Cloud Computing Glossary

A Cloud Computing Glossary is a collection of definitions and explanations for key terms, concepts, and acronyms related to cloud computing. It serves as a reference guide to help individuals, businesses, and professionals understand and navigate the complex terminology and jargon commonly used in the field of cloud computing.

The glossary provides concise and clear definitions for various cloud-related terms, ranging from fundamental concepts like “cloud computing” itself to more specific terms such as “virtualization,” “containers,” “elasticity,” “microservices,” “hybrid cloud,” and many others.

Cloud computing glossaries are valuable resources for:

  1. Learning: Individuals who are new to cloud computing can use the glossary to gain a foundational understanding of the terminology.
  2. Reference: Professionals and practitioners in the cloud industry can refer to the glossary to clarify terms and concepts they encounter in their work.
  3. Communication: It facilitates effective communication by ensuring that all parties involved have a common understanding of the terms being discussed.
  4. Research and Documentation: Researchers, writers, and educators can use the glossary to ensure accurate and consistent definitions in their materials.
  5. Decision-Making: Businesses and organizations exploring cloud adoption can use the glossary to better comprehend technical discussions and make informed decisions.

A cloud computing glossary may cover a wide range of topics, including various cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), deployment models (public, private, hybrid), architecture concepts (serverless, microservices), networking terms (load balancing, virtual networks), security concepts, and more. As the cloud computing landscape evolves, glossaries may be updated to include new terms and concepts that emerge over time.

Hypervisor and Virtualization Glossary

Here’s a glossary of terms commonly used in the realm of hypervisor and virtualization technologies:

  1. Hypervisor: Also known as a virtual machine monitor (VMM), a hypervisor is a software layer that enables the creation and management of virtual machines (VMs) on physical hardware.
  2. Virtualization: The process of creating multiple virtual instances of an operating system (VMs) on a single physical machine, allowing efficient utilization of hardware resources.
  3. Host System: The physical machine or server that runs one or more virtual machines using a hypervisor.
  4. Guest System: A virtual machine running on a host system, often referred to as a guest OS.
  5. Type 1 Hypervisor (Bare-Metal Hypervisor): A hypervisor that runs directly on the host’s hardware, without requiring a host operating system. Examples include VMware vSphere/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Xen.
  6. Type 2 Hypervisor (Hosted Hypervisor): A hypervisor that runs on top of a host operating system. It’s ideal for development and testing environments. Examples include VMware Workstation and Oracle VirtualBox.
  7. Virtual Machine (VM): A software-based emulation of a physical computer, capable of running its own operating system and applications.
  8. Emulation: The process of mimicking the behavior of one system using another system, often slower because it involves interpreting or translating instructions.
  9. Hardware-Assisted Virtualization: A technology that improves the performance and efficiency of virtualization by offloading certain tasks to the host system’s physical hardware.
  10. Paravirtualization: A virtualization technique where the guest operating system is modified to be aware of the hypervisor, resulting in improved performance and efficiency.
  11. Snapshot: A point-in-time copy of a virtual machine’s state, allowing you to revert back to that state if needed.
  12. Live Migration: The ability to move a running virtual machine from one physical host to another without causing downtime.
  13. Virtual CPU (vCPU): A portion of a physical CPU assigned to a virtual machine.
  14. Virtual Disk: A file that serves as a virtual hard drive for a virtual machine, storing its operating system, applications, and data.
  15. Clone: A copy of a virtual machine or template that can be used to create new instances.
  16. Template: A preconfigured virtual machine that serves as a baseline for creating new instances.
  17. Hypervisor Clustering: Combining multiple hypervisor hosts into a cluster for improved performance, availability, and load balancing.
  18. Resource Pool: A logical grouping of virtual resources (CPU, memory, storage) within a hypervisor cluster, used to allocate resources to virtual machines.
  19. Dynamic Memory Allocation: A feature that allows a hypervisor to allocate and adjust memory resources for virtual machines based on demand.
  20. Virtual Networking: Creating and managing virtual networks within a hypervisor environment, allowing communication between virtual machines and the physical network.
  21. Nested Virtualization: Running a hypervisor within a virtual machine, allowing you to create additional layers of virtualization.
  22. Hypervisor Security: Ensuring the security of the hypervisor layer to prevent unauthorized access and protect virtual machines.
  23. VHD (Virtual Hard Disk): A file format used to represent a virtual hard drive within a hypervisor environment.
  24. HVCI (Hypervisor-Enforced Code Integrity): A security feature that enforces code integrity checks on Windows virtual machines running on Hyper-V.
  25. vMotion: A technology that enables live migration of virtual machines between physical hosts without disruption, commonly used in VMware environments.
  26. Xen: An open-source hypervisor platform that supports both paravirtualization and hardware-assisted virtualization.
  27. VMware vSphere: A suite of virtualization products, including the vCenter Server management platform and ESXi hypervisor.
  28. Hyper-V: Microsoft’s hypervisor-based virtualization platform, available on Windows Server and Windows 10.
  29. KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine): An open-source virtualization solution for Linux, providing hardware virtualization capabilities.
  30. Oracle VirtualBox: An open-source hosted hypervisor for x86 and AMD64/Intel64 systems.

This glossary provides definitions for terms commonly used in the context of hypervisor and virtualization technologies. It’s important to note that the field of virtualization is dynamic and evolving, and new terms and technologies may emerge over time.

General Cloud Computing Glossary

Here’s a glossary of commonly used terms in cloud computing:

  1. Cloud Computing: The delivery of computing resources (such as computing power, storage, and networking) over the internet, enabling on-demand access and scalability without the need for local hardware or infrastructure.
  2. Virtualization: Creating a virtual version of a resource, such as a virtual machine, to abstract and share physical hardware resources among multiple users or applications.
  3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): A cloud service model where virtualized computing resources, such as virtual machines and storage, are provided over the internet.
  4. Platform as a Service (PaaS): A cloud service model that provides a platform and environment for developers to build, deploy, and manage applications without worrying about underlying infrastructure.
  5. Software as a Service (SaaS): A cloud service model that delivers software applications over the internet, eliminating the need for users to install, update, or maintain the software locally.
  6. Public Cloud: Cloud services provided by third-party cloud providers and accessible to the general public over the internet.
  7. Private Cloud: A cloud environment dedicated to a single organization, typically hosted on-premises or in a data center, providing greater control and security.
  8. Hybrid Cloud: A combination of public and private cloud environments that allows data and applications to be shared between them.
  9. Multi-Cloud: Using services from multiple cloud providers to avoid vendor lock-in and leverage best-of-breed solutions.
  10. Cloud Service Provider (CSP): A company that offers cloud services and infrastructure to organizations and individuals.
  11. Elasticity: The ability of a cloud service to automatically scale resources up or down based on demand.
  12. Scalability: The ability to expand or shrink resources to accommodate changes in workload or usage.
  13. Serverless Computing: A cloud service model where developers write code in response to events or triggers, and the cloud provider automatically manages the underlying infrastructure.
  14. Containerization: Packaging and deploying applications, along with their dependencies, as isolated containers to ensure consistent deployment across different environments.
  15. Microservices: An architectural approach where applications are composed of small, independent services that communicate through APIs, making them easier to develop, deploy, and scale.
  16. API (Application Programming Interface): A set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate and interact with each other.
  17. DevOps: A set of practices that combines development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten software development lifecycles and increase the frequency of software releases.
  18. Auto-scaling: Automatically adjusting the number of computing resources based on real-time demand to ensure optimal performance and cost-efficiency.
  19. Data Center: A facility housing servers, networking equipment, and other hardware required for cloud computing and other IT operations.
  20. Latency: The time delay between a request and a response in network communication, often affecting application performance.
  21. Redundancy: Duplication of critical components to ensure high availability and minimize downtime.
  22. Data Migration: The process of transferring data from one location or format to another, often during cloud adoption or integration.
  23. Cloud Security: Measures and practices designed to protect data, applications, and resources in cloud environments.
  24. SLA (Service Level Agreement): A contract that defines the level of service a cloud provider will deliver, including uptime, performance, and support.
  25. Cloud Native: Designing applications specifically to leverage the capabilities and benefits of cloud environments.
  26. Edge Computing: Processing and analyzing data closer to the source, at the “edge” of the network, to reduce latency and improve performance.

This glossary provides an overview of essential cloud computing terms. Keep in mind that the cloud computing landscape is continuously evolving, and new terms may emerge over time.

Microsoft Azure Glossary

  1. Microsoft Azure, formerly known as Windows Azure, is Microsoft’s public cloud computing platform. It provides a broad range of cloud services, including compute, analytics, storage and networking.
  2. Azure subscription is a logical container used to provision related business or technical resources in Azure. It holds the details of all your resources like virtual machines (VMs), databases, and more. When you create an Azure resource like a VM, you identify the subscription it belongs to.
  3. Azure management groups support Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) for all resource accesses and role definitions. These permissions are inherited to child resources that exist in the hierarchy. Any Azure role can be assigned to a management group that will inherit down the hierarchy to the resources.
  4. Azure resource group: A resource group is a container that holds related resources for an Azure solution. The resource group can include all the resources for the solution, or only those resources that you want to manage as a group.
  5. Azure resource: In Azure, a resource is an entity managed by Azure. Virtual machines, virtual networks, and storage accounts are all examples of Azure resources.
  6. Azure virtual machine: A virtual machine, commonly shortened to just VM, is no different than any other physical computer like a laptop, smart phone, or server. It has a CPU, memory, disks to store your files, and can connect to the internet if needed.
  7. AAD (Azure Active Directory): Azure Active Directory (AAD) is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management service. It provides a comprehensive set of capabilities to manage user identities, secure access to applications and resources, and ensure seamless collaboration across on-premises and cloud environments. AAD is a critical component of the Azure ecosystem and is widely used to enable secure authentication and authorization for various Microsoft and third-party services.
  8. AD DS (Active Directory Domain Services): Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is a core component of Microsoft Windows Server operating systems that provides centralized authentication, authorization, and directory services. It’s used primarily in on-premises environments to manage and organize resources such as user accounts, computers, printers, and other network-related objects. AD DS forms the foundation of an organization’s identity and access management infrastructure.
  9. AD FS (Active Directory Federation Services): Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) is a Microsoft technology that provides single sign-on (SSO) and identity federation capabilities. It allows users to access multiple applications and services using a single set of credentials across different security domains, both within an organization and with trusted external partners. AD FS enables secure sharing of identity and access information between organizations without the need to duplicate user accounts or passwords.
  10. API Management: API Management (Application Programming Interface Management) is a set of tools, processes, and solutions that facilitate the creation, publication, maintenance, monitoring, and security of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). APIs are a way for different software applications to communicate and interact with each other, enabling developers to access and utilize specific functionality or data from other services or systems. API Management helps organizations expose their APIs to internal and external developers in a controlled and efficient manner.
  11. ARM (Azure Resource Manager):
    Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is the management layer for Microsoft Azure that provides a consistent and unified way to deploy, manage, and organize Azure resources. It simplifies the process of provisioning and managing resources while offering a level of automation, control, and consistency across the Azure platform. With ARM, you can define, deploy, and manage the infrastructure and applications for your cloud solutions.
  12. Azure AD B2C: Azure Active Directory B2C (Azure AD B2C) is a cloud identity service offered by Microsoft that enables organizations to customize and control how customers sign up, sign in, and manage their profiles when using applications, websites, and services. It provides a comprehensive solution for managing customer identities and access while delivering a seamless and user-friendly experience.
  13. Azure Advisor: Azure Advisor is a service within Microsoft Azure that provides intelligent recommendations to help optimize your Azure resources for better performance, security, reliability, and cost-efficiency. It offers personalized guidance based on Azure best practices and patterns, helping you make informed decisions to enhance your cloud environment. Azure Advisor covers various aspects of your resources, including virtual machines, storage, networking, and more.
  14. Azure App: “Azure App” is a broad term that could refer to various services and offerings within Microsoft Azure related to application development and deployment.
  15. Azure App Service: Azure App Service is a fully managed platform for building, deploying, and scaling web applications. It supports various programming languages and frameworks, such as .NET, Java, Python, Node.js, and more. With Azure App Service, you can create web apps, mobile backends, and RESTful APIs without managing the underlying infrastructure.
  16. Azure App Configuration: Azure App Configuration is a service that helps you centralize and manage application settings and configuration values. It allows you to store and dynamically retrieve configuration settings for your applications.
  17. Azure Logic Apps: Azure Logic Apps is a serverless workflow automation platform that allows you to create workflows and integrate various services and applications without writing extensive code.
  18. Azure DevOps: Azure DevOps is a set of development tools and services that includes version control, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), work tracking, and more. It helps development teams plan, develop, test, and deliver software efficiently.
  19. Azure Application Insights: Azure Application Insights is a monitoring and analytics service that helps you understand how your application is performing and diagnose issues in real-time.
  20. Azure App Services in Kubernetes: This refers to deploying containerized applications to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), which allows you to manage and orchestrate containers using Kubernetes while taking advantage of Azure’s managed services.
  21. Azure App Gateway: Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. It provides features like SSL termination, URL-based routing, and session affinity.
  22. Azure Automation: Azure Automation is a cloud-based management service provided by Microsoft Azure that allows you to automate and schedule tasks and processes across your Azure environment and on-premises infrastructure. It helps streamline routine and repetitive tasks, reducing manual effort and improving operational efficiency. Azure Automation uses runbooks, which are scripts or workflows, to automate various activities.
  23. Azure Bastion: Azure Bastion is a fully managed service provided by Microsoft Azure that offers a secure and seamless way to connect to virtual machines (VMs) within your Azure environment using a web browser. It eliminates the need for exposing VMs to the public internet by providing a remote desktop protocol (RDP) and Secure Shell (SSH) gateway directly through the Azure portal.
  24. Azure Blueprints: Azure Blueprints is a service in Microsoft Azure that helps you define and deploy a set of Azure resources and policies to create and manage standardized environments. It provides a way to automate the creation and governance of resources while ensuring compliance with organizational standards, security requirements, and best practices.
  25. Azure CDN (Content Delivery Network): Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a global service provided by Microsoft Azure that delivers high-bandwidth, low-latency content to users by caching and distributing it across a network of strategically placed servers. Azure CDN improves the performance, scalability, and availability of web applications and content by reducing the distance between users and the resources they access.
  26. Azure Container Instances: Azure Container Instances (ACI) is a serverless container orchestration service provided by Microsoft Azure. It allows you to quickly and easily run containers without managing the underlying infrastructure. With ACI, you can deploy and manage containers directly in the cloud, enabling you to focus on your application logic rather than infrastructure management.
  27. Azure Databricks: Azure Databricks is a cloud-based analytics platform offered by Microsoft Azure in collaboration with Databricks. It provides an integrated and collaborative environment for data engineers, data scientists, and analysts to process, analyze, and visualize large volumes of data. Azure Databricks combines the power of Apache Spark with a unified workspace that facilitates data exploration, data preparation, and machine learning.
  28. Azure Data Factory:
    Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service provided by Microsoft Azure. It enables you to create, schedule, and manage data pipelines that can move data from various sources to different destinations for processing, transformation, and analytics. Azure Data Factory is designed to support data movement and data transformation at scale, making it a key component of modern data architectures.
  29. Azure Data Lake Storage: Azure Data Lake Storage is a scalable and secure cloud-based storage service provided by Microsoft Azure for big data analytics. It is designed to handle large volumes of data, both structured and unstructured, and enables organizations to store, process, and analyze data at any scale. Azure Data Lake Storage is optimized for data analytics workloads and integrates with various Azure services and tools.
  30. Azure Functions:
    Azure Functions is a serverless compute service provided by Microsoft Azure that allows you to build and deploy event-driven, compute-intensive, and data-processing applications without having to manage the underlying infrastructure. With Azure Functions, you can write and execute code in response to various triggers, such as HTTP requests, database changes, timers, and messages from event sources.
  31. Azure IoT Hub: Azure IoT Hub is a cloud service provided by Microsoft Azure that enables bi-directional communication and management between Internet of Things (IoT) applications and the devices they connect to. IoT Hub serves as a central hub for managing, monitoring, and securing IoT devices and their data, making it a fundamental component of IoT solutions..
  32. Azure Key Vault: Azure Key Vault is a cloud-based service provided by Microsoft Azure that allows you to securely manage cryptographic keys, secrets, certificates, and other sensitive information used by your applications and services. Azure Key Vault provides a centralized and scalable solution for storing and managing keys and secrets, helping you protect critical data and meet compliance requirements.
  33. Azure Logic Apps: Azure Logic Apps is a cloud-based service provided by Microsoft Azure that enables you to create and automate workflows and integrate various applications, services, and data sources without writing extensive code. Logic Apps provide a visual designer and a set of pre-built connectors and triggers that make it easy to orchestrate complex workflows and automate business processes.
  34. Azure Machine Learning: Azure Machine Learning is a cloud-based service provided by Microsoft Azure that enables organizations to build, deploy, and manage machine learning models and solutions. It offers a comprehensive set of tools and capabilities for data scientists, developers, and machine learning engineers to develop and operationalize machine learning workflows and predictive analytics..
  35. Azure Monitor: Azure Monitor is a comprehensive monitoring and management service provided by Microsoft Azure that helps you gain insights into the performance, availability, and health of your applications, services, and infrastructure deployed in Azure and on-premises environments. Azure Monitor collects and analyzes telemetry data, provides visualizations, and offers advanced features for monitoring and troubleshooting.
  36. Azure Policy: Azure Policy is a service provided by Microsoft Azure that enables you to enforce and implement organizational standards, compliance requirements, and governance policies across your Azure resources. Azure Policy helps you maintain consistent control and adherence to best practices by defining rules and conditions that resources must meet.
  37. Azure Red Hat OpenShift: Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) is a managed Kubernetes service offered jointly by Microsoft Azure and Red Hat. It provides a fully managed and scalable container orchestration platform based on Red Hat OpenShift, which is a leading Kubernetes distribution enhanced with additional features and capabilities.
  38. Azure Sentinel: Azure Sentinel is a cloud-native Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) solution provided by Microsoft Azure. It empowers organizations to collect, analyze, detect, and respond to security threats and incidents across their entire hybrid cloud environment, enabling proactive threat management and improved security posture.
  39. Azure Site Recovery: Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is a disaster recovery and business continuity solution provided by Microsoft Azure. It enables organizations to protect and recover their on-premises and virtualized workloads by replicating them to Azure or a secondary datacenter. Azure Site Recovery helps ensure data availability and minimize downtime in case of disasters, outages, or planned maintenance.
  40. Azure SQL Database: Azure SQL Database is a fully managed relational database service provided by Microsoft Azure. It offers a cloud-based platform for hosting, managing, and scaling relational databases without the need for extensive database administration. Azure SQL Database is based on the Microsoft SQL Server engine and provides a wide range of features and capabilities for building and maintaining data-driven applications.
  41. Azure Synapse Analytics: Azure Synapse Analytics, formerly known as Azure SQL Data Warehouse, is a cloud-based analytics service provided by Microsoft Azure that enables organizations to analyze large volumes of data for business insights and intelligence. It is designed to handle data warehousing and big data analytics workloads, offering powerful query and processing capabilities.
  42. Azure Virtual Network: Azure Virtual Network is a cloud-based networking service provided by Microsoft Azure that allows you to create isolated and securely connected network environments in the cloud. It enables you to define and control network topology, address spaces, subnets, and network security to facilitate communication between Azure resources, on-premises networks, and the internet.
  43. Virtual network peering: Virtual network peering enables you to seamlessly connect two or more Virtual Networks in Azure. The virtual networks appear as one for connectivity purposes. The traffic between virtual machines in peered virtual networks uses the Microsoft backbone infrastructure.
  44. Azure VMware Solution:
    Azure VMware Solution is a cloud service provided by Microsoft Azure in collaboration with VMware that enables organizations to run their VMware workloads natively on the Azure cloud infrastructure. It offers a seamless and integrated environment for running VMware-based virtual machines (VMs) and applications, while taking advantage of Azure’s scalability, availability, and additional services.
  45. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed container orchestration service provided by Microsoft Azure. It simplifies the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications using Kubernetes, an open-source platform for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
  46. Azure Load Balancer: Azure Load Balancer is a cloud-based load balancing service provided by Microsoft Azure. It helps distribute network traffic across multiple virtual machines (VMs) or instances to ensure high availability, improved performance, and fault tolerance for your applications.
  47. Azure Sphere: Azure Sphere is a comprehensive solution provided by Microsoft for securing Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It combines hardware, software, and cloud services to create a secure and trusted environment for IoT devices, helping organizations build and deploy more secure and resilient IoT solutions
  48. Azure Stack: Azure Stack is a family of hybrid cloud solutions provided by Microsoft that allows organizations to extend the capabilities of Azure to their on-premises datacenters or edge locations. Azure Stack enables consistent cloud services, APIs, and management tools across both Azure public cloud and private or edge environments, providing a seamless and integrated hybrid cloud experience.
  49. Azure Stream Analytics: Azure Stream Analytics is a real-time data processing and analytics service provided by Microsoft Azure. It allows you to process and analyze streaming data from various sources, such as IoT devices, sensors, social media, logs, and more, in real time. Azure Stream Analytics enables you to gain insights, detect patterns, and take actions based on the streaming data.
  50. Azure Time Series Insights: Azure Time Series Insights is a managed analytics service provided by Microsoft Azure that is designed specifically for processing, storing, and querying large volumes of time-series data from IoT devices and sensors. It enables organizations to gain insights from historical and real-time data, identify patterns, and perform analysis to optimize operations, detect anomalies, and improve decision-making.
  51. Azure Virtual WAN: Azure Virtual WAN is a networking service provided by Microsoft Azure that simplifies and optimizes connectivity for distributed networks, including branch offices and remote locations. It offers a unified hub for connecting and managing multiple types of networks, such as branch-to-branch, branch-to-Azure, or branch-to-internet, through a centralized and simplified architecture.
  52. Azure DevTest Labs: Azure DevTest Labs is a service provided by Microsoft Azure that enables developers and IT professionals to quickly create and manage environments for application development, testing, and training. It provides a self-service platform for creating and managing virtual machines (VMs) and other resources, while offering cost control, access policies, and integration with development and testing tools.
  53. Azure Migrate: Azure Migrate is a service provided by Microsoft Azure that helps organizations assess, plan, and migrate their on-premises applications, workloads, and virtual machines (VMs) to the Azure cloud. It provides tools, guidance, and insights to simplify the migration process and ensure a successful transition to the cloud.
  54. Azure Private Link: Azure Private Link is a networking feature provided by Microsoft Azure that allows you to securely access Azure services (Platform as a Service, or PaaS) and your own services (like virtual machines or containers) over a private endpoint within your Virtual Network. It enhances the security and privacy of your data by enabling you to connect to services privately, without exposing them to the public internet.
  55. Azure Quota/Reservation API: Manage Azure quotas and reservations programmatically.
  56. Azure Relay: Azure Relay is a cloud service provided by Microsoft Azure that enables you to securely expose services running in private networks to the public internet or to other services in Azure or on-premises. It provides a way to establish hybrid connectivity and enable communication between applications and services that reside in different environments, without exposing the entire network to the internet.
  57. Azure Traffic Manager: Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based global traffic load balancer provided by Microsoft Azure. It enables you to distribute user traffic across multiple endpoints, such as Azure services, external websites, or on-premises endpoints, based on various routing methods. Traffic Manager helps improve the availability, responsiveness, and fault tolerance of your applications by directing users to the best-performing endpoint based on their location or other routing rules.
  58. Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets: Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) is a service provided by Microsoft Azure that allows you to deploy and manage a group of identical virtual machines (VMs) for scalable and high-availability applications. VMSS automatically adjusts the number of VM instances based on demand or a defined schedule, making it easier to manage and scale applications without manual intervention.

This list covers a wide range of Azure services and features, but it’s important to note that Azure’s offerings are constantly evolving. Always refer to the official Azure documentation for the most up-to-date information on services and terminology.

AWS Cloud Computing Glossary

Here’s a glossary of terms commonly used in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the field of cloud computing:

  1. Amazon Web Services (AWS): A comprehensive cloud computing platform offered by Amazon, providing a wide range of infrastructure and services to businesses and individuals.
  2. Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): A web service that allows you to rent virtual servers (instances) in the cloud to run applications, providing scalability and flexibility.
  3. Simple Storage Service (S3): A scalable object storage service that allows you to store and retrieve data, often used for backup, content distribution, and data archiving.
  4. Lambda: A serverless compute service that lets you run code in response to events without provisioning or managing servers.
  5. Relational Database Service (RDS): A managed database service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale relational databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server.
  6. DynamoDB: A managed NoSQL database service that provides low-latency, high-performance storage for applications requiring flexible data models.
  7. Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): A logically isolated section of the AWS Cloud where you can launch AWS resources in a virtual network.
  8. Identity and Access Management (IAM): A service that enables you to manage user identities and permissions to securely control access to AWS resources.
  9. Simple Notification Service (SNS): A messaging service that enables the pub/sub (publish/subscribe) model for sending messages and notifications.
  10. Simple Queue Service (SQS): A fully managed message queuing service for decoupling and scaling microservices and distributed systems.
  11. Elastic Container Service (ECS): A container orchestration service that supports Docker containers and simplifies the management of containerized applications.
  12. Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS): A managed Kubernetes service that makes it easier to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications.
  13. CloudFormation: A service for creating and managing AWS infrastructure as code using templates to automate resource provisioning.
  14. API Gateway: A managed service for creating, publishing, and managing APIs, allowing you to create RESTful APIs for your applications.
  15. Elastic Beanstalk: A Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering that allows you to deploy and manage applications without dealing with infrastructure details.
  16. Auto Scaling: A feature that automatically adjusts the number of instances in an Auto Scaling group based on defined conditions or metrics.
  17. Amazon S3 Glacier: A low-cost data archival service for long-term backup and data retention.
  18. CloudWatch: A monitoring and observability service that provides metrics, logs, and alarms to monitor AWS resources and applications.
  19. Amazon Redshift: A fully managed data warehousing service for analyzing large datasets using SQL and business intelligence tools.
  20. Elastic Load Balancing: A service that automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances.
  21. Athena: An interactive query service that allows you to analyze data stored in S3 using standard SQL queries.
  22. Direct Connect: A network service that provides dedicated network connections between on-premises data centers and AWS.
  23. Amazon RDS Aurora: A MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database engine that provides high availability and performance.
  24. Amazon EMR: A managed big data platform that makes it easy to process vast amounts of data using popular frameworks like Apache Spark and Hadoop.
  25. Glue: A fully managed extract, transform, and load (ETL) service for preparing and loading data for analytics.
  26. Elasticsearch Service: A managed search and analytics engine that simplifies the deployment, operation, and scaling of Elasticsearch clusters.
  27. Route 53: A scalable domain name system (DNS) web service that translates human-friendly domain names into IP addresses.
  28. AWS Lambda Edge: A feature of AWS Lambda that lets you run code at global edge locations of the CloudFront content delivery network (CDN).
  29. AWS Snowball: A physical data transfer service that helps you move large amounts of data into and out of AWS using secure devices.
  30. Amazon Polly: A text-to-speech service that turns text into lifelike speech, enabling applications to speak with a human-like voice.

This glossary provides definitions for key terms and services within Amazon Web Services. Note that AWS frequently introduces new services and features, so this glossary may be updated over time to reflect the evolving AWS ecosystem.

Related Sources:

Blog Articles

Share on social network:

Leave a Comment