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Compute, storage, networking, identity and observability transfer across AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Cloud Computing Glossary: 100+ AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Terms
Understand 100+ cloud terms covering AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, compute, storage, networking, containers, security, reliability and cost.
A USEFUL MENTAL MODELLearn the language.
Learn the language.
Understand the system.
Cloud services use provider-specific names, but the underlying decisions repeat: where code runs, where data lives, who can access it, how traffic moves, how failure is contained and how usage becomes cost. This glossary emphasises those transferable concepts before provider product memorisation.
Reliability is designed
Zones, redundancy, health checks, backups and recovery objectives work together; no single service creates resilience.
Cost follows architecture
Capacity, data movement, storage tier and managed-service choices all influence the operating cost of a workload.
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110 termsClear definitions · Relevant learning paths
Autoscaling
Automatic adjustment of computing capacity in response to demand or policy.
Availability
The proportion of time a service remains accessible and able to perform its function.
Availability zone
An isolated infrastructure location within a cloud region, used to design systems that can tolerate local failures.
Backup
A recoverable copy of data or configuration kept separately from the active system.
Block storage
Storage presented as addressable blocks, commonly attached to virtual machines.
Capacity planning
Estimating future resource requirements from demand, performance and resilience needs.
Cloud bursting
Temporarily using public-cloud capacity when another environment reaches its limit.
Cloud computing
On-demand access to computing, storage, networking and managed services through programmable shared infrastructure.
Cloud cost optimisation
The continuous balancing of cloud spending against performance, resilience and business value.
Cloud migration
The planned movement of applications, data or infrastructure into a cloud environment.
Cloud-native
Designing applications to use elastic, managed and automated cloud capabilities.
Cluster
A coordinated group of computing nodes that provides shared capacity or resilience.
Cold storage
Low-cost storage designed for infrequently accessed data with slower retrieval.
Compute instance
A provisioned virtual or physical server used to run workloads.
Configuration drift
Unplanned differences between deployed infrastructure and its intended definition.
Connection pooling
Reusing established service or database connections to reduce repeated setup cost.
Container
A portable package containing an application and its dependencies while sharing the host operating-system kernel.
Container image
An immutable package containing an application's filesystem, dependencies and startup configuration.
Container registry
A service for storing, securing and distributing versioned container images.
Content delivery network (CDN)
A distributed network that serves cached content from locations closer to users.
Control plane
The components that store desired state and coordinate infrastructure or cluster operations.
Database as a service (DBaaS)
A managed database offering where the provider handles core operational tasks.
Disaster recovery
Plans and systems for restoring critical services after a severe disruption.
Distributed tracing
Following a request across multiple services through connected timing records.
Domain Name System (DNS)
The distributed naming system that maps domain names to network destinations.
Edge computing
Processing data near users or devices to reduce latency and bandwidth use.
Egress
Network traffic leaving a cloud resource, network or provider boundary.
Elasticity
The ability to add and remove resources as demand changes.
Encryption
The transformation of information so it can be read only by parties with the appropriate key.
Endpoint
A network address through which a service or resource can be reached.
Event-driven architecture
A design where services produce and react to events representing state changes.
Failover
The controlled transfer of service to a healthy secondary component or location.
Fault tolerance
The ability of a system to continue operating when components fail.
Firewall
A control that permits or blocks network traffic according to defined rules.
Function as a service (FaaS)
Event-driven code execution where the provider manages runtime infrastructure and scaling.
Gateway
A service that connects networks, protocols or application boundaries.
Health check
A recurring probe used to determine whether a target can serve traffic safely.
High availability
Design that reduces service interruption through redundancy and automated recovery.
Horizontal scaling
Increasing capacity by adding more instances or nodes.
Hybrid cloud
An operating model connecting private or on-premises systems with public-cloud services.
Identity and access management (IAM)
Policies and systems that determine which people and services may perform actions on resources.
Immutable infrastructure
Replacing deployed components from versioned definitions instead of modifying them in place.
Infrastructure as code (IaC)
Defining and managing infrastructure through versioned, repeatable configuration.
Ingress
Network traffic entering a system, cluster or cloud environment.
Internet gateway
A component that connects a private cloud network with the public internet.
Key management service (KMS)
A managed service for creating, controlling and auditing cryptographic keys.
Kubernetes
A platform for deploying, scaling and managing containerised workloads.
Landing zone
A governed cloud foundation containing accounts, identity, networking, security and policy.
Latency
The elapsed time between a request, action or signal and its response.
Least privilege
Granting only the minimum permissions required for a defined responsibility.
Load balancer
A service that distributes traffic across multiple healthy targets.
Logging
Recording timestamped events that help explain application and infrastructure behaviour.
Managed service
A service where the provider operates more of the underlying platform and maintenance.
Message queue
A service that buffers messages so producers and consumers can work independently.
Metrics
Numerical time-series measurements used to monitor system behaviour and objectives.
Microservices
An architecture composed of independently deployable services aligned to bounded responsibilities.
Multi-cloud
The deliberate use of services from more than one public-cloud provider.
NAT gateway
A managed component enabling private resources to initiate outbound network connections.
Network peering
A private connection that allows separate virtual networks to exchange traffic.
Network security group
A rule collection controlling allowed inbound and outbound traffic for cloud resources.
Node
A machine or virtual instance participating in a cluster.
Object storage
Cloud storage that manages files as objects with identifiers and metadata rather than as local disk blocks.
Observability
The ability to understand system state through logs, metrics, traces and contextual signals.
Orchestration
Automated coordination of deployment, scaling, networking and lifecycle operations.
Platform as a service (PaaS)
A managed application platform that reduces responsibility for underlying infrastructure.
Pod
The smallest deployable Kubernetes unit, containing one or more coordinated containers.
Policy as code
Expressing governance and compliance rules as versioned, testable configuration.
Private cloud
Cloud-style infrastructure dedicated to one organisation or controlled environment.
Private endpoint
A privately addressed connection to a managed cloud service.
Public cloud
Shared provider-operated infrastructure delivered to customers as on-demand services.
Rate limiting
Restricting how frequently a client or service may make requests.
Recovery point objective (RPO)
The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time.
Recovery time objective (RTO)
The target maximum time for restoring a service after disruption.
Redundancy
Duplication of components or data to reduce the effect of failure.
Region
A geographical cloud location containing multiple isolated infrastructure zones.
Regional service
A cloud service whose resources and availability are scoped to a region.
Replica
A maintained copy of data or a service instance used for resilience or scale.
Reservation
A commitment to planned cloud usage in exchange for pricing or capacity benefits.
Resource group
A logical container used to manage related cloud resources together.
Resource tagging
Attaching consistent labels to cloud resources for ownership, cost and governance.
Rolling deployment
Updating workload instances gradually to preserve service availability.
Scalability
A system's ability to handle growth by adding or improving resources.
Secret management
Secure storage, rotation and delivery of passwords, tokens and sensitive configuration.
Serverless
A cloud execution model where the provider manages underlying servers and the user configures code, events and resource limits.
Service account
A non-human identity used by software to authenticate and access resources.
Service discovery
The automatic location of available service instances within a distributed system.
Service mesh
Infrastructure that manages service-to-service traffic, security and telemetry.
Service-level agreement (SLA)
A documented commitment describing service availability or performance expectations.
Session affinity
Routing a user's related requests to the same service instance when required.
Shared responsibility model
The division of security and operational duties between provider and customer.
Sidecar
A companion container or process that adds networking, security or operational capability.
Snapshot
A point-in-time copy of storage or system state used for recovery.
Software as a service (SaaS)
Complete provider-operated software accessed through the web or an API.
Spot instance
Discounted interruptible compute capacity suitable for fault-tolerant workloads.
Subnet
A defined IP-address range forming part of a larger virtual network.
Telemetry
Operational signals emitted by systems, including logs, metrics, traces and events.
Tenancy
The way customers or workloads share or isolate platform resources.
Throughput
The amount of work or data a system processes during a period.
TLS termination
The point where encrypted transport is decrypted before traffic continues internally.
Traffic routing
Rules that direct requests between endpoints, versions or geographic locations.
Vertical scaling
Increasing the compute, memory or storage capacity of an existing instance.
Virtual machine
An isolated software-defined computer with allocated processing, memory, storage and an operating system.
Virtual network
A software-defined private network containing cloud resources and routing rules.
Virtual private cloud (VPC)
A logically isolated cloud network with configurable addressing, routes and controls.
Virtual private network (VPN)
An encrypted network connection across an untrusted network such as the internet.
Volume
A block-storage device attached to a compute instance.
Web application firewall (WAF)
A control that filters web requests against attack and access rules.
Workload identity
A managed identity that allows a workload to access resources without embedded credentials.
Zero trust
A security model that continuously verifies identity, context and least-privilege access.
Zone redundancy
Deployment across isolated zones so a local failure does not stop the service.
Questions about cloud computing vocabulary.
What cloud terms should a beginner learn first?+
Start with region, availability zone, virtual machine, object storage, virtual network, identity and access management, load balancer and autoscaling.
Do AWS, Azure and Google Cloud use the same terminology?+
They use different product names, but their core ideas around compute, storage, networking, identity, databases and operations are transferable.
What is the shared responsibility model?+
The provider secures and operates defined parts of the cloud platform, while the customer remains responsible for areas such as identities, configuration, data and application behaviour.
FROM DEFINITION TO PRACTICE
Related Certificate of Specialisation programmes.
Use the glossary to clarify the language, then inspect the complete 30-hour syllabus and projects for your chosen technology.
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AZ03
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Design and operate secure workloads on Microsoft Azure.
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