Pivot

Pivot may refer to any of the following:

1. In general, a pivot is a fixed point supporting something as it turns or balances. For example, a pivot display is a display that can change from a horizontal to a vertical orientation, like rotating a smartphone or tablet.

2. When describing a person or thing, pivotal describes someone or something with a central role. For example, a computer programmer is pivotal at a company because they can maintain and update the code for the software.

3. With computer security, pivoting or island hopping describes expanding an attack through a compromised system. For example, a hacker may access a less secure system within a network, which allows them to bypass firewalls and access more secure systems because they're part of the same network.

4. With business, a pivot or pivoting describes completely changing how something is done after realizing that the product or service is not sustainable. An example of a pivot is when the company behind what we know today as Slack pivoted from making a game to creating Slack. Another example of a company that pivoted successfully is Netflix when they went from the postal DVD (digital versatile disc) service to focusing on a streaming platform.

These two examples are companies with the foresight to know when something was not working and were successful at switching to something completely different. Unfortunately, many more companies have failed to pivot. Two examples are BlackBerry and Nokia after the smartphone was introduced. Both companies were leaders in the cell phone market until Apple introduced the iPhone.

5. When describing a blog or blog software, Pivot was an open-source software that began development in 2001 and was later renamed to PivotX. In 2017, it was announced that PivotX would no longer be actively developed. However, it is still available on GitHub.

Business terms, Internet terms, Pivot table, Security terms, Video terms