IT Acronyms – what do they mean?

19th May 2025

In trying to make things more efficient, are making things more confusing?

I was inspired to write this article after I asked a colleague to export something as a PNG and they instead sent me a PDF.

Although they may have just misheard me, and it is a simple mistake to make, it highlights an interesting issue: so many aspects of IT use these acronyms that we have some awareness of but don’t fully understand.

Here is a list of some of the most used IT acronyms: why don’t you try to test your colleagues, see how many they know and share the answers so next time you come across them, you’ll be more informed!

API: Application Programming Interface

BIOS: Basic Input/Output System

CPU: Central Processing Unit

CSS: Cascading Style Sheets

DNS: Domain Name System

FTP: File Transfer Protocol

GIF: Graphics Interchange Format

GUI: Graphical User Interface

HTML: HyperText Markup Language

HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol

IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service

IoT: Internet of Things

IP: Internet Protocol

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group

LAN: Local Area Network

ML: Machine Learning

PaaS: Platform as a Service

PDF: Portable Document Format

PNG: Portable Network Graphics

RAM: Random Access Memory

SaaS: Software as a Service

SQL: Structured Query Language

SSD: Solid State Drive

URL: Uniform Resource Locator

USB: Universal Serial Bus

VPN: Virtual Private Network

WAN: Wide Area Network

How many did know? Get in touch and let us know your score, we’d be curious to know how many people knew before reading our list.

We hope you found this helpful: if you’d like any more details on any of these acronyms, let us know, we’d be happy to help (or we may be able to direct you to an existing article that can provide more information). Contact Interfuture Systems HERE.