Cloud Computing Glossary

A

Availability Zone

An isolated location within a cloud region designed to improve resilience by separating workloads across independent infrastructure.

Auto Scaling

The automatic adjustment of computing capacity in response to changes in demand.

B

Backup as a Service

A cloud-based service for creating, storing and managing backups without maintaining all backup infrastructure locally.

C

Cloud Computing

The delivery of computing services such as servers, storage, databases, networking and software over a network on demand.

Container

A lightweight package containing an application and its dependencies so it can run consistently across environments.

D

Disaster Recovery

Processes and technologies used to restore systems and data after a major outage or disruptive event.

E

Elasticity

The ability of cloud resources to expand or contract quickly as workload demand changes.

F

Function as a Service (FaaS)

A serverless model in which code runs in response to events without the customer managing the underlying servers.

G

Gateway

A service or device that connects different networks, services or environments and controls the flow of traffic between them.

H

Hybrid Cloud

An architecture combining public cloud services with private cloud or on-premises infrastructure.

I

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

A cloud model providing virtualised computing, storage and networking resources that customers configure and manage.

J

JSON

A lightweight data format widely used by cloud APIs and web services to exchange structured information.

K

Kubernetes

An open-source platform for deploying, scaling and managing containerised applications.

L

Load Balancer

A service that distributes incoming traffic across multiple resources to improve performance and availability.

M

Multi-cloud

The use of services from more than one cloud provider within the same organisation or solution.

N

Network Security Group

A rules-based control used in many cloud environments to allow or block network traffic to resources.

O

Object Storage

A scalable storage model that stores data as objects rather than files in folders or blocks on disks.

P

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

A cloud model providing managed application platforms so developers can focus on code rather than underlying infrastructure.

Public Cloud

Cloud services delivered from shared provider infrastructure and made available to customers over private or public networks.

Q

Quota

A limit placed on the amount of a cloud resource or service that an account, subscription or project can consume.

R

Region

A geographic area containing one or more cloud data centre locations or availability zones.

S

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software delivered as an online service, with the provider managing the application and underlying infrastructure.

Serverless Computing

A model where the cloud provider manages infrastructure automatically while customers run code or services on demand.

T

Tenant

A logically separated customer environment within a shared cloud platform.

U

Uptime

The proportion of time a cloud service or system remains operational and available.

V

Virtual Machine (VM)

A software-based computer that runs its own operating system on virtualised physical hardware.

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

A logically isolated cloud network in which customers can define addressing, routing and security controls.

W

Workload

An application, service, process or collection of resources performing a specific computing task.

X

XaaS

“Anything as a Service”, a broad term for technology capabilities delivered through cloud service models.

Y

YAML

A human-readable data format commonly used for cloud configuration, infrastructure-as-code and container orchestration files.

Z

Zero Trust

A security approach that continually verifies identity, device and access context rather than automatically trusting users or networks.