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Concept

75 terms in this category.

Apache Foundation(ASF)

concept

A nonprofit organization providing governance, legal protection, and infrastructure for open-source software projects.

open-sourcegovernancecommunity

Application Programming Interface(API)

concept

A set of rules and protocols that allows software applications to communicate with each other.

integrationdevelopmentprotocols

AsyncAPI

concept

A specification for defining and documenting event-driven and asynchronous APIs in a standardized way.

apiasyncspecification

Authentication(AuthN)

concept

The process of verifying that a user or system is who they claim to be, typically through credentials like passwords or tokens.

securityidentityaccess-control

Authorization(AuthZ)

concept

The process of determining what actions or resources an authenticated user or system is permitted to access.

securityidentityaccess-control

Bare Metal

concept

A physical server dedicated to a single tenant with no virtualization layer, offering maximum performance and control.

infrastructurehostinghardware

Basic Auth

concept

HTTP Basic Authentication sends a Base64-encoded username and password with each request. Simple but insecure without TLS.

securityauthenticationhttp

Bearer Token

concept

An access token sent in HTTP headers that grants the bearer access to protected resources without additional proof.

securityauthenticationapi

Cache

concept

A temporary high-speed data storage layer that reduces latency by serving frequently accessed data.

performancestorageoptimization

Container

concept

A lightweight, standalone package that includes everything needed to run a piece of software: code, runtime, and libraries.

containersvirtualizationisolation

Container Network Interface(CNI)

concept

A specification and plugin framework that defines how container runtimes configure networking for containers.

networkingkubernetescontainers

Container Registry

concept

A service for storing, managing, and distributing container images, acting as the library catalog for your packaged applications.

containersimagesregistry

Container Runtime Interface(CRI)

concept

A Kubernetes plugin interface that defines how the kubelet communicates with container runtimes to manage pod and container lifecycle.

containerskubernetesruntime

Container Storage Interface(CSI)

concept

A standard interface that enables container orchestrators to manage and provision storage from any compatible backend.

storagekubernetescontainers

Database

concept

A system designed to store, organize, and retrieve structured or unstructured data efficiently.

storagedatainfrastructure

eBPF(eBPF)

concept

A Linux kernel technology that lets you run sandboxed programs in the kernel without changing kernel code or loading modules.

linuxnetworkingobservability

Egress

concept

Outbound network traffic leaving a cluster, network, or security boundary toward external destinations.

networkingsecuritytraffic

Egress Gateway

concept

A dedicated, controlled exit point that routes and monitors all outbound traffic from a cluster or service mesh.

networkingsecurityservice-mesh

Ephemeral

concept

Describes short-lived, disposable resources designed to be created and destroyed on demand without lasting side effects.

cloud-nativecontainersinfrastructure

Firewall

concept

A network security device or software that monitors and filters incoming and outgoing traffic based on defined rules.

securitynetworking

Gateway

concept

A network entry point that routes, filters, and manages traffic between clients and backend services.

networkingapitraffic-management

GraphQL

concept

A query language for APIs that lets clients request exactly the data they need in a single request.

apiquery-languagefacebook

gRPC(gRPC)

concept

A high-performance, open-source RPC framework that uses HTTP/2 and Protocol Buffers for efficient communication.

apirpcperformance

Helm Chart

concept

A packaged collection of Kubernetes resource templates and configuration that Helm uses to deploy applications.

kubernetespackagingdeployment

HTTP(HTTP)

concept

The foundational application-layer protocol for transmitting hypermedia documents and powering communication on the World Wide Web.

protocolwebnetworking

Idempotency

concept

A property where performing an operation multiple times produces the same result as performing it once.

reliabilityapi-designinfrastructure

Infrastructure as Code(IaC)

concept

The practice of managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable definition files rather than manual processes.

iacautomationbest-practices

Ingress

concept

Inbound network traffic entering a cluster or network, or the Kubernetes resource that manages external access to services.

networkingkubernetestraffic

JSON(JSON)

concept

A lightweight, human-readable data interchange format based on JavaScript object syntax, used everywhere from APIs to config files.

data-formatserializationweb

JSON Web Token(JWT)

concept

A compact, URL-safe token format for securely transmitting claims between parties, commonly used for authentication.

securityauthenticationtokens

JSON-RPC

concept

A lightweight, stateless RPC protocol that uses JSON for encoding requests and responses.

apirpcjson

Large Language Model(LLM)

concept

A neural network trained on massive text datasets that can generate, analyze, and reason about human language.

aimachine-learningnlp

Logs

concept

Recorded events and messages from applications and systems, providing a trail of what happened and when.

observabilitydebuggingmonitoring

Message Broker

concept

Middleware that routes, transforms, and delivers messages between distributed services.

messagingmiddlewareintegration

Messaging

concept

A pattern for asynchronous communication between services using messages passed through intermediaries.

distributed-systemsasyncintegration

Metrics

concept

Numerical measurements collected over time that quantify the behavior and performance of systems.

observabilitymonitoringperformance

NoSQL Databases

concept

Non-relational databases designed for flexible schemas, horizontal scaling, and specific data models.

databasescalabilitydistributed-systems

OAuth 2.0(OAuth2)

concept

An authorization framework that lets third-party apps access resources on behalf of a user without exposing their credentials.

securityauthorizationidentity

Observability(o11y)

concept

The ability to understand a system's internal state from its external outputs: logs, metrics, and traces.

monitoringdebuggingsre

OLAP(OLAP)

concept

A computing approach optimized for complex analytical queries across large datasets, using multidimensional data models.

analyticsdatadatabases

Open Container Initiative(OCI)

concept

An open governance structure for creating industry standards around container image formats and runtime specifications.

containersstandardscloud-native

Open Worldwide Application Security Project(OWASP)

concept

A nonprofit foundation producing widely adopted resources, tools, and standards for application security.

securitybest-practicesvulnerabilities

OpenAPI Specification

concept

A standard, language-agnostic specification for describing RESTful APIs in a machine-readable format.

apidocumentationspecification

OpenID Connect(OIDC)

concept

An identity layer on top of OAuth 2.0 that lets applications verify user identity and obtain basic profile information.

securityauthenticationidentity

OpenTelemetry Protocol(OTLP)

concept

The native protocol for transmitting telemetry data between OpenTelemetry components and backends.

observabilityprotocoltelemetry

Port Forwarding

concept

Redirecting network traffic from one address and port to another, commonly used for local debugging of remote or containerized services.

networkingdebuggingdevelopment

Protocol Buffers

concept

A language-neutral, platform-neutral binary serialization format developed by Google for structured data.

serializationgrpcperformance

QUIC(QUIC)

concept

A modern transport protocol built on UDP that provides multiplexed, encrypted connections and powers HTTP/3.

protocolnetworkingperformance

Remote Procedure Call(RPC)

concept

A protocol that allows a program to execute a procedure on a remote server as if it were a local function call.

networkingprotocolsdistributed-systems

Representational State Transfer(REST)

concept

An architectural style for designing networked applications using stateless HTTP methods and resource-based URLs.

apiarchitecturehttp

SCIM(SCIM)

concept

A protocol for automating user identity provisioning and deprovisioning across multiple systems and services.

securityidentityprovisioning

SDK(SDK)

concept

A collection of tools, libraries, and documentation that helps developers build software for a specific platform or service.

developmentlibrariestooling

Secure Shell(SSH)

concept

A cryptographic network protocol for secure remote access, command execution, and tunneling over untrusted networks.

securitynetworkingprotocols

Server-Sent Events(SSE)

concept

A server push technology enabling a client to receive automatic updates from a server over a single, long-lived HTTP connection.

protocolreal-timestreaming

Serverless

concept

A cloud execution model where the provider manages infrastructure and dynamically allocates resources per request.

cloudarchitecturefaas

Service Level Agreement(SLA)

concept

A formal contract between a service provider and customer defining expected service levels and consequences.

reliabilitybusinesscontracts

Service Level Indicator(SLI)

concept

A quantitative measure of a specific aspect of service reliability, like latency, availability, or error rate.

reliabilitymetricssre

Service Level Objective(SLO)

concept

A target value or range for a service level measured by an SLI, like 99.9% availability over 30 days.

reliabilitysremetrics

Service Mesh

concept

A dedicated infrastructure layer for managing service-to-service communication, providing observability, security, and reliability.

networkinginfrastructureistio

SOAP(SOAP)

concept

A protocol for exchanging structured information in web services using XML-based messaging over HTTP and other transports.

apiprotocolxml

Stream

concept

A continuous, ordered flow of data or events processed incrementally in real time.

streamingreal-timedata

Structured Query Language(SQL)

concept

The standard language for managing and querying relational databases.

databasequery-languagedata

TCP(TCP)

concept

A connection-oriented transport protocol that provides reliable, ordered delivery of data between applications over IP networks.

networkingprotocoltransport

TLS(TLS)

concept

A cryptographic protocol that provides end-to-end encryption, authentication, and data integrity for communications over networks.

securityencryptionnetworking

Traces

concept

Records of requests as they flow through distributed systems, showing the path and timing across services.

observabilitydistributed-systemsdebugging

UDP(UDP)

concept

A connectionless transport protocol that sends datagrams without guarantees of delivery, ordering, or duplicate protection.

networkingprotocoltransport

Virtual Machine(VM)

concept

A software-based emulation of a physical computer that runs its own OS and applications in an isolated environment.

virtualizationinfrastructurecloud

VPN(VPN)

concept

A technology that creates encrypted tunnels between networks, enabling secure remote access and private communication.

networkingsecurityencryption

VPS(VPS)

concept

A virtualized server environment that provides dedicated resources on shared physical hardware with root-level access.

infrastructurehostingvirtualization

Web Application Firewall(WAF)

concept

A security layer that filters and monitors HTTP traffic to protect web applications from common attacks.

securitynetworkingprotection

WebAssembly(WASM)

concept

A portable, high-performance binary instruction format designed as a compilation target for multiple programming languages.

runtimeperformanceportability

WebAssembly System Interface(WASI)

concept

A standardized system interface that lets WebAssembly modules securely access OS-level resources like files and networking.

runtimewasmportability

WebSockets

concept

A protocol providing full-duplex, persistent communication channels over a single TCP connection between client and server.

protocolreal-timenetworking

XML(XML)

concept

A markup language for encoding documents and data in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

data-formatserializationlegacy

YAML(YAML)

concept

A human-readable data serialization format widely used for configuration files in DevOps tools and Kubernetes manifests.

configurationdata-formatserialization