Capterra Glossary
Initialization
Initialization is a term used in the computer programming industry to describe the process of assigning a value to a data variable. In a business setting, the initialization process occurs when an IT administrator first installs a computer program onto a company system. As the computer program loads into the computerʻs memory, it looks into the computer memoryʻs initialization files and switches out definite values for variable values. This allows the installed software program to execute properly.
What Small and Midsize Businesses Need to Know About Initialization
Small tech startups that program software applications often use the initialization process to define the value of data variables when writing computer code, which helps ensure that their solutions will execute properly. If a computerʻs memory values are not defined by a programmer, once a programʻs code executes, the central processing unit (CPU) of the computer system will set the codeʻs variable values to a garbage value (a random data value). This will then change the logic of a program, resulting in a compile time error that prevents the program from executing.
Related Terms
- Synchronous
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Intranet
- Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Managed Service Provider (MSP)
- Haptics
- WAN (Wide-Area Network)
- Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Chief Information Officer (CIO)
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
- Scalability
- Data Center
- Authorization
- Multitenancy