Cloud Dictionary

Estimated time to read: 21 minutes

A long alphabetical list with words and definitions

You can jump to a letter or just read them all (please let us know if you miss one at support@fuga.cloud)

A

Access

What do they mean with Ubiquitous Access?

Ubiquitous Access represents one of the essential characteristics that Cloud Computing must meet. It stands for widely available network access. You do not have to meet very specific and special requirements to gain access, the services in the cloud are available via networks such as the internet. The device used should also not matter, available via desktop, mobile, tablet, etc. And you can assume that the various clients such as Windows, Mac, iPad and Android systems are all flawlessly supported. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing/

Ansible

What is Ansible in cloud computing?

Ansible is an open-source automation tool, or platform, used for IT tasks such as configuration management, application deployment, intraservice orchestration, and provisioning. Due to the current wishes and need to be able to scale quickly, IT environments are nowadays very complex and automation is desired because it is simply no longer possible to do it manually.

API

What is an API? How do Api's work?

Application Programming Interfaces make it possible to exchange data easily and securely. An API is a kind of software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. An API takes care of all interactions between applications, data and devices and enables transfer between systems. For example, you want to see what the stock of a product is at a webshop, you look at the website and the API of the webshop shows all the information you have checked from the database, without you having direct access to the database. An API is a set of instructions or code, these sets make it possible to reuse or combine code, making it easier to develop new programs.

API Endpoints

What are API Endpoints and what are they doing?

An API works with requests and responses, the place where an API sends the request and the place of the source is called an endpoint. So the contact points of communication channels are considered endpoints, the user requests, the API processes, and the API endpoint provides a response. Like a waiter in a restaurant takes your order, passes it on to the kitchen (they prepare it) and brings the dish back to your table.

Applications

An application, also called an app, is literally an application. It is a program developed to perform a specific task under the control of an end-user. Examples are browsers, email programs and FTP clients. Communication with other applications is also known as the application program interface (API).

B

Backup

What is a backup?

You make a backup of important data, not systems but the files such as documents, photos and music. If you lose data, you can retrieve it from your backup. With a backup you can restore a single file and you don't have to restore everything, like with a snapshot. You can also look at our tutorial with Arq: https://docs.fuga.cloud/automated-back-up

Block storage

What is block storage?

Block storage is the technology used to store data files on SANs (Storage Area Networks) or in the cloud. With block storage, the data is split into blocks and then stored separately from each other, each with a unique identifier. Each storage volume can be thought of as an independent disk and provides raw storage capacity of a fixed size. This block can be mounted as if it were a physical disk and controlled by a server operating system.

Buffering

What is buffering?

In streaming audio or video from the Internet, buffering refers to downloading a certain amount of data before starting to play the music or movie. In computer science, a data buffer (or just buffer) is a region of a physical memory storage used to temporarily store data while it is being moved from one place to another.

C

Cache

What is a cache in (cloud)computing?

A cache is a block of memory for storing data that is likely to be used again. The CPU and hard drive often use a cache, as do web browsers and web servers. A cache is made up of many entries, called a pool. Each entry holds a datum (a bit of data) which is a copy of a datum in another place.

CiC

What does CiC mean? What is CiC doing?

The dutch Cloud Infrastructure Coalition, a number of Dutch cloud organisations, of which Fuga Cloud is one, have united to bring the Dutch expertise to the forefront within GAIA-X. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/gaia-x/

CLI

What is CLI? What can you do with CLI?

Command Line Interface, is a text-based interface used for entering commands and returning the answer in the same form. The detailed control and the high level of functionality allow for greater user flexibility. You can often do things via CLI that are impossible or difficult with a GUI.

Cloud

What do the mean with the Cloud?

An online environment, where you can store data but also work. Working in the cloud is also called cloud computing.

How did the cloud symbol got created?

The cloud as a symbol stems from the Packet Switching concept. The trajectory that data packets traveled during transmission was released. Because that route was no longer recorded, known or important, a cloud was drawn.

Cloud Computing

What is Cloud Computing?

All software, platforms and data are hosted on external servers. So you do not physically own a data center or server, but purchase it from a cloud provider. The advantage of this is that you can use all the computing power, storage and databases you need (and often upscaling or downsizing within a few clicks), without having to take care of maintenance.

Cloud Service Provider

What is a Cloud Service Provider?

A company that offers a platform, infrastructure, storage of data, or use of applications in various forms online for a fee. Scalability according to the needs of these services and only paying for what one uses are the biggest advantages of this form of cloud computing. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing/

Cloud Storage

What is Cloud Storage?

Cloud Storage refers to online space that is used to store data (data, software, photos, music etc) instead of an (external) hard drive from a computer. This makes it possible to also have this data available via other devices.

Clusters

What are clusters in computing?

With server clustering, reference is made to a group of servers that work together on one system in order to provide higher availability to the users. A server takes over tasks from a failed server in the event of a failure, thus preventing downtime or complete failure. This group of servers is connected to one system.

Community of Multicloud

What do they mean with Community of Multicloud?

If several organisations have the same or comparable requirements for the cloud and trust each other, they can share a cloud together. This equates the design and privacy with a private cloud, but has the advantages of a public cloud when it comes to scalability and cost savings. A concrete example is the cooperation of different municipalities. They process a lot of personal data and therefore place high demands on confidentiality and security. A public cloud cannot provide that, so one should opt for a private cloud. By placing all municipalities within the same infrastructure, you avoid setting up the same cloud several times, so you have a nice cost saving per municipality. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing/

Compute

What is Compute in cloud computing?

This term refers to physical servers equipped with the necessary processors, memory and storage to run operating systems (such as Linux or Windows), possibly supplemented with virtual networking capabilities. You can also look at: https://fuga.cloud/compute/

Containers

What do they mean with containers in cloud computing?

A container is a package of all necessary software and elements to virtualise an operating system. This allows a container to run in any environment, from laptop to public cloud or private data center.

CPU

What is a CPU and what are CPU's doing?

Central Processing Unit or processor, is part of a compute server. The CPU is the so-called brain of a computer, this part is responsible for the execution of computer programs, the calculations and instructions of a program. It is an important link for communication between the various system resources such as memory, disks and peripherals.

Credentials

What are credentials in cloud computing?

Credentials or Credentials refer to the verification of an identity or tools for authentication. They can be part of a certificate or other authentication process that helps confirm a user's identity with respect to a network address or other system ID.

D

Database

What is a database?

A database is an organised collection of data, usually stored systematically in a computer system so that data management (storage, opening, modifying, updating, managing, organising etc) is easier.

E

Ephemeral storage

What is Ephemeral storage?

Ephemeral storage is the ephemeral or temporary storage associated with instances that is present only during the active lifetime of the instance. For example, ephemeral storage is used for temporary data like cache, buffers, session data, swap volume etc.

F

File store

What is File storage?

File storage or file-based storage is a method of organising and storing data on a hard drive of a (physical) computer or NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. This service allows multiple users to access and share the same files because they are located in the cloud (off-site data centers).

G

GAIA-X

What is GAIA-X? What is GAIA-X doing?

Project to form a European counterpart to the major US and Chinese cloud providers. The aim is to create a European Digital Ecosystem where within European laws and regulations apply. Within this ecosystem, not only will the cloud providers connect, but it should also become possible for companies and organisations from the different industries to share data with each other. Dutch organisations have united in the CiC, the Dutch Cloud Infrastructure Coalition, of which Fuga Cloud is one, to bring Dutch expertise to the forefront within GAIA-X. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/gaia-x

GitLab

What is GitLab?

GitLab is a web-based open DevOps platform in the form of a single application, spanning the entire software development lifecycle to help teams collaborate on software development. It runs using an open source license developed by GitLab Inc.

GPU

What is a GPU and how are GPU's working?

A Graphics Processing Unit is a specialised processor originally designed to speed up graphics rendering. Also called graphics card or video card. The GPU performs fast calculations and therefore makes the CPU available to do other things. Because a GPU can process a lot of data at once, they are also very useful for machine learning, video editing and gaming.

GUI

What does GUI mean?

GUI stands for Graphical User Interface, the interface that communicates with a device through graphical icons and audio indicators. So you click on an icon to start a program instead of typing a command like with CLI.

H

Hybride

What does hybride mean in computing?

Simply put, this is a combination of one or more public or private clouds. The infrastructures continue to operate separately from each other, but they do exchange data and/or applications with each other. So you can store part of it in a private cloud (the sensitive information or business applications), while a SaaS application such as Sharepoint is also used. As an end user, you don't notice this separation because you only have to log in once and the exchange is all arranged under water. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing/

Hypervisor

What is a hypervisor in computing?

A hypervisor is the computer software or hardware that makes it possible to create and manage virtual servers. This allows multiple virtual computer systems (guests) to run simultaneously and independently of each other on one physical system (host). The virtual servers share the host's system resources, such as internal memory, compute power, and disk space, and can each run a different operating system.

I

IaaS

What does IaaS mean?

Infrastructure as a Service : in-house virtual infrastructure (storage, servers, networks) You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing/

Images

What are images in computing?

Similar to a snapshot but an Image also contains an operating system and boot loader and can be used to start an instance. So you can use an image to reboot a crashed system.

Infrastructure

What is infrastructure in computing?

Infrastructure is the combination of the components required to operate and manage compute environments. These components include hardware, software, networking components, an operating system (OS), and data storage. The combination of physical and virtual resources that support the flow, storage, processing and analysis of data.

Init

What is init or init system?

Init is the first process started during system boot. It is a daemon process that continues running until the system is shut down. Init is the direct or indirect ancestor of all other processes, and automatically adopts all orphaned processes.

Instances

What is a (cloud) instance in computing?

A cloud instance is a virtual server in a cloud computing environment. It is built, hosted and delivered using a cloud computing platform and can be accessed remotely (online). An instance works the same as a physical server. Cloud instances are also called cloud servers, virtual servers, virtual machines, etc.

IP Adresses

What is an IP address?

An IP address (IP stands for Internet Protocol) is a unique identity to each physical or logical node in a network so information can be sent and received without reaching the wrong parties. Because the number is unique, it can also be used to determine the physical location of the computer/user. Read more about locations, nodes and regions in our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/frankfurt

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K

Kubernetes

What are or is kubernetes?

Kubernetes (also called k8s) is an open-source platform that allows you to manage containers. You can easily and efficiently cluster groups of hosts and containers here. It enables an elastic web server framework for cloud applications. You can also look at: https://fuga.cloud/kubernetes/

L

LAMP

What does LAMP mean?

LAMP is a web application software stack, which is an acronym for Linux - Apache - MySQL - Perl / PHP / Python.

Load Balancers

What is Load balancing, and what do load balancers do?

Load Balancing is the process of looking at the amount of workload that is loading the system and redistributing it among the available capacity. This allows all processes to continue, and no computer becomes overloaded or idle. By using a load balancer, the capacity can be used optimally and the reliability of an application increases.

M

Multicloud Network

What is a Multicloud Network?

One of the types of Cloud Networking, see the definition of Community

MySQL

What is MySQL and what do you use it for?

MySQL is an open source relational database management system (RDBMS) you can use to create and manage databases or to add, access, or process data stored in a database. MySQL is a component of the LAMP web application software stack.

N

NAS

What does NAS mean?

Network Attached Storage. A NAS device is a self-contained file server, ready to run because its preconfigured, so easy in use. This file storage has a centralized disk capacity making it possible for multiple users and client devices to retrieve data from it. Users on a local area network (LAN) access the shared storage via a standard Ethernet connection. You can also look at file storage

Network

What Cloud Networks do you have?

You have four types of Cloud Networking; Private, Public, Hybrid and Multiclouds (communities). Within such a network you have a server with infrastructure, hardware and software at your disposal. Depending on the type of Network, you "share" parts and management is arranged. You can also choose from three types of Cloud Computing Services; Iaas, PaaS and SaaS

Network Address

What is a network address in (cloud) computing?

A network address is any logical or physical address that uniquely distinguishes a network node or device over a computer or telecommunications network. It is a numeric/symbolic number or address that is assigned to any device that seeks access to or is part of a network.

Networking

What is networking in compute?

An infrastructure of combined networking capabilities and resources. Resources include virtual routers and firewalls, but also software for managing other tools and functions. These are available on request and scalable at Cloud Networking. You have four types of Cloud Networking; Private, Public, Hybrid and Multiclouds (communities). You can also look at: https://fuga.cloud/networking/.

O

Object Storage

What is object storage?

Data in an Object storage can be accessed directly through APIs or http(s), unlike block storage which can only be accessed through an operating system. Examples for Object storage are the storage of unstructured data such as music, images and videos. But also backups, database dumps, log files and big data sets.

OpenStack Services

An OpenStack deployment contains a number of components providing APIs to access infrastructure resources. Below the components available at Fuga:

Barbican
key management: Barbican is the OpenStack Key Manager service. It provides secure storage, provisioning and management of secret data, such as passwords, encryption keys, X.509 Certificates and raw binary data.
Read more about our dashboard: https://fuga.cloud/dashboard/
Our dashboard tutorials: https://docs.fuga.cloud/the-dashboard
Cinder
block storage: It virtualizes the management of block storage devices and provides end users with a self service API to request and consume those resources without requiring any knowledge of where their storage is actually deployed or on what type of device.
Read more about our storage-types: https://fuga.cloud/storage-types/
Designate
DNS service: Designate provides DNS-as-a-service for OpenStack.
Freezer - WIP
Backup, Restore, and Disaster Recovery: It is designed to be multi OS (Linux, Windows, OSX...), focused on providing efficiency and flexibility for block based backups, file based incremental backups, point-in-time actions, jobs synchronization (i.e. backup synchronization over multiple nodes) and many other features. It is aimed at being useful for all environments, including large ephemeral Clouds.
Glance
image service: Glance image services include discovering, registering, and retrieving virtual machine images. Glance has a RESTful API that allows querying of VM image metadata as well as retrieval of the actual image. VM images made available through Glance can be stored in a variety of locations from simple filesystems to object-storage systems like the OpenStack Swift project.
Heat
Orchestration: Heat orchestrates the infrastructure resources for a cloud application based on templates in the form of text files that can be treated like code. Heat provides both an OpenStack-native ReST API and a CloudFormation-compatible Query API. Heat also provides an autoscaling service that integrates with the OpenStack Telemetry services, so you can include a scaling group as a resource in a template.
Our Fuga Cloud API tutorials: https://docs.fuga.cloud/fuga-cloud-api
Horizon
Dashboard: Horizon is the canonical implementation of OpenStack's dashboard, which is extensible and provides a web based user interface to OpenStack services.
In order to provide our customers with the best possible service and the fact we wanted to integrate certain elements in our dashboard that Horizon cannot offer, we created our own Fuga-dashboard. Here you will find the various OpenStack components, but you can also directly submit a ticket to the helpdesk.
Read more: https://fuga.cloud/dashboard/ Our dashboard tutorials: https://docs.fuga.cloud/the-dashboard
Keystone
identity service: Keystone provides API client authentication, service discovery, and distributed multi-tenant authorization by implementing OpenStack’s Identity API. It supports LDAP, OAuth, OpenID Connect, SAML and SQL.
Magnum
Container Orchestration Engine Provisioning: Magnum makes container orchestration engines such as Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, and Apache Mesos available as first class resources in OpenStack. Magnum uses Heat to orchestrate an OS image which contains Docker and Kubernetes and runs that image in either virtual machines or bare metal in a cluster configuration.
Fuga isn't using Magnum anymore, we now use Gardener as Backend for our Enterprise Managed Kubernetes (EMK)
Read more: https://fuga.cloud/emk/
Our Kubernetes tutorials: Create_a_kubernetes_cluster
Neutron
networking: Neutron is an SDN networking project focused on delivering networking-as-a-service (NaaS) in virtual compute environments.
Read more: https://fuga.cloud/networking/
Our Networking & Infra tutorials: https://docs.fuga.cloud/networking-infra
Nova
compute service: To implement services and associated libraries to provide massively scalable, on demand, self service access to compute resources, including bare metal, virtual machines, and containers.
Read more: https://fuga.cloud/compute/
Our Compute & Instances tutorials: https://docs.fuga.cloud/compute-instances
Octavia
load balancer: Octavia has become the reference implementation for Neutron LBaaS version 2. Octavia accomplishes its delivery of load balancing services by managing a fleet of virtual machines, containers, or bare metal servers —collectively known as amphorae— which it spins up on demand. This on-demand, horizontal scaling feature differentiates Octavia from other load balancing solutions, thereby making Octavia truly suited “for the cloud.”
Read more: https://fuga.cloud/networking/
Our Networking & Infra tutorials: https://docs.fuga.cloud/networking-infra
Swift
object store: use Swift to store lots of data efficiently, safely, and cheaply. It's built for scale and optimized for durability, availability, and concurrency across the entire data set. Swift is ideal for storing unstructured data that can grow without bound.
Read more: https://fuga.cloud/objectstore/
Our Object Store tutorials: https://docs.fuga.cloud/object-store
Trove - WIP
Database as a Service: Trove is a database-as-a-service provisioning relational and non-relational database engines.
Zun - WIP
Containers Service: Different from Magnum, Zun is for users who want to treat containers as OpenStack-managed resource.

Operating system

What is an operating system or OS?

The Operating System, abbreviated as OS and translated as operating system, is the program that runs a computer. Examples are DOS, Unix and Windows 95.

P

PaaS

What does PaaS mean?

Platform as a Service: infrastructure, but also the software for it and the operating system is managed by the provider, the rest (implementation and management of applications) is up to you. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing/

Ports

What is a port in (cloud) computing?

A port is literally and figuratively at the beginning and end of a network connection within an operating system and helps the computer sort the network traffic.

Private Cloud

What do they mean with private cloud?

In this case, the provider offers the infrastructure to a single entity (organisation or person). You do not have to share the software and hardware used with other users. This server or cloud can be located internal or on location of a provider. Here you have full control over security, quality and of course your data. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing/

Public Cloud

What do they mean with public cloud?

The Cloud provider has a server with infrastructure, hardware and software that multiple organisations or people use. You do not own this infrastructure, servers and applications and can therefore not determine the location or who uses it, that is in the hands of the provider. The management and access of your data is of course not public and is in your own hands. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing.

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R

RAM

What does RAM mean in compute?

Random Access Memory, part of a server. The RAM (computer) memory ensures fast storage of data on an integrated chip.

Resources

What is a resource in computing?

Hardware or software that is accessible by a computer, network or an object connected to a computer. For example, a printer or a cluster are called shared resources. When referring to a computer itself, a system resource would be any of the internal computer components, like computer memory.

Region

What is a region in cloud computing?

The region or location where the data center (node of all connections) is located. Every country has an important junction, AMS stands for Amsterdam, FRA for Frankfurt, etc. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/frankfurt/

Routers

What does a router do?

All data sent over the internet, from web page to email, is formed into a data packet. A router is a network device that forwards these data packets between different networks.

S

SaaS

What does SaaS mean?

Software as a Service: the online workplace, all software via subscription, always up-to-date and no longer on separate computers, you take out a subscription per user. The availability, security, updates and other maintenance is taken care of by the provider and not the (end) user. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing/

SAN

What does SAN mean?

Storage Area Networks, see the definition of block storage

Secrets

What are secrets in cloud computing?

Secrets is short for secret information used as a key to unlock protected resources or sensitive information in order to achieve secure communication and data transfer. Examples of Secrets are database passwords, SSH keys, API keys, encryption keys, and private certificates.

Security Groups

What is a security group in cloud computing?

A Security Group or network security group contains rules to control the security of inbound and outbound network traffic. A security group is preconfigured with the necessary rights and permissions to perform a specific task.

Services

What services do you have in cloud computing? What is a service in Cloud computing?

There are three types of Cloud Computing Services; Iaas, PaaS and SaaS. Each layer or type of Cloud Services or Cloud Computing provides different levels of control, flexibility and management. This allows you to easily choose a service that best suits your wishes, needs and possibilities. You can also read our blog: https://fuga.cloud/labs/cloud-computing/

Session Data

What is session data?

Sessions are a simple way to store data for individual users against a unique session ID. This can be used to persist state information between page requests. Session IDs are normally sent to the browser via session cookies and the ID is used to retrieve existing session data.

Snapshots

What is a snapshot? What is de difference between a snapshot, a back-up and image?

A snapshot is a copy of an entire system, so all data, at a specific moment. This data can only be restored in its entirety, you cannot choose, for example, to restore only the part that no longer works, it's all or nothing. An image is a snapshot with operating system and starter included. A backup is used for data that needs to be able to be restored individually.

Storage

What is storage in cloud computing?

Storage location for the operating system files but also suitable for other data. In physical computers, this is a local drive, but it can also be a network drive. In the case of a network, a block protocol is necessary for the connection. You can also look at: https://fuga.cloud/storage/.

Swap Volume

What is swap volume?

A swap file (or swap space or, in Windows NT, a pagefile) is a space on a hard disk used as the virtual memory extension of a computer's real memory (RAM). Having a swap file allows your computer's operating system to pretend that you have more RAM than you actually do.

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U

Uptime

What do they mean with uptime in computing?

The time the system is available, often calculated over a year. You can also look at article about Uptime and the calculation: https://fuga.cloud/labs/uptime/

V

Virtual Machine

What is a virtual machine or VM in computing?

A Virtual Machine, also called a VM, works the same as a physical computer, laptop or server. Only this device is not physically present, but you can use the possibilities that the VM offers online. So you log in to your machine that is located in the cloud.

Volume store

What is volume store or volume storage in cloud computing?

A virtual disk that provides persistent block storage to data and application storage instances. It is possible to link multiple volumes to an instance. You can also look at: https://fuga.cloud/volume-storage/

VPS

What does VPS mean? How does a VPS work?

A Virtual Private Server is a virtual computer system (including system resources for memory, processors and storage) accessible via the Internet and to be purchased in subscription form from a hosting provider. The provider often has several virtual servers running on a physical server, this is possible by using a hypervisor (virtualisation software). Private means that the operating system of this VPS functions independently of any other virtual servers on the physical machine.

W

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X

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Y

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Z

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