AWS Cloud Concepts, Infrastructure, Economics, and Support

Vocabulary flashcards covering AWS Global Infrastructure, cloud service categories, cloud economics and billing, cloud concepts, and the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework.

Cloud Computing

The on-demand delivery of computing resources over the internet using a pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Infrastructure as Software

A cloud concept where infrastructure resources can be created, configured, modified, and removed through software interfaces rather than physical hardware management.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

A cloud service model providing fundamental building blocks such as virtual servers, networking, and storage, giving customers the highest level of control over computing resources.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

A cloud service model providing a ready-to-use development platform where developers build, test, deploy, and manage applications without maintaining underlying hardware or operating systems.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

A cloud service model delivering fully functional software applications over the internet, managed entirely by the provider and accessed via web browser or client application.

AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF)

A framework providing guidance and best practices across six core perspectives to help organizations develop a comprehensive approach to cloud computing throughout the IT lifecycle.

Business Perspective (AWS CAF)

An AWS CAF perspective focused on ensuring IT investments support business objectives and produce measurable business results.

People Perspective (AWS CAF)

An AWS CAF perspective focused on preparing the workforce for cloud adoption through training, change management, and organizational structure evaluations.

Governance Perspective (AWS CAF)

An AWS CAF perspective focused on aligning IT strategies with business goals through portfolio, project, performance, and license management.

Platform Perspective (AWS CAF)

An AWS CAF perspective focused on designing, implementing, and managing cloud infrastructure, including compute, network, storage, and database provisioning.

Security Perspective (AWS CAF)

An AWS CAF perspective focused on achieving security objectives through identity access, detective controls, infrastructure security, data protection, and incident response.

Operations Perspective (AWS CAF)

An AWS CAF perspective focused on supporting day-to-day operations after cloud implementation, including service monitoring, release management, and disaster recovery.

AWS Region

A separate geographic area in which AWS operates cloud infrastructure, isolated from other Regions to support fault tolerance and stability.

Availability Zone (AZ)

An isolated location within an AWS Region consisting of one or more discrete data centers connected through high-bandwidth, low-latency private networking.

AWS Data Center

A physical facility with redundant power, networking, and connectivity where computing, storage, and network processing occur.

Point of Presence

Infrastructure consisting of edge locations and Regional edge caches that bring AWS content and network services closer to end users to reduce latency.

Amazon CloudFront

A content delivery network (CDN) service that uses edge locations to deliver content globally with low latency and high transfer speeds.

Amazon S3

An object storage service providing scalable storage and protection of data used by applications, backups, archives, and analytics.

Amazon EBS

High-performance block storage designed primarily for use with Amazon EC2 instances.

Amazon EFS

Managed, elastic file storage that scales automatically as files are added or removed.

Amazon EC2

An AWS compute service providing resizable virtual machines in the cloud.

AWS Lambda

A serverless compute service that runs code in response to events without requiring server provisioning or management.

Amazon RDS

A relational database service that simplifies database setup, operation, and scaling while automating administrative tasks.

Amazon DynamoDB

A managed key-value and document database service designed for consistent low-latency performance at scale.

Amazon Redshift

A cloud data warehouse service built for large-scale analytics and complex database queries.

Amazon VPC

An AWS networking service that creates logically isolated virtual networks in the AWS Cloud.

AWS IAM

A security service that manages access to AWS services and resources through identities and permission policies.

AWS Organizations

A free account management service that consolidates multiple AWS accounts for central control, policy management, and consolidated billing.

Service Control Policy (SCP)

An organization-level policy in AWS Organizations that sets permission guardrails by allowing or denying access to AWS services across member accounts.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

A financial estimate identifying both direct and indirect costs associated with purchasing, operating, maintaining, and supporting an IT solution.

All Upfront Reserved Instance (AURI)

A Reserved Instance payment option requiring full payment upfront while offering the largest discount relative to on-demand pricing.

AWS Pricing Calculator

A planning tool used to model proposed cloud architectures and estimate monthly costs, upfront payments, and instance options.

AWS Cost Explorer

A tool that visualizes historical AWS spending and usage patterns over time and provides spending forecasts for upcoming months.

AWS Budgets

A cost tracking tool that allows users to create custom cost or usage budgets and triggers alerts when actual or forecasted metrics cross thresholds.

Technical Account Manager (TAM)

An Enterprise Support resource who provides proactive technical guidance, architectural reviews, and ongoing communication for business-critical workloads.