Cloud computing

Terms related to cloud computing, including definitions about on-demand, distributed computing and words and phrases about software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service and storage-as-a-service.

homomorphic encryption - Homomorphic encryption is the conversion of data into ciphertext that can be analyzed and worked with as if it were still in its original form.
hosted virtual desktop (HVD) - A hosted virtual desktop (HVD) is a user interface that connects to applications and data that are stored on a cloud provider's servers rather than on the user's computer or the corporate network.
hybrid cloud storage - Hybrid cloud storage is an approach to managing cloud storage that uses both local and off-site resources.
hybrid IT - Hybrid IT is an approach to enterprise computing in which an organization provides and manages some information technology (IT) resources in-house but uses cloud-based services for others.
IBM Cloud (formerly IBM Bluemix and IBM SoftLayer) - IBM Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services from IBM that offers both platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
IBM SoftLayer - IBM SoftLayer is a public cloud computing platform that offers a range of services for compute, networking, storage, security and application development.
iCloud - Apple's free iCloud service stores subscribers' photos, videos, documents, apps and more and updates everything across users' synced devices.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet.
Integration as a Service (IaaS) - Integration as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud-based delivery model that strives to connect on-premise data with data located in cloud-based applications.
Jitterbit - Jitterbit is a commercial software integration product that facilitates transport between legacy, enterprise, and on-demand computing applications.
Kubernetes - Kubernetes, also referred to as K8s, is an open source system used to manage Linux Containers across private, public and hybrid cloud environments.
lift and shift - Lift and shift is a strategy for moving an application or operation from one environment to another – without redesigning the app.
Lustre - Lustre is an open source parallel distributed file system (DFS) specialized for large-scale cluster computing.
managed hosting - Managed hosting is an IT provisioning model in which a service provider leases dedicated servers and associated hardware to a single customer and manages those systems on the customer's behalf.
MapReduce - MapReduce is a core component of the Apache Hadoop software framework.
metered services (pay-per-use) - Metered services (also called pay-per-use) are any type of payment structure in which a customer has access to potentially unlimited resources but only pays for what they actually use.
Microsoft Azure Data Lake - Microsoft Azure Data Lake is a highly scalable public cloud service that allows developers, scientists, business professionals and other Microsoft customers to gain insight from large, complex data sets.
Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute - Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute is a service that provides a private connection between an organization's on-premises infrastructure and Microsoft Azure data centers.
Microsoft Azure Key Vault - Microsoft Azure Key Vault is a cloud-hosted management service that allows users to encrypt keys and small secrets like passwords or answers to security questions that are used in their cloud applications and services.
Microsoft Azure Marketplace - The Microsoft Azure Marketplace is an online store that offers applications and services either built on or designed to integrate with Microsoft's public cloud.
Microsoft Azure monitoring tools - Azure monitoring tools are software meant to assist in the different aspects of cloud infrastructure management and monitoring, centering around Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure.
Microsoft Azure Resource Manager - Microsoft Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is a management framework that allows administrators to deploy, manage and monitor Azure resources.
Microsoft Azure Security Center - Microsoft Azure Security Center is a set of tools and services for securing virtual machines that run on the Azure public cloud.
Microsoft Azure VM Scale Sets - A Microsoft Azure VM Scale Set is a group of individual virtual machines (VMs) within the Microsoft Azure public cloud that IT administrators can configure and manage as a single unit.
Microsoft Cloud Witness - Microsoft Cloud Witness is a high availability feature for failover clusters that uses storage in the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to ensure clusters continue to function if there is a site outage.
Microsoft Intune - Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based unified endpoint management (UEM) tool that aims to help organizations manage the mobile devices employees use to access corporate data and applications, such as email.
Microsoft Office 365 suite - Microsoft Office 365 suite is a hosted, online version of Microsoft Office software.
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct - Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is a feature in Windows Server 2016 that uses local server storage to build highly available and scalable software-defined storage systems for Hyper-V virtual machines.
mobile cloud - The mobile cloud is Internet-based data, applications and related services accessed through smartphones, laptop computers, tablets and other portable devices.
MuleSoft - MuleSoft is a Salesforce company that provides numerous tools to build automations and integrations for various enterprise use cases.
multi-cloud strategy - A multi-cloud strategy is the use of two or more cloud computing services.
multi-tenant cloud - A multi-tenant cloud is a cloud computing architecture that allows customers to share computing resources in a public or private cloud.
noisy neighbor (cloud computing performance) - Noisy neighbor is a phrase that describes a cloud computing infrastructure co-tenant that monopolizes bandwidth, disk I/O, CPU and other resources which can negatively affect other users' cloud performance.
NoOps - NoOps (no operations) is the concept that an IT environment can become so automated and abstracted from the underlying infrastructure that there is no need for a dedicated team to manage software in-house.
NoSQL (Not Only SQL database) - NoSQL is an approach to database management that can accommodate a wide variety of data models, including key-value, document, columnar and graph formats.
on-demand computing - On-demand computing (ODC) is an enterprise computing delivery model in which computing resources are made available to the user as needed.
open API (public API) - Review this definition to learn about open APIs, also known as a public APIs, including their associated benefits, industry use cases and unique attributes.
Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) - The Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) is a set of standards defining the way in which information is shared among diverse components of large, heterogeneous grid systems.
Open Virtualization Format (OVF) - The Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is an open source standard for packaging and distributing software applications and services for virtual machines (VMs).
OpenStack - OpenStack is a collection of open source software modules and tools that provide a framework to create and manage both public cloud and private cloud infrastructure.
OpenStack Block Storage (Cinder) - OpenStack Block Storage (Cinder) is open source software designed to create and manage a service that provides persistent data storage to cloud computing applications.
OpenStack Horizon - OpenStack Horizon is a web-based graphical interface that cloud administrators and users can access to manage OpenStack compute, storage and networking services.
Oracle Cloud - Oracle Cloud is a subscription-based public cloud services offering from database company Oracle.
Oracle Customer Experience Cloud (Oracle CX Cloud) - The Oracle Customer Experience Cloud (Oracle CX Cloud) is a suite of cloud-based tools for CRM and sales, marketing, customer service, e-commerce and other tools.
pay-as-you-go cloud computing (PAYG cloud computing) - Pay-as-you-go cloud computing (PAYG cloud computing) is a payment method for cloud computing that charges based on usage.
PC as a service (PCaaS) - PC as a service (PCaaS) is a device lifecycle management model in which an organization pays a monthly subscription fee to lease endpoint hardware and management services from a vendor.
personal cloud storage (PCS) - Personal cloud storage (PCS) is a local network-attached storage (NAS) device that lets users store data, photos, music, videos and other files and is optimized for media streaming.
portable application - A portable application (portable app) is a software product designed to be easily moved from one computing environment to another.
private cloud appliance - A private cloud appliance is a hardware device that provides software-defined converged infrastructure functions for an organization’s proprietary network.
private cloud storage (internal cloud storage) - Private cloud storage, also called internal cloud storage, is a service delivery model for storage within a large enterprise.
private platform as a service (private PaaS) - Private platform as a service (private PaaS) is software that facilitates development, deployment and operations for IT on a private infrastructure or behind a firewall.
provisioning - In general, provisioning means "providing" or making something available.
public cloud storage - Public cloud storage, also called online storage, is a service model that provides data storage on a pay-per-use basis.
Rackspace Cloud - Cloud provider Rackspace offers several different cloud storage services including Cloud Files, Cloud Block Storage and Cloud Backup.
Rackspace Fanatical Support - Rackspace Fanatical Support is Rackspace's customer service program, which provides support for customers using its managed hosting services and cloud platforms.
SaaS ERP - SaaS ERP is a type of cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that runs on the vendor's or cloud provider's servers, is sold through subscription and delivered as a service over the internet.
Salesforce - Salesforce, Inc.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud - Salesforce Commerce Cloud, formerly called Demandware, is a cloud-based service for unifying the way businesses engage with customers over any channel or device.
SAP Analytics Cloud - SAP Analytics Cloud (or SAP Cloud for Analytics) is a software as a service (SaaS) business intelligence (BI) platform designed by SAP.
SAP Cloud Platform - SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) product that provides a development and runtime environment for cloud applications.
Scalr - Scalr is an information technology (IT) vendor that offers a management platform for cloud computing.
SDDC (software-defined data center) - An SDDC (software-defined data center) is a data storage facility in which networking, storage, CPU and security are virtualized and delivered as a service.
serverless computing - Serverless computing is a cloud computing execution model that lets software developers build and run applications and servers without having to provision or manage the back-end infrastructure.
sharding - Sharding is a type of database partitioning that separates large databases into smaller, faster, more easily managed parts.
Simian Army - The Simian Army is a collection of open source cloud testing tools created by the online video streaming company, Netflix.
single-tenancy - Single-tenancy is an architecture in which a single instance of a software application and supporting infrastructure serves one customer.
SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) - SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) is the concept that the convergence of four technologies is currently driving business innovation.
SnapLogic - SnapLogic is a software company that offers cloud integration products to allow customers to connect cloud-based data and applications with on-premise business systems.
Software as a Service (SaaS) - Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet.
software-defined perimeter (SDP) - A software-defined perimeter, or SDP, is a security technique that controls access to resources based on identity and forms a virtual boundary around networked resources.
SPI model - SPI is an acronym for the most common cloud computing service models, software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service.
SQL-on-Hadoop - SQL-on-Hadoop is a class of analytical application tools that combine established SQL-style querying with newer Hadoop data framework elements.
stateless app - A stateless app is an application program that does not save client data generated in one session for use in the next session with that client.
subscription-based pricing model - A subscription-based pricing model is a payment structure that allows a customer or organization to purchase or subscribe to a vendor's IT services for a specific period of time for a set price.
Testing as a Service (TaaS) - Testing as a service (TaaS) is an outsourcing model in which testing activities associated with some of an organization's business activities are performed by a service provider rather than in-house employees.
The Boomi Platform - The Boomi Platform, previously known as Boomi AtomSphere, is a low-code and cloud-native integrated Platform as a Service (iPaaS).
TOSCA (Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications) - The Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) is an open-source language used to describe the relationships and dependencies between services and applications that reside on a cloud computing platform.
unified computing system (UCS) - A unified computing system (UCS) is is a converged data center architecture that integrates computing, networking and storage resources to increase efficiency and enable centralized management.
usage-based pricing - Usage-based pricing is a consumption-based pricing model in which customers are charged only when they use a product or service.
utility storage - Utility storage is a service model in which a provider makes storage capacity available to an individual, organization or business unit on a pay-per-use basis.
vendor lock-in - Vendor lock-in is a situation in which a customer using a product or service cannot easily transition to a competitor’s product or service.
vertical cloud - A vertical cloud is a set of cloud computing services optimized for use in a particular industry, or for a specific business model.
Vertical SaaS (Software as a Service) - Vertical SaaS describes a type of Software as a Service cloud computing solution created for a specific industry.
virtual firewall - A virtual firewall is a firewall device or service that provides network traffic filtering and monitoring for virtual machines (VMs) in a virtualized environment.
virtual private cloud (VPC) - A virtual private cloud (VPC) is the logical division of a service provider's public cloud multi-tenant architecture to support private cloud computing.
VM hardware version (virtual machine hardware version) - The VM hardware version (virtual machine hardware version) designates the virtual hardware functions supported by a virtual machine (VM), which relates to the hardware on the host server.
VMware vCloud Suite - VMware vCloud Suite is a collection of applications built on VMware's vSphere platform for building a private cloud infrastructure.
wake word - A wake word is a phrase spoken to the Amazon Echo hands-free speaker and virtual assistant that causes the device to "wake up" and process a user's request.
WAN optimization (WAN acceleration) - WAN optimization -- also known as WAN acceleration -- is a collection of technologies and techniques used to improve the efficiency of data transfer across a wide area network (WAN) between organizations' centralized data centers and their remote locations.

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