Hypervisor

Container

A lightweight, portable software package that bundles application code with all its dependencies for consistent execution.

Docker

A platform for developing, shipping, and running applications in isolated containers with consistent environments.

Kubernetes

An open-source container orchestration platform for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerised applications.

Load Balancer

A device or software that distributes network traffic across multiple servers to ensure no single server is overwhelmed.

Auto-Scaling

Automatically adjusting compute resources based on current demand to maintain performance and optimise costs.

Virtual Machine

A software emulation of a physical computer that runs an operating system and applications independently.

Object Storage

A data storage architecture managing data as objects rather than file hierarchies or block addresses.

Block Storage

A data storage technology that manages data as individual blocks, each acting as an independent hard drive.

Availability Zone

An isolated location within a cloud region with independent power, cooling, and networking for high availability.

Region

A geographic area containing one or more data centres where cloud services are hosted.

Container Orchestration

The automated management of containerised application deployment, scaling, networking, and availability across clusters of machines, with Kubernetes as the dominant platform.

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

Cloud computing practices that minimise environmental impact through renewable energy usage, efficient cooling, workload consolidation, and carbon-aware scheduling of compute tasks.

An authentication scheme allowing users to log in once and gain access to multiple related systems.

A database designed from the ground up to operate in cloud environments with automatic scaling and high availability.

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

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

Security solutions designed to protect server workloads running in cloud environments, providing vulnerability management, runtime protection, and compliance monitoring.

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.