middleware
n.n. software that acts as a bridge between different programs or systems so they can talk to each other. It helps different parts of a computer network work together smoothly.
n. software that provides services to applications beyond those available from the operating system, facilitating communication and data management between disparate systems. Often described as the 'glue' that connects different software components.
The company uses middleware to connect its website to the database.
The developers implemented a custom middleware layer to ensure the mobile app could securely access legacy server data.
Modern enterprise architectures rely heavily on robust middleware to manage the complex exchange of messages between microservices without requiring each service to understand the internal protocols of the others.
A compound formed from the prefix mid- and the noun software. The term was first used in a 1968 report following a NATO Science Committee conference on software engineering.