13 Important Cloud Infrastructure Terms You Should Know

Cloud infrastructure terms can be confusing, and understanding the fundamentals of these terms will help you feel more comfortable with cloud-based solutions in general. So we’ve assembled a list of 13 important cloud infrastructure terms that you should know to get started with the cloud, and we’ll break them down in plain English to understand what they mean and how they apply to your business’s technology needs.

Private Cloud

A private cloud is an implementation of cloud computing. All or part of this data center is dedicated to cloud infrastructure, managed by a single organization, and not shared with others.

Personal Cloud

A personal cloud is a private storage device networked to your other devices. It’s usually a hard drive or some sort of file-sharing system like Dropbox that you can use to store your files in a place that you control. Some personal cloud computing examples or Network-attached storage (NAS) include Western Digital MyCloud, QNAP TS-251A, Seagate Personal Cloud 2TB, and Thecus N4800.

Public Cloud

Datacenter and computing resources are made available to anyone on a massive scale with little control over who accesses them. By keeping many servers available for anyone to use, public cloud computing services are perfect for elasticity: when demand increases, new servers are spun up.

Application Programming Interface

An API is a way for software programs to interact with other software programs. It can be a web service or a set of tools that let one application send data to another and get data back.

Data Migration

Transferring data from one system to another. This is possible to do manually or automatically using tools like rsync, rdiff-backup, and RSyncrypt.

Elasticity

The degree to which a system can change its capacity to respond to demand. When there is high elasticity, a service provider can increase capacity rapidly and decrease it just as quickly.

Load Balancing

It is a method used to spread work across several servers, enabling better use of system resources and improved response time. This can also allow for more servers to run in parallel, allowing for higher availability.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

This service provides software hosted by a third party accessed through a web browser. As a result, businesses don’t need to invest in any infrastructure as the provider takes care of it.

Process as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS is an umbrella term that refers to a cloud service provider (CSP) offering tools and resources that make it easier for application developers to deploy and manage their software.

BaaS (BaaS)

This term refers to offloading back-end infrastructure and software services like server configuration, hosting, and application maintenance to third parties.

Middleware

According to Maropost, “Middleware is an intermediary between different pieces of software.” For example, this software handles moving data from RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) databases to Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS).

On-Premise

A company owns and operates its own data center and uses various cloud services such as cloud storage, email, and accounting. This term is also called private cloud or corporate cloud.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Similar to an on-premises desktop, a virtual desktop is a user’s personal workspace within a cloud infrastructure. A VDI allows users to access their work from anywhere at any time.

These terms can help you better understand cloud infrastructure, but they’re only useful if you know what they mean.