Cloud Computing glossary

This cloud-computing glossary defines, in one sentence, the key terms from our courses: IaaS/PaaS/SaaS, containers, IAM, FinOps, certifications… Each definition stands on its own and, where relevant, points to the related course or catalogue.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing delivers computing resources (compute, storage, networking) on demand over the internet, billed by usage.

IaaS / PaaS / SaaS

Three models: IaaS (infrastructure), PaaS (development platform) and SaaS (ready-to-use software).

Public / private / hybrid cloud

Public cloud is shared (Azure, AWS, GCP), private is dedicated to one organisation, hybrid combines both.

Microsoft Azure

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform. See the Azure catalogue and the AZ-900 certification.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS is Amazon’s market-leading cloud platform. See the AWS catalogue and the Cloud Practitioner.

Google Cloud (GCP)

Google Cloud Platform is Google’s cloud platform. See the GCP catalogue.

Region & availability zone

A region is a geographic area of data centres; availability zones within it provide redundancy.

Cloud virtual machine

A cloud VM is a virtual server rented on demand (Azure VM, EC2), sized to your needs.

Container & Kubernetes

A container bundles an app and its dependencies; Kubernetes orchestrates containers at scale. See AWS EKS.

Serverless

Serverless runs code without managing servers, billed per execution (functions, on-demand containers).

Object storage

Object storage (Amazon S3, Azure Blob) holds large volumes of unstructured data, accessed via API.

Virtual network (VPC / VNet)

A virtual network isolates and organises an organisation’s cloud resources (subnets, gateways, rules).

IAM (identity & access)

IAM manages who can access which cloud resources and with what rights. See identity & access management.

Elasticity & scalability

Elasticity automatically adjusts resources to load; scalability is the ability to grow with demand.

FinOps

FinOps is the discipline of controlling and optimising cloud costs.

Cloud migration

Cloud migration moves applications and data from an existing system to the cloud.

Cloud data & AI

Cloud data and AI services (Databricks, warehouses, ML) process and add value to data at scale. See Azure Databricks.

Cloud certification

Certifications (AZ-900, AWS Cloud Practitioner, SC-900…) validate a level of skill recognised by the providers.