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InMotion Cloud
GLOSSARY

Cloud Computing Glossary

Your comprehensive guide to cloud infrastructure, DevOps, and platform engineering terminology.

MOST REFERENCED72 TERMS
  1. 01Cloud Egress Fees
  2. 02Cloud TCO
  3. 03Virtual Private Cloud
  4. 04OpenStack
  5. 05High Availability
  6. 06FinOps
  7. 07Usage-Based Billing

8 terms shown

A

1 TERM

  • Autoscaling

    Autoscaling automatically adjusts compute resources in response to real-time demand, adding capacity during traffic spikes and removing it when demand drops.

    Compute
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C

1 TERM

  • Compute

    Compute is the processing power and resources used to run applications and workloads in a cloud environment, consisting of CPU cycles, memory, and other resources that execute code and handle data.

    Compute
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H

1 TERM

  • Hypervisor

    A hypervisor is software that creates and manages virtual machines by allowing multiple operating systems to share a single physical server's hardware resources.

    Compute
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I

3 TERMS

  • Image

    An image is a template file that contains a pre-configured operating system, software, and settings used to create instances in cloud hosting. It acts as a blueprint that determines what your virtual machine will run when it starts.

    Compute
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  • Instance

    An instance is a virtual machine running on a cloud provider's infrastructure with its own operating system, CPU, memory, and storage that you can create, configure, and manage on demand.

    Compute
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  • Instance Lifecycle

    Instance lifecycle refers to the sequence of states and transitions a virtual machine goes through from the moment it is created until it is permanently deleted, including active, stopped, paused, suspended, shelved, and error states.

    Compute
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N

1 TERM

  • Nova

    Nova is the OpenStack compute service that manages the lifecycle of virtual machine instances, including creation, scheduling, and termination across a cluster of compute nodes.

    Compute
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V

1 TERM

  • Virtual Machine

    A Virtual Machine (VM) is a software-based computer that runs on physical hardware through a hypervisor, providing an isolated computing environment with its own operating system, CPU allocation, memory, and storage.

    Compute
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