based on their corresponding event types.
- event alert
- An event alert occurs when a collection of complex events meets
specified criteria over a specified life span. Event alerts are based
on business rules that are defined in a complex event processor, and
can indicate situations of interest, such as two or more purchase
transactions of more than 10,000 U.S. dollars occurred in the last
hour at locations 240 kilometers from each other.
- event type
- An event type categorizes events and defines the unit of measure
for the value associated with events in Event Manager. Examples of
event types include wire transfer, account opening, or credit card
transaction.
- Event types are required for event processing, because the user-defined
business rules that the event processor uses call a specific event
type. If the event type does not exist, the event processor cannot
process the event.
- external ID
- A unique key that identifies an identity in the data source. An
external ID typically consists of a unique ID for the data source
and a unique ID for the identity within its original data source.
For example, an external ID for an identity in the customer records
for a bank might contain the bank name (for the data source) and the
account number (for the identity in the data source), such as FirstCapital,
0123456789.
- external reference
- An additional identifier for an identity in a data source. For
example, an employee data source might use the employee serial number
as the external ID and the employee's social security number as the
external reference. Often, however, the external reference is set
to the same value as the external ID, because the additional identifier
is not necessary to uniquely identify an identity.
F
- full attribution
- An auditing feature of the entity database whereby specific details
are stored on where the identities come from. By accumulating this
context, all data in the entity database can be traced back to the
original source system.
G
- generic value
- A data value that has occurred in the database for multiple entities
a specific number of times. For example, a telephone number with a
value of 555-555-5555 might be considered a generic value after it
occurs in the database 10 times. See also generic threshold.
- generic threshold
- The number of times that a data value can occur in the database
for multiple entities before that data value is considered a generic
value. See also generic value.
H
- hash
- An alphanumeric string that is generated from another value in
order to aid in the searching and comparing of values within the entity
database.
I
- identity
- A collection of attributes from a data source that represent a
person, organization, place, or item.
- identity resolution
- See entity resolution.
L
- likeness score
- See resolution score.
M
- match merge rule
- See resolution rule.
N
- name standardization
- The process that normalizes names by reducing them to the most
common derivative or root name. For example, Richard is the most common
derivative or root name for Dick, Ricardo, Ricky, Rich, or Ritchie
and Mohammad is the most common derivative or root name for Mohamad,
Mohamed, Mohammad, or Mohammed.
- node
- In a network configuration, the physical machine that contains
one or more related functional units.
O
- output messages
- See UMF output documents.
P
- persistent search
- See attribute alert generator.
- pipeline
- The component that performs name standardization, data quality
management, address hygiene, and entity resolution. The pipeline also
generates alerts, based on the system configurations. See also name
standardization, data quality management, address
hygiene, and entity resolution.
- pipeline node
- The physical machine that contains one or more running pipeline
processes. See also pipeline.
- primary matching
- See candidate builder.
Q
- queue utility
- A utility that manages the transfer of data from a process or
a file to a queue in a queue manager, such as Microsoft Message Queuing
or WebSphere MQ.
- Qutil
- See queue utility.
R
- record
- The storage representation of a single row of a table or other
data.
- relationship
- A link between two or more entities. A relationship is created
based on discovered data, disclosed data, or both. See also entity.
- relationship resolution
- See entity resolution.
- relationship score
- The value that is assigned during entity resolution as a result
of applying the resolution rules and that defines how closely the
two compared identities are related to each other. This score is fixed;
that is, it is not adjusted after the entity resolution process is
completed. See also resolution score.
- resolution rule
- The set of criteria that define how compared entities are resolved
or related.
- resolution score
- The value that is assigned during entity resolution as a result
of the confirmation and denial processing and that defines the likelihood
that the compared identities represent the same entity. This score
is used to resolve a new identity to an existing entity. See also relationship
score.
- re-resolve
- The process of re-evaluating entities against existing entities,
relationships, or resolutions, and then resolving those entities appropriately.
- role
- A classification of an identity that defines the focus or purpose
for that identity. You can associate one or more roles with an identity.
- role alert
- An alert that identifies a single entity or two entities that
contain roles that the user has defined as of interest or as conflicting.
- role alert rules
- A user-configured rule that identifies one or more roles that
cannot exist in a single entity or cannot be linked between multiple
entities.
- role code
- The unique identifier for a role. See also role.
- rule
- A set of conditional statements that enable computer systems to
identify relationships and run automated responses accordingly.
S
- service
- A program that performs a primary function within a server or
related software.
- SOAP
- A lightweight, XML-based protocol for exchanging information in
a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP can be used to query
and return information and invoke services across the Internet. See
also Web services.
T
- transliteration
- The process of changing characters that are represented in one
alphabet into the characters of another alphabet.
- transport
- A communication layer that allows the product to send and receive
data between the user data source and a pipeline. Examples of transports
include the HTTP transport, the queue transport, the database transport,
or the file transport, among others.
U
- UDDI
- See Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration.
- UMF (Universal Message Format)
- A standard markup language, based on XML, for structuring data
source files. To load data into the entity database, it must be in
a universal message format (UMF) file.
- UMF document
- The collection of UMF segments that structure the data.
- UMF elements
- XML tags and values that define the data within a UMF segment
of a UMF document.
- UMF record segment
- See UMF segment.
- UMF input document
- The collection of UMF segments that structure the incoming data
to load, modify, or query data in the entity database.
- UMF output document
- The collection of UMF segments that structure result data.
- UMF file
- A file that contains one or more UMF documents. See also UMF
document.
- UMF formatting utility
- A utility that formats Universal Message Format (UMF) files and
extracts UMF data to view the UMF records in wide format (one UMF
record per line), tall format (one UMF record across many lines),
or for a specific UMF tag. See also Universal Message Format.
- UMF message
- See UMF document.
- UMF segment
- The part of a UMF document that structures the data for the data
source.
- Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
- A set of standards-based specifications that enables companies
and applications to quickly and easily find and use Web services over
the Internet. See also Web services.
- unresolve
- The process of separating resolved identities into two separate
entities.
V
- Visualizer
- The graphical user interface that analysts use to research alerts,
view relationships, search for entities, load data, and run reports.
W
- Web service
- A self-contained, self-describing modular application that can
be published, discovered, and invoked over a network using standard
network protocols. Typically, XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is
used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services
available, and UDDI is used for listing what services are available.
See also SOAP, UDDI, and WSDL.
- WSDL (Web Services Description Language)
- An XML-based specification for describing networked services as
a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented
or procedure-oriented information. See also Web services.
X
- Xutil
- See UMF formatting utility.