Cloudy vocab

Presently I'm adding a bunch of cloud security terms and definitions from ISO/IEC 22123-1:2023 "Information technology — Cloud computing — Part 1: Vocabulary" to my working copy of the Hyperglossary.

Although the standard is available as a free download from ISO, I'm adding value (allegedly!) by picking out terms that are information risk and security-related, citing the standard's definitions and adding my own interpretations specific to the information risk and security context.

"Tenant", for example, is formally defined in the standard as "one or more cloud service users sharing access to a set of physical and virtual resources" - fair enough, that's how the word is employed in various cloud computing standards. However, "tenant" can also refer to someone renting property, or to virtual servers running on physical servers in data centres (whether owned by the same or a different party). Each of those uses suggest little clusters of risk and security matters which I can mention in the definitions with hyperlinks from key words to their respective entries in the Hyperglossary. In so doing, as I hunt for and consider those entries, further aspects often occur to me, making this an iterative process. I explore the subject matter for a while, circling through the terms, maybe researching other uses, interpretations and definitions, all the while aiming to develop coherent, consistent and apt definitions for the Hyperglossary, or refine existing ones. Well, that's my aim.

The upshot is that it takes me 'a while' to address each term - just a few minutes for the simple addition of a single cited definition, perhaps several hours' intense concentration and effort for something more complex. Having accumulated over 3,800 entries in the Hyperglossary so far, my total time investment is of the order of a few thousand hours just for that activity alone. Furthermore, there are several other time-consuming aspects such as constantly checking the mesh of internal cross-references and external hyperlinks, being consistent in the formatting, colours etc., working with the publisher, updating this blog and website plus the marketing and promotional efforts, and most of all reading and contemplating the field, hunting for new terms, definitions, uses and nuances potentially worth covering. Simply waiting for MS Word to finish doing whatever it is doing ynder the covers when I navigate or search through the document takes seconds, sometimes a minute or more waiting impatiently for the annoying little egg-timer thing to go away.

It all mounts up, especially if I get sidetracked - like for instance noticing the QR code on the cover of the standard, inviting readers to submit feedback. Neat idea! I generated a QR code for the Cybersecurity Hyperglossary book cover, linking to HyperGlossary.com, but without the little explanation and invitation as on the ISO standard - a opportunity missed maybe, and something to bear in mind for the next edition.

Back to the plot: this is what I have at the moment ...

It's not finished yet as I need to hunt through the content for "tenant" or related terms (such as "tenants" and "tenancy"), hyperlinking them to the new entry - which means first adding a bookmark, and yet more precious seconds evaporate. Looking at that image just now I notice that "access" should be hyperlinked to that term, and I wonder whether I have missed any others ...

Enough already. It's a glorious summer Saturday morning here and I have Things To Do, so I'll set this task aside for now. In reality, I'll no doubt be thinking idly about cloud security terms, other risk and security-relevant aspects of "tenant", and so forth until I next return to the PC to pick up where I left off. Meanwhile, although I am physically on the ground in NZ, my head's in the clouds, as usual.