Cloud Glossary: Letter C

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C

C2S (Commercial Cloud Services)

Cloud services that meet government security requirements and compliance standards for handling sensitive data and workloads.

CA (Certificate Authority)

A trusted entity that issues digital certificates to verify the identity of websites, applications, or users in public key infrastructure.

Cache

High-speed storage that temporarily holds frequently accessed data to reduce latency and improve performance by avoiding slower data sources.

Cache Hit

When requested data is found in the cache, resulting in faster response times compared to fetching from the original data source.

Cache Miss

When requested data is not found in the cache, requiring retrieval from the slower original data source and potential cache population.

Cache Warming

Proactively loading data into cache before it's requested to ensure optimal performance when users access the data.

Caching Layer

An intermediate storage tier that sits between applications and data sources to improve performance through temporary data storage.

CAP Theorem

States that distributed systems can only guarantee two of three properties: Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance simultaneously.

Capacity

The maximum amount of work a system can handle, measured in various units like requests per second, concurrent users, or data throughput.

Capacity Planning

The process of determining future resource requirements based on growth projections, usage patterns, and performance requirements.

Capacity Reservation

Pre-allocating computing resources to ensure availability when needed, providing guaranteed capacity for critical workloads.

CAPEX (Capital Expenditure)

Upfront costs for purchasing physical infrastructure like servers, storage, and network equipment. Cloud computing shifts this to OPEX.

Carbon Footprint

The total greenhouse gas emissions caused by cloud infrastructure operations. Cloud providers increasingly focus on carbon neutrality.

Cascade

A chain reaction where the failure of one component causes subsequent failures in dependent components. Requires circuit breakers to prevent.

Cascading Failure

A systemic failure where the breakdown of one part triggers failures in other parts, potentially bringing down entire systems.

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A distributed network of servers that deliver web content to users from geographically closer locations to improve performance.

Certificate

A digital document that proves the ownership of a public key, used for SSL/TLS encryption and authentication.

Certificate Management

The processes and tools for creating, deploying, monitoring, and renewing digital certificates throughout their lifecycle.

Certificate Pinning

A security technique that associates a host with their expected X.509 certificate or public key to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.

Certificate Renewal

The process of replacing expiring digital certificates with new ones to maintain continuous secure communications.

Certificate Transparency

A framework for monitoring and auditing SSL certificates to detect fraudulent or mistakenly issued certificates.

Certificate Validation

The process of verifying that a digital certificate is valid, not expired, and issued by a trusted certificate authority.

Chaos Engineering

The practice of intentionally introducing failures into systems to test resilience and identify weaknesses before they cause outages.

Checkpoint

A saved state of a running process or system that can be restored later, commonly used in disaster recovery and data processing.

CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing)

A method for allocating IP addresses and routing that allows for more flexible subnet creation than traditional class-based addressing.

Circuit Breaker

A design pattern that prevents cascading failures by monitoring for failures and stopping requests to failing services until they recover.

CISO (Chief Information Security Officer)

An executive responsible for an organization's information and data security strategy, policies, and incident response.

CLI (Command Line Interface)

A text-based interface for interacting with cloud services programmatically through commands and scripts.

Client

A program or system that requests services from a server. Can be a web browser, mobile app, or another server.

Client Certificate

A digital certificate used by clients to authenticate themselves to servers, providing mutual authentication in SSL/TLS connections.

Client-Server Architecture

A distributed computing model where client programs request services from server programs across a network.

Cloud

On-demand delivery of computing services including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and analytics over the internet.

Cloud Adoption

The process of migrating applications, data, and infrastructure from on-premises to cloud environments.

Cloud Architecture

The design and structure of cloud systems, including components, relationships, and principles for building scalable solutions.

Cloud Bursting

A hybrid cloud approach where applications run in private cloud normally but burst to public cloud during peak demand.

Cloud Computing

The delivery of computing services over the internet, providing scalable resources without managing physical infrastructure.

Cloud Connector

Software that enables connectivity and data exchange between cloud services and on-premises systems.

Cloud Cost Optimization

Strategies and practices for minimizing cloud spending while maintaining required performance and functionality.

Cloud Formation

Infrastructure as Code service for defining cloud resources using templates, enabling repeatable and version-controlled deployments.

Cloud Functions

Serverless compute service that runs code in response to events without managing servers or infrastructure.

Cloud Gateway

A connection point between cloud and on-premises networks, enabling secure and optimized data transfer.

Cloud Governance

Policies, procedures, and controls for managing cloud resources, ensuring compliance, security, and cost management.

Cloud Migration

The process of moving applications, data, and infrastructure from on-premises or other clouds to a cloud environment.

Cloud Native

Applications designed specifically for cloud environments, typically using microservices, containers, and DevOps practices.

Cloud Provider

A company that offers cloud computing services, infrastructure, and platforms to businesses and individuals.

Cloud Security

Protection of data, applications, and infrastructure in cloud environments through various security controls and practices.

Cloud Storage

Online storage services that allow data to be stored and accessed over the internet from anywhere.

CloudFront (AWS)

Amazon's content delivery network service that delivers content to users with low latency through a global network of edge locations.

CloudTrail (AWS)

AWS service that provides governance, compliance, operational auditing, and risk auditing by logging API calls.

CloudWatch (AWS)

Amazon's monitoring and observability service for AWS resources and applications, providing metrics, logs, and alarms.

Cluster

A group of connected computers that work together as a single system to provide high availability and performance.

Cluster Computing

Using multiple connected computers to solve complex problems that require more computing power than a single machine can provide.

Cluster Management

Tools and practices for deploying, configuring, monitoring, and maintaining clusters of compute resources.

CNAME (Canonical Name)

A DNS record type that creates an alias from one domain name to another, useful for managing subdomains.

Code Deployment

The process of releasing software code to production environments, including packaging, testing, and rollout strategies.

Code Repository

A storage location for source code, typically with version control capabilities to track changes and collaborate.

Code Review

The systematic examination of source code by developers to find bugs, improve quality, and share knowledge.

Cold Backup

A backup performed when the system is offline or inactive, ensuring data consistency but requiring downtime.

Cold Start

The delay experienced when a serverless function or container is invoked for the first time or after being idle.

Cold Storage

Long-term, low-cost storage for infrequently accessed data with longer retrieval times but significantly lower costs.

Collocation

Housing privately-owned servers and networking equipment in a third-party data center facility.

Compliance

Adhering to laws, regulations, standards, and internal policies that govern data handling, security, and business operations.

Compliance Audit

A systematic review to ensure systems and processes meet required regulatory and industry standards.

Compliance Framework

A structured set of guidelines and requirements that organizations must follow to meet regulatory obligations.

Compute

Processing power provided by CPUs, GPUs, or specialized processors to run applications and perform calculations.

Compute Engine (Google Cloud)

Google Cloud's virtual machine service that provides scalable, high-performance computing resources.

Compute Instance

A virtual server running in the cloud with specified CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources.

Compute Node

A server or virtual machine dedicated to processing workloads, typically part of a larger cluster or grid.

Configuration

Settings and parameters that define how software applications, systems, or services operate and behave.

Configuration Drift

When system configurations change from their intended state over time, potentially causing security or performance issues.

Configuration Management

Tools and practices for maintaining consistent system configurations across environments and managing changes.

Connection

A communication link established between two or more systems, applications, or network components.

Connection Pool

A cache of database connections maintained for reuse to improve performance and resource utilization.

Consistency

The property that ensures all nodes in a distributed system see the same data at the same time.

Container

A lightweight, portable package that includes application code and all dependencies needed to run consistently across environments.

Container Engine

A runtime system that manages the lifecycle of containers, including creation, execution, and destruction.

Container Image

A read-only template used to create containers, containing the application code, runtime, libraries, and dependencies.

Container Orchestration

Automated deployment, management, scaling, and networking of containers across clusters of machines.

Container Registry

A service for storing, managing, and deploying container images with version control and access management.

Containerization

The process of packaging applications and their dependencies into containers for consistent deployment across environments.

Content Delivery

Distributing digital content (web pages, videos, files) to users through geographically distributed servers for improved performance.

Content Management

Systems and processes for creating, storing, organizing, and publishing digital content across various channels.

Control Plane

The part of a system responsible for managing and configuring the data plane, making decisions about routing and policies.

Cost Center

An organizational unit used for tracking and allocating cloud costs to specific departments, projects, or business units.

Cost Management

Tools and practices for monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing cloud spending to ensure cost-effective resource usage.

Cost Optimization

Strategies to reduce cloud expenses while maintaining performance, including rightsizing, reserved instances, and automation.

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

The primary component of a computer that executes instructions and performs calculations for running applications.

CPU Credits

A mechanism in burstable performance instances that allows temporary CPU usage above baseline levels based on accumulated credits.

CPU Utilization

The percentage of CPU capacity being used at a given time, a key metric for performance monitoring and scaling decisions.

Credential

Authentication information such as usernames, passwords, API keys, or certificates used to verify identity and access.

Cross-Region Replication

Automatically copying data across different geographic regions to improve availability and disaster recovery.

Cryptography

The practice of securing communications and data through mathematical algorithms and techniques for encryption and decryption.

CSP (Cloud Service Provider)

A company that provides cloud computing services including infrastructure, platforms, and software solutions.

Custom Domain

A personalized web address that represents your brand instead of using default domain names provided by cloud services.

Customer Data

Information belonging to an organization's customers that must be protected according to privacy laws and regulations.

Customer Managed Keys

Encryption keys that customers control and manage themselves, providing additional security and compliance benefits.

Cybersecurity

The practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from digital attacks, unauthorized access, and cyber threats.