Cloud & DevOps Terms
Essential terminology for cloud computing, containerization, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps practices.
A methodology for software development emphasizing iterative development, collaboration, and flexibility to change.
Auto-scaling
Section titled “Auto-scaling”The automatic adjustment of computational resources based on current demand, scaling up during high load and down during low load.
Availability Zone
Section titled “Availability Zone”Isolated locations within a cloud region designed to be insulated from failures in other zones, providing high availability.
Blue-Green Deployment
Section titled “Blue-Green Deployment”A deployment strategy that runs two identical production environments (blue and green), switching traffic between them to enable zero-downtime deployments.
Canary Deployment
Section titled “Canary Deployment”A deployment strategy where a new version is gradually rolled out to a small subset of users before full deployment.
CI/CD Pipeline
Section titled “CI/CD Pipeline”An automated process that builds, tests, and deploys code changes through stages from development to production.
Cloud Computing
Section titled “Cloud Computing”The delivery of computing services (servers, storage, databases, networking, software) over the internet (“the cloud”).
Cloud Migration
Section titled “Cloud Migration”The process of moving data, applications, and other business elements from on-premises infrastructure to cloud infrastructure.
Cloud Native
Section titled “Cloud Native”Applications designed specifically to run in cloud environments, typically using containers, microservices, and dynamic orchestration.
Container
Section titled “Container”A lightweight, standalone executable package that includes everything needed to run software: code, runtime, system tools, libraries, and settings.
Container Orchestration
Section titled “Container Orchestration”The automated management, scaling, and networking of containers, typically using platforms like Kubernetes.
Continuous Deployment
Section titled “Continuous Deployment”A software development practice where code changes are automatically deployed to production after passing automated tests.
Continuous Integration
Section titled “Continuous Integration”A development practice where developers frequently integrate code into a shared repository, triggering automated builds and tests.
DevOps
Section titled “DevOps”A set of practices combining software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten development lifecycle and deliver high-quality software.
Docker
Section titled “Docker”A platform for developing, shipping, and running applications in containers, providing consistency across different environments.
Dockerfile
Section titled “Dockerfile”A text file containing instructions for building a Docker image, specifying the base image, dependencies, and configuration.
Elastic Load Balancing
Section titled “Elastic Load Balancing”A service that automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets for fault tolerance and high availability.
Environment
Section titled “Environment”A specific instance of infrastructure and configuration where software runs (e.g., development, staging, production).
GitOps
Section titled “GitOps”An operational framework using Git as the single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and application code.
A package manager for Kubernetes that helps define, install, and upgrade Kubernetes applications using charts.
Hybrid Cloud
Section titled “Hybrid Cloud”A computing environment combining on-premises infrastructure, private cloud, and public cloud services.
IaC (Infrastructure as Code)
Section titled “IaC (Infrastructure as Code)”The practice of managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable definition files rather than manual configuration.
Immutable Infrastructure
Section titled “Immutable Infrastructure”An approach where servers are never modified after deployment; updates require creating new servers and replacing old ones.
Instance
Section titled “Instance”A virtual server in the cloud that runs applications and workloads.
Kubernetes (K8s)
Section titled “Kubernetes (K8s)”An open-source container orchestration platform for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
Kubectl
Section titled “Kubectl”The command-line tool for communicating with a Kubernetes cluster’s control plane.
Load Balancing
Section titled “Load Balancing”The distribution of network traffic across multiple servers to ensure no single server bears too much demand.
Microservices
Section titled “Microservices”An architectural approach where applications are built as a collection of small, independent services that communicate via APIs.
Multi-Cloud
Section titled “Multi-Cloud”Using cloud services from multiple cloud providers to avoid vendor lock-in and leverage best-of-breed services.
Observability
Section titled “Observability”The ability to measure the internal state of a system based on external outputs, typically using logs, metrics, and traces.
On-Premises (On-Prem)
Section titled “On-Premises (On-Prem)”Infrastructure and software hosted on local servers rather than in the cloud.
Pipeline
Section titled “Pipeline”An automated workflow that takes code from version control through build, test, and deployment stages.
The smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes, consisting of one or more containers that share storage and network resources.
Private Cloud
Section titled “Private Cloud”Cloud infrastructure dedicated to a single organization, providing greater control and security.
Public Cloud
Section titled “Public Cloud”Cloud services offered by third-party providers over the public internet, available to anyone who wants to use or purchase them.
Region
Section titled “Region”A separate geographic area in cloud infrastructure, containing multiple availability zones for redundancy and low latency.
Rollback
Section titled “Rollback”The process of reverting to a previous version of software when a deployment causes issues.
Rolling Deployment
Section titled “Rolling Deployment”A deployment strategy where instances are gradually updated with new versions, maintaining availability throughout.
Scalability
Section titled “Scalability”The ability to increase or decrease IT resources as needed to meet changing demand.
Serverless
Section titled “Serverless”A cloud computing model where the cloud provider manages the infrastructure, allowing developers to focus on code without managing servers.
Service Mesh
Section titled “Service Mesh”Infrastructure layer that manages service-to-service communication in microservices architectures, handling routing, load balancing, and security.
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
Section titled “Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)”A discipline that applies software engineering principles to infrastructure and operations problems.
Staging Environment
Section titled “Staging Environment”A pre-production environment that mirrors production, used for final testing before deployment.
Terraform
Section titled “Terraform”An open-source Infrastructure as Code tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently.
Virtual Machine (VM)
Section titled “Virtual Machine (VM)”A software emulation of a physical computer that runs an operating system and applications.
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)
Section titled “VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)”An isolated virtual network within a cloud provider’s infrastructure where resources can be launched.
A human-readable data serialization language commonly used for configuration files in DevOps tools like Kubernetes and CI/CD pipelines.
These terms form the foundation of modern cloud and DevOps practices, essential for building and operating scalable applications.