Edge Computing

Microservices

An architectural style structuring an application as a collection of loosely coupled, independently deployable services.

Monolithic Architecture

A software architecture where all components are tightly integrated into a single deployable unit.

Service Mesh

An infrastructure layer handling service-to-service communication in microservices, managing traffic, security, and observability.

API

Application Programming Interface — a set of protocols and tools for building and integrating software applications.

REST API

An API architectural style using HTTP methods and stateless communication for web service interaction.

GraphQL

A query language for APIs that lets clients request exactly the data they need in a single request.

gRPC

A high-performance remote procedure call framework developed by Google using Protocol Buffers for serialisation.

Event-Driven Architecture

An architecture pattern where the flow of the system is determined by events — significant changes in state.

Message Queue

A communication method where messages are stored in a queue until the receiving application can process them.

Pub/Sub

A messaging pattern where publishers send messages to topics and subscribers receive messages from topics of interest.

Content Delivery Network

A distributed network of servers that delivers web content to users based on their geographic location.

The specialised hardware, software, and networking stack required to train and serve AI models at scale, including GPU clusters, high-bandwidth interconnects, and model serving frameworks.

Spare cloud computing capacity offered at steep discounts compared to on-demand pricing, available when the provider has excess resources but subject to interruption.

A cloud pricing model where users commit to a specific resource configuration for a term in exchange for discounted rates.

An approach that distributes workloads across multiple cloud providers to avoid vendor lock-in, optimise costs, meet regulatory requirements, and improve resilience.

Strategies and practices for minimising cloud computing expenses while maintaining performance and functionality.

A cloud computing option that uses spare capacity at significantly reduced prices with the possibility of interruption.

A cloud computing model that enables the replication and recovery of infrastructure and data in the cloud.

Managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable configuration files rather than manual processes.