Cloud Computing Terms
Last Updated: February 22, 2025
- Serverless - A model where the cloud provider dynamically manages the allocation and provisioning of servers, allowing developers to focus on writing code without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
- Availability - The measure of a system's ability to remain accessible and operational over a specified period of time. High availability systems are designed to minimize downtime and ensure continuous operation, often through redundancy and failover mechanisms.
- Durability - The measure of a system's ability to ensure that data is protected against loss or corruption over its lifecycle. High durability systems are designed to safeguard data through redundancy, error correction, and regular backups, ensuring that data remains intact and retrievable over time.
- Infrastructure as Code - The process of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools.
- Scaling - The ability to increase or decrease the resources and capacity of a system to handle varying amounts of workload.
- Vertical Scaling - This involves adding more power to an existing server.
- Horizontal Scaling - This involves adding more servers to handle the workload.
- Load Balancing - The process of distributing incoming network traffic across multiple servers or resources to ensure no single server becomes overwhelmed.
- Autoscaling - The automatic adjustment of the number of compute resources based on the current demand.
- Event-Driven Architecture - A software architecture pattern that promotes the production, detection, consumption of, and reaction to events. It allows systems to respond to changes in state or updates in real-time.
- Container Orchestration - The automated process of managing, scheduling, and coordinating the deployment, scaling, and operation of containerized applications across clusters of machines.
- Object Storage - A storage architecture that manages data as objects, as opposed to file systems which manage data as a file hierarchy or block storage which manages data as blocks within sectors and tracks. Each object typically includes the data itself, a variable amount of metadata, and a globally unique identifier.
- Block Storage - A type of data storage typically used in cloud environments where data is stored in fixed-sized blocks. Each block is identified by an address and can be managed independently, allowing for efficient storage and retrieval of data. It is commonly used for databases and virtual machine file systems.
- Serverless Database - A type of database that automatically scales its capacity up or down based on the workload, and where the cloud provider manages the infrastructure, including maintenance, backups, and updates. This allows developers to focus on application development without worrying about database management.
- Cloud Networks - Virtual networks that provide the underlying infrastructure for cloud computing services. They enable the connection and communication between different cloud resources, such as virtual machines, storage systems, and applications, often through software-defined networking (SDN) technologies. Cloud networks offer scalability, flexibility, and security for managing network traffic and resources in a cloud environment.
- Subnet - A subdivision of an IP network that segments a larger network into smaller, more manageable pieces. Subnets improve network performance and security by isolating groups of devices and controlling traffic flow. Each subnet operates within a defined range of IP addresses and can be configured with specific network policies.
- Security Group - A virtual firewall that controls inbound and outbound traffic to and from cloud resources, such as virtual machines. Security groups define rules that specify allowed or denied traffic based on IP addresses, ports, and protocols, enhancing the security and access control of cloud environments.