Glossary
| image | template of a virtual machine containing an installed operating system, software, and configuration stored as a file on disk | |
| instance | launched image of a virtual machine - a running server | |
| flavor | the size of a running instance; i.e. #core, RAM, disk | |
| hypervisor | the host server that the instance runs on; something akin to a software defined hardware compute server | |
| snapshot | the process of taking an instance and turning it to an image | |
| object store | a blob of bits; it has a starting address & a size. There may be metadata associated with the object. The data is consumed in a streaming manner. | |
| block store | a software defined entity akin to an unformatted hardware disk drive | |
| filesystem | hierarchical in nature, directories & files, ability to open, seek, read, write | |
| persistent storage | If you pull the plug, it will still exist when power is restored. Safe to store data or state here. | |
| ephemeral storage | If you pull the plug, it no longer exists. (Don’t put your crucial data here!!!) | |
Information as a Service (IaaS) | form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the Internet. | Read more... |
Platform as a Service (PaaS) | cloud computing model that delivers applications over the Internet. | Read more... |
Software as a Service (SaaS) | software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet. | Read more... |
| Volumes | small virtual filesystems that may be attached to running instances. | Read more... |