Kubernetes & Cloud Native Glossary
Getting started with Kubernetes is not an easy task, and the last thing you need to worry about is terminology. Our Kubernetes glossary is a dictionary of the terminology used in the Kubernetes space, defined in the context of cloud native applications.
Terms for letter A
API Gateway
An API gateway is a central point for managing all traffic to a set of APIs or microservices. In a typical API ga…
Learn moreApplication Performance Monitoring (APM)
Application Performance Monitoring is a set of tools and practic…
Learn moreAPI
An API, or Application Programming Interface, is an interface that allows applications to communicate with one another, with othe…
Learn moreApplication Modernization
Application modernization is the process of taking legacy applications on older platform…
Learn moreAuthentication
Authentication is the verification of identity. Today's applications control access to sensitive data that sho…
Learn moreTerms for letter C
Canary Release
A canary release is a strategy for incrementally releasing new versions of an application or service to a su…
Learn moreCircuit Breaker
The circuit breaker pattern is a resilience pattern to prevent cascade failure. In a distributed system, t…
Learn moreCloud Native
Cloud-native is a culture for building software. In a cloud-native culture, decision making is decentralized, to e…
Learn moreContainer
A container is a self-contained software artifact that includes an application and all the dependencies necessary for …
Learn moreContainer Registry
A container registry is a central repository for container images. Popular public container registri…
Learn moreContinuous Delivery
Continuous delivery is the technique of being able to easily and quickly release software changes to…
Learn moreControl Plane
The control plane is a management layer that applies a consistent set of policies to a distributed data plane.…
Learn moreCustom Resource Definition
A Custom Resource Definition (CRD) is a way to extend the Kubernetes API for use cas…
Learn moreTerms for letter D
Data Plane
The data plane is a layer of service proxies that manage application-level network traffic. Data plane typically ope…
Learn moreDevOps
DevOps is a philosophy in which development and operations teams work together in a rapid cycle of building, testing, and depl…
Learn moreDistributed Tracing
Distributed tracing is a technique for troubleshooting and profiling distributed microservices appli…
Learn moreDocker
Docker is a suite of tools that allows the packaging, distribution, and deployment of software applications as containers. In …
Learn moreTerms for letter E
Envoy Proxy
Envoy Proxy is a modern, high performance, small footprint edge and service proxy. Envoy is most comparable to softw…
Learn moreTerms for letter F
Full Cycle Development
Full cycle development is a software development methodology where a development team owns the…
Learn moreTerms for letter G
GitOps
GitOps is an operating model for cloud-native applications built on the principle that the source of truth for an entire appli…
Learn moregZip Compression
Gzip compression is a technique for minimizing bandwidth in communication through compression. Gzip compre…
Learn moregRPC
gRPC is a high performance, polyglot RPC protocol and framework built on HTTP/2 and Protocol Buffers. Designed for applications th…
Learn moreTerms for letter H
Header Propagation
Header Propagation, also referred to as Context Propagation, is the technique by which context is tran…
Learn moreHigh Availability
High availability is a principle of software or an application maintaining functionality or “staying up”…
Learn moreHTTP
HTTP is an application protocol for data exchange that relies on a request/response model. Due to its nature as the foundational p…
Learn moreTerms for letter I
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Identity and Access Management is about defining and enforcing policies …
Learn moreIdentity Provider (IDP)
An Identity Provider is a trusted system or service that manages and verifies identity informat…
Learn moreIngress Controller
An ingress controller is a Kubernetes application that can process routing rules according to the K…
Learn moreIstio
Istio is an open source service mesh built on Envoy Proxy. Originally created by IBM and Google, Istio provides a broad set of s…
Learn moreiptables
iptables is a utility in the user-space where a root user can configure a set of table rules for the Linux kernel firewa…
Learn moreTerms for letter J
JWT
JSON Web Tokens, or JWTs, are a standard way for securely representing claims. A JWT consists of a digitally signed payload. The mos…
Learn moreTerms for letter K
Kube-proxy
Kube-proxy is the routing layer used by Kubernetes to route traffic between nodes in a cluster. Built on iptables, k…
Learn moreKubectl
Kubectl is the command line interface that developers and operators use to interact with the Kubernetes API. Kubectl connect…
Learn moreKubernetes
Kubernetes is an open-source container management system widely used for running cloud applications. Originally develo…
Learn moreTerms for letter L
Layer 7
Layer 7 is the application-level communication layer in the OSI network model. In networking, communication between services…
Learn moreLoad Balancer
A load balancer is a traffic management implementation that optimizes resource use by distributing network tra…
Learn moreTerms for letter M
Microservices
A microservices is a software module that is developed, deployed, and released independently. Multiple microser…
Learn moreMonolith
A monolith is a single, standalone application that is deployed as a single unit. Monoliths were a dominant application …
Learn moreMulti-Cluster
Multi-cluster is an architecture strategy for deploying a cloud native application on or across multiple Kuberne…
Learn moreTerms for letter N
Node
A Kubernetes node is a physical or virtual machine that runs containerized workloads. A Kubernetes cluster consists of multiple …
Learn moreNodePort
A NodePort is a way to enable Kubernetes services to receive traffic from outside the cluster. In a NodePort, the Kubernet…
Learn moreTerms for letter O
OAuth
OAuth is an open standard and protocol for authentication on the Internet.The OAuth protocol enables Single Sign-On use cases, w…
Learn moreObservability
Observability is the ability for a system to provide data into the behavior of systems, along with the context w…
Learn moreOIDC
OpenID Connect (OIDC) is an authentication layer that enables web applications to authenticate users without storing and managing …
Learn moreTerms for letter P
Pod
Pods are the basic compute deployment unit in Kubernetes. Pods consist of one or more containers. All containers on the pod are ma…
Learn moreProgressive Delivery
Progressive delivery is a software development practice that emphasizes incrementally releasing fe…
Learn moreProxy
A proxy is an intermediary between a source (typically, a client) and a destination (typically, a server-based application). W…
Learn moreTerms for letter R
Resilience
Resilience is the ability for an application to maintain operational status and acceptable service to users despite fa…
Learn moreRate Limiting
Rate limiting is a technique used to control the amount of incoming and outgoing traffic to or from a network, o…
Learn moreTerms for letter S
Self-Service
Self-service is an operating model for infrastructure software focused on empowering application developers to saf…
Learn moreServer Name Indication
Server Name Indication, or SNI, is an extension to the TLS protocol that allows a single serve…
Learn moreService Catalog
A Service Catalog is a centralized portal for tracking microservices. With access to a Service Catalog, de…
Learn moreServerless
Serverless is a computing model where code is directly deployed on compute resources in a way that is abstracted from …
Learn moreService Discovery
Service discovery is how applications and (micro)services locate each other on a network. Service discov…
Learn moreSession Affinity
Session affinity is a load balancing technique that recognizes and links an HTTP request from an end user …
Learn moreService Mesh
A service mesh is a network layer that secures, manages and observes application-level communication. In a service…
Learn moreTerms for letter T
Transport Layer Security (TLS)
Transport Layer Security, or TLS, is a network protocol that secures network c…
Learn moreTraffic Shadowing
Traffic shadowing is a routing strategy whereby incoming requests are duplicated and sent to two differe…
Learn moreTerms for letter V
Version 0
Version 0 is a development technique that involves shipping an end-to-end development and deployment workflow as the fir…
Learn moreVirtual Machine
A virtual machine is a software computer that simulates a physical machine. Virtual machines are designed …
Learn moreTerms for letter Y
YAML
YAML is a common, human readable language for configuration. Defined as a recursive acronym "YAML Ain’t Markup Language," YAML is …
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