Cloud Computing
A
AWS
The organizational unit of Amazon that provides a variety of cloud services. AWS operates from 11 physical locations across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Advertising-based pricing model
A pricing model whereby services are offered to customers at low or no cost, with the service provider being compensated by advertisers whose ads are delivered to the consumer along with the service.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
Part of Amazon Web Services (AWS), EC2 provides scalable computing capacity in the cloud, which developers can use to deploy scalable applications.
Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
Part of AWS, S3 allows for the storage and retrieval of data. It can also be used to host static websites.
Apache Hadoop
An open-source software framework for distributed storage and processing of large sets of data.
B
BDaaS
Big Data as a Service (BDaaS) is the delivery of information or statistical analysis tools by an outside vendor that helps organizations understand and utilize insights gotten from large information sets in order to attain a competitive advantage. Big Data lies within its broad definition of using high velocity, volume, and variety data sets that are difficult to manage and extract value from. Organizations investigating big data regularly recognize that they don’t have the capacity to store and process it adequately. As a result of the big data trend, enterprises can turn to Big Data as a Service (BDaaS) solutions to bridge the processing and storage gap.
BYOD
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a growing trend towards the use of employee-owned to connect to organizational networks and access work-related systems and potentially confidential or sensitive data. It is part of a larger IT consumerization trend in which consumer hardware and software are being brought in the enterprise. BYOD can occur under the radar in the form of shadow IT; however, more and more organizations are leaning towards the implementation of BYOD policies. More specific variations of the term include bring your own apps (BYOA), bring your own laptop (BYOL) and bring your own apps (BYOA).
Big Data
A phrase used to refer to the large volume of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data that is difficult to mine using traditional software and database techniques. Big data is typically characterized by 3v’s- Volume of data, Variety of data types, and the Velocity at which the data has to be processed.
Business Intelligence
Refers to technologies, practices, and applications for the collection, analysis, integration, collection, and presentation of business information. BI tools access and analyze data sets and present analytical findings in charts, graphs, dashboards, summaries, maps, and reports to offer managers, executives, and other cooperate end-users with detailed intelligence about the state of their business. The need for BI emerged from the concept that decision-makers with incomplete or inaccurate information tend to make worse decisions than if they had more information. Companies that utilize BI practices can translate their collected data into insights for their business processes. The insights can then be used to generate strategic business decisions that enhance productivity, accelerate growth, and increase revenue.
C
CDN
Content delivery network (CDN) is a distributed system consisting of servers in discrete physical locations, configured in a way that clients can access the server closest to them on the network, thereby improving speeds.
Cloud
A metaphor for a global network, first used in reference to the telephone network and now commonly used to represent the internet.
Cloud Architect
IT professionals charged with building and deploying strategies, plans and applications relating to and within an organization’s increasingly complex cloud technologies. They typically report to senior-level staff, such as an IT director, while also fostering relationships with customers and working closely alongside other members of the technology team, including developers and DevOps engineers. It is a constantly evolving field, and the job requires someone who can keep up with the latest technologies and trends.
Cloud Auditor
A party that can conduct independent assessment of cloud services, information system operations, performance and security of the cloud implementation.
Cloud Broker
An entity that manages the use, performance and delivery of cloud services, and negotiates relationships between Cloud Providers and Cloud Consumers.
Cloud Carrier
The intermediary that provides connectivity and transport of cloud services between Cloud Providers and Cloud Consumers.
Cloud Consumer
Person or organization that maintains a business relationship with, and uses service from, Cloud Service Providers.
Cloud Federation
Cloud Federation refers to the unionization of software, infrastructure and platform services from disparate networks that can be accessed by a client via the internet. The federation of cloud resources is facilitated through network gateways that connect public or external clouds, private or internal clouds (owned by a single entity) and/or community clouds (owned by several cooperating entities); creating a hybrid cloud computing environment. It is important to note that federated cloud computing services still rely on the existence of physical data centers.
Cloud Foundry
An open-source Platform as a Service (PaaS) that was initially developed in-house at VMware and is now owned by Pivotal Software, which is a joint venture between General Electric, EMC and VMware. Cloud Foundry is highly customizable, enabling developers to code in multiple frameworks are languages; this greatly minimizes the potential for vendor lock-in, which is a common concern with PaaS.
Cloud Provider
Person, organization or entity responsible for making a service available to service consumers.
Cloud Service Management
Cloud Service Management includes all the service-related functions that are necessary for the management and operations of those services required by or proposed to customers.
Cloud governance
Refers to the process of applying and managing certain principles or policies on cloud computing to ensure they maintain the requisite security standards. The main goal of cloud governance and compliance is to safeguard user interests and ensure cloud services are managed, distributed and delivered in the best way possible.
Cloud portability
The ability to move applications and data from one cloud provider to another. See also Vendor lock-in.
Cloud storage
A service that allows customers to save data by transferring it over the internet or another network to an offsite storage system maintained by a third party.
Cloudsourcing
Replacing traditional IT operations with lower-cost, outsourced cloud services.
Cloudware
Software that enables creating, deploying, running, or managing applications in the cloud.
Cluster
A group of linked computers that work together as if they were a single computer, for high availability and/or load balancing.
Community cloud
The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a specific community of consumers from organizations that have shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations). It may be owned, managed, and operated by one or more of the organizations in the community, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises.
Consumer cloud
Cloud computing offerings targeted toward individuals for personal use, such as Dropbox or iCloud.
Consumption-based pricing model
A pricing model whereby the service provider charges its customers based on the amount of the service the customer consumes, rather than a time-based fee. For example, a cloud storage provider might charge per gigabyte of information stored. See also Subscription-based pricing model.
Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS)
An open standard for controlling content and document management systems and repositories using web protocols.
Customer self-service
A feature that allows customers to provision, manage, and terminate services themselves, without involving the service provider, via a web interface or programmatic calls to service APIs.
D
DNS Manager
Is an application that controls Domain Name System (DNS) records and server clusters enabling domain name owners to control them easily. DNS management software greatly reduces human error when editing repetitive and complex DNS data. Using DNS management, one website can command the services of multiple servers.
Data Center
A data centre is a building (or self contained unit within a building) used to house computing equipment such as servers along with associated components such as telecommunications, network and storage systems. A data centre is equipped with a guaranteed power supply and high bandwidth connectivity. Resilience is critical so redundancy (duplication) of networks, power and other infrastructure is common to ensure continuity. They can: a. process, manage, store and transmit data and b. talk to each other or to digital equipment in other data centres or in offices, homes, vehicles, in satellites orbiting the Earth, on the moon or in fact anywhere you can think of. Data centres consolidate any number of separate IT functions within a single operating unit.
Data Integrity
The overall completeness, accuracy, and consistency of data. It also refers to the safety of data in regards to regulatory compliance. All characteristics of the data have to be correct – including relations, business rules, definitions, dates, and lineage, for it to be considered complete. Data integrity is typically imposed at the database design phase via the use of standard rules and procedures. It can be compromised in multiple ways, every time data is transferred or replicated, it has to remain unaltered and intact between updates. Error checking methods and validation procedures are usually relied on to make sure the integrity of the data being reproduced or transferred is not altered.
DevOps
is a term that is being used in several different ways; in its most broad definition, DevOps is simply a philosophy that emphasizes communication, collaboration and integration between software development and IT operations with the goal of streamlining software development and quality assurance. A DevOps technology stack may include configuration tools like Chef and Puppet, a repository such as GitHub for version control, indexing tools such as Splunk and scripting languages like JavaScript, PHP and Perl.
Disruptive technology
A business term that describes innovations that improve products or services in unexpected ways. These innovations change the methods used to accomplish a task, and re-shape the market for that task. Cloud computing is considered a disruptive technology because of its elasticity, flexible pricing models, and maintenance cost compared to traditional IT service provisioning.
Docker
Open-source software that automates the deployment of applications inside virtualized software containers.
E
ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a term used to refer to a system of integrated applications that manage a business and automate multiple back office functions related to procurement, product life-cycle, human resources, projects, finance, inventory, supply chain and other mission critical components of a business via a series of interconnected executive dashboards. ERP software can be categorized as an Enterprise Application.
Elastic computing
The ability to dynamically provision and deprovision computing and storage resources to stretch to the demands of peak usage, without the need to worry about capacity planning and engineering around uneven usage patterns.
Elasticity
refers to the ability of a program, service or resource to be conveniently expanded or resized to support the short-term, tactical needs of an organization.
Encryption
is the conversion of data into ‘cipher text’, which can only be read after it has been decrypted using a special key or password. Encryption is the most secure way to protect information assets.
Enterprise Application
is an application that is built to operate in a corporate environment like a government or business. Such applications are component-based, scalable, complex, distributed and mission critical. They are typically designed to seamlessly integrate with other enterprise apps, and to be deployed across various networks (corporate networks, intranet and internet). Enterprise applications are also user friendly, and meet the strict administration management and security requirements of an enterprise.
External cloud
Public or private cloud services that are provided by a third party outside the organization.
F
Fault Tolerance
refers to the ability of a computer system or component to continue working without loss of service in the event of an unexpected error or problem. Fault tolerance can be achieved with embedded hardware, or software, or a combination of both.
G
Google App Engine
A service that enables developers to create and run web applications on Google's infrastructure and share their applications via a pay-as-you-go, consumption-based plan with no setup costs or recurring fees.
Google Apps
Google's Software as a Service (SaaS) product includes an office productivity suite, email, calendar, and file storage and sharing. Google Apps for Business includes an enterprise administration interface and archiving tools, and support for legal holds document discovery compliance. Google Apps for Education includes additional collaboration and reporting tools for classroom environments.
H
Hosted application
An internet-based or web-based application software program that runs on a remote server and can be accessed via an internet-connected PC or thin client. See also SaaS.
Hybrid cloud
The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between clouds).
I
IaaS
IaaS (infrastructure as a service) refers to the delivery of computing capacity and infrastructure as a service. Also known as HaaS (hardware as a service), IaaS encompasses all of the physical computing resources that support delivery of applications as a service. IaaS provides a major cost savings to organizations, as it provides access to additional computing capacity on demand, without the need for a major capital investment in additional hardware, etc. There are fewer players in the IaaS marketplace for this reason, as compared to PaaS (platform as a service) and SaaS (software as a service) providers, due to the large capital and operational expenses that are required to establish and maintain IaaS delivery.
Internal cloud
A private cloud instance provided and supported by an IT department for internal use.
L
Load Balancing
The process of distributing computing resources and workloads across several application servers that are running in a cloud environment. Like other forms of load balancing, cloud load balancing allows you to maximize application reliability and performance; but at a lower cost and easier scaling to match demand, without loss of service. This helps ensure users have access to the applications they need, when they need them, without any problems. It is a networking solution for distributing computing workloads across multiple resources, like servers. By distributing the workload, a load balance ensures no server will become the single point of failure. When a single server goes offline, the load balancer simply redirects all incoming traffic to the other available servers. Load balancing can be implemented with software, hardware, or a combination of both.
M
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft's cloud platform that provides a myriad of Platform as a Service (PaaS) and IaaS offerings, including Microsoft-specific and third-party standards, for developers to deploy cloud applications and services.
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft's software plus services model that offers Microsoft Office on a subscription-based pricing model, with cloud storage abilities. For business and enterprise use, Office 365 includes email and SNS, with cloud-hosted instances of Exchange Server and Skype for Business, among others.
Middleware
Software that sits between applications and operating systems, consisting of a set of services that enable interoperability in support of distributed architectures by passing data between applications. So, for example, the data in one database can be accessed through another database.
Multi-tenancy
Among the many definitions of cloud computing, almost all include the principle of multi tenancy, or the ability to use the same software and interfaces to configure resources and isolate customer-specific traffic and data. In a typical multi tenancy environment, multiple users who do not share or see each other’s data can share the same applications while running on the same operating system, using the same hardware and the same data storage mechanism.
Multitenancy
The existence of multiple clients sharing resources (services or applications) on distinct physical hardware. Due to the on-demand nature of cloud, most services are multi tenant.
O
On-demand service
A model by which a customer can purchase cloud services as needed; for instance, if customers need to utilize additional servers for the duration of a project, they can do so and then drop back to the previous level after the project is completed.
OpenStack
A free and open-source cloud computing software platform used to control pools of processing, storage, and networking resources in a datacenter.
P
PaaS
The acronym PaaS stands for Platform as a Service. PaaS is an extension of the SaaS (Software as a Service) model, which allows for the use of applications hosted remotely. The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment.
Pay as you go
A cost model for cloud services that encompasses both subscription-based and consumption-based models, in contrast to the traditional IT cost model that requires up-front capital expenditures for hardware and software.
Privacy
Information privacy is the assured, proper, and consistent collection, processing, communication, use and disposition of disposition of personal information (PI) and personally-identifiable information (PII) throughout its life cycle. (Source: adapted from OASIS)
Private cloud
The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization comprising multiple consumers (e.g., business units). It may be owned, managed, and operated by the organization, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises.
Public cloud
The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for open use by the general public. It may be owned, managed, and operated by a business, academic, or government organization, or some combination of them. It exists on the premises of the cloud provider.
S
SLA
Service level agreement (SLA) is a contractual agreement by which a service provider defines the level of service, responsibilities, priorities, and guarantees regarding availability, performance, and other aspects of the service.
SNS
Social networking service (SNS) is used in enterprises for collaboration, file sharing, and knowledge transfer; among the most common platforms are Microsoft's Yammer, and Salesforce's Chatter. Often called enterprise social software to differentiate between "traditional" SNS platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
SOA
SOA, also known as Service Oriented Architecture, has become a buzzword for information technology frameworks. Basically, this is an approach to mention the IT needs of a company across different business functions and it’s created a change in the IT world. The following are the definition, the explanation of why companies need it, and the benefits of service oriented architectures.
SaaS
The acronym SaaS stands for Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.
Salesforce
An online SaaS company that is best known for delivering customer relationship management (CRM) software to companies over the internet.
Security
Refers to information security. “information security” means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide: * integrity, which means guarding against improper information modification or destruction, and includes ensuring information non-repudiation and authenticity; * confidentiality, which means preserving authorized restrictions on access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information; * availability, which means ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information. (Source: [SOURCE: Title III of the E-Government Act, entitled the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA)])
Service Deployment
All of the activities and organization needed to make a cloud service available
Service Orchestration
Refers to the arrangement, coordination and management of cloud infrastructure to provide different cloud services to meet IT and business requirements.
Service migration
The act of moving from one cloud service or vendor to another.
Service provider
The company or organization that provides a public or private cloud service.
Software plus services
The combination of cloud-hosted services with locally running software. This method allows for using the local system for processing power while relying on cloud operations for software license verification, portable identities, syncing between devices, and file storage.
Subscription-based pricing model
A pricing model that lets customers pay a fee to use the service for a particular time period, often used for SaaS services. See also Consumption-based pricing model.
U
Utility computing
A provisioning model in which services are available as needed, and users are charged for specific usage, in a manner similar to municipal utilities such as electricity or water.
V
VPC
Virtual private cloud (VPS) is a private cloud that exists within a shared or public cloud, e.g., the Amazon VPC that allows Amazon EC2 to connect to legacy infrastructure on an IPsec VPN.
Vendor lock-in
Dependency upon a particular cloud vendor and low ability to migrate between vendors due to an absence of support for standardized protocols, APIs, data structures (schema), and/or service models.
Vertical cloud
A cloud computing environment optimized for use and built around the compliance needs of specialized industries, such as healthcare, financial services, and government operations.
Virtual private data center
Resources grouped according to specific business objectives.