3 Terminology
The terminology used within this specification.
Virtualization
The process of creating an abstraction layer over computer hardware (storage, network, compute) that allows a computer to share its hardware with multiple virtual seperated environments.
Virtual Machines (VM)
The virtual hardware with virtual CPUs, memory (RAM), disks, network adapters where consumers can run an Operating System and Software of their choice.
Hypervisor
Software that creates and runs virtual machines by abstracting the hardware and allowing multiple operating systems to run concurrently on a host computer.
Containerization
A form of lightweight virtualization that involves encapsulating an application and its dependencies into a container that can run on any computing environment.
Container
A process or set of processes that have their private and isolated view of the file system and network and compute capacity. All containers on a (virtual) machine share the same operating system.
Multi-tenancy
An architecture in which a single instance of software runs on a server and serves multiple tenants (users or organizations), ensuring secure isolation between them.
Federation
The integration of multiple systems or organizations, allowing them to share resources and manage user identities across different domains while maintaining autonomy.
IAM (Identity and Access Management)
A framework of policies and technologies for ensuring that the right individuals have access to the right resources at the right times for the right reasons.
Region
A geographic area where cloud services and resources are deployed, typically consisting of multiple well-interconnected data centers to provide redundancy and ensure low-latency performance.
Availability Zone
A distinct location within a region that is engineered to be isolated from failures in other zones, providing high availability and fault tolerance.
Quota
Usage limits per kind of resource. Users can only create a limited amount of resources to avoid overly high bills or overly high consumption of limited resources.
UUID
Unique identifier. Typically a random number attached to a newly created resource and then used to uniquely identify and reference it. Commonly 128bit numbers in the format a78622a8-1177-47af-b5da-3378ee5d4313 are used. Other lengths and formatting are possible.
Infrastructure as Code
Virtual infrastructure (software defined storage, network, compute) is managed like code.