Cloud computing
Using computing resources like servers, storage, databases, networking, and software over the internet instead of owning and managing everything yourself.
Practice cloud concepts →Cloud glossary
Azure and cloud terms in plain English.
Use these definitions to distinguish cloud models, Azure organization, identity, governance, reliability, and pricing terms that appear in fundamentals scenarios.
How to use this glossary
Learn terms as pairs, not isolated flashcards.
For AZ-900 and other cloud fundamentals exams, many questions test whether you can tell similar terms apart. Pay special attention to pairs like IaaS vs. PaaS, scalability vs. elasticity, authentication vs. authorization, and region vs. availability zone.
Cloud basics
Public cloud
Cloud services offered by a provider like Microsoft Azure and shared across many customers while keeping each customer logically separated.
Private cloud
A cloud computing environment used exclusively by one organization. It can run in the organization’s own datacenter or be hosted by a third party.
Hybrid cloud
A setup that connects on-premises systems, private cloud, and public cloud resources so they can work together.
Multicloud
Using cloud services from more than one provider, such as Azure plus another public cloud.
Service models
IaaS
Infrastructure as a Service. You rent virtual machines, storage, and networking while still managing the operating system, apps, and data.
Practice service models →PaaS
Platform as a Service. You focus on deploying apps while the cloud provider handles more of the operating system, runtime, and infrastructure management.
Practice service models →SaaS
Software as a Service. You use a complete application over the internet, such as email or collaboration software, without managing the underlying platform.
Practice service models →Serverless
A cloud model where you run code or workflows without managing servers directly. You usually pay based on executions or usage.
Azure organization
Tenant
A dedicated Microsoft Entra ID instance for an organization. It stores users, groups, apps, and identity settings.
Subscription
A billing and management boundary for Azure resources. Resources are created inside subscriptions.
Resource group
A logical container used to organize related Azure resources so they can be managed together.
Management group
A higher-level container used to organize multiple subscriptions and apply governance at scale.
Practice governance →Azure region
A geographic area containing Azure datacenters where resources can be deployed.
Practice architecture →Availability zone
A physically separate group of datacenters within an Azure region, with independent power, cooling, and networking to reduce the effect of a datacenter failure.
Practice architecture →Reliability and scale
Scalability
The ability to increase or decrease resources to meet demand.
Elasticity
Scaling resources automatically or quickly as demand changes, often scaling back down when demand drops.
High availability
Designing systems so they continue working with minimal downtime.
Fault tolerance
The ability for a system to keep working when a component fails.
Disaster recovery
Planning and technology used to restore services after a major outage or disaster.
SLA
Service Level Agreement. A provider commitment about uptime or service availability, often expressed as a percentage.
Identity, security, and governance
Authentication
Proving who you are, usually with a username, password, multifactor authentication, or another identity method.
Practice identity →Authorization
Determining what an authenticated user, app, or service is allowed to access.
Practice identity →Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft’s cloud identity and access management service, formerly called Azure Active Directory.
Practice identity →RBAC
Role-Based Access Control. A way to grant permissions based on roles assigned to users, groups, or service principals.
Practice identity →Shared responsibility
The security model in which Microsoft secures the physical cloud infrastructure, customers retain responsibility for their data, identities, accounts, and endpoints, and other duties vary by service model.
Practice shared responsibility →Policy
Rules used to enforce or audit requirements across Azure resources, such as allowed regions or required tags.
Practice governance →Compliance
Meeting legal, regulatory, or organizational requirements for security, privacy, data handling, and operations.
Cost and operations
CapEx
Capital expenditure. Spending money upfront on assets like servers and datacenters.
OpEx
Operational expenditure. Ongoing spending for services as they are used, common in cloud billing.
Consumption-based pricing
A pricing model where you pay for what you use instead of buying fixed capacity upfront.
Azure Cost Management
Azure tools for monitoring, analyzing, budgeting, and optimizing cloud spending.
Monitoring
Collecting metrics, logs, and alerts so teams can understand the health and performance of systems.
Tags
Name-value labels applied to Azure resources to help organize costs, ownership, environments, or departments.
Practice governance →Independent training note
Check official terminology
WebLizard Labs is independent and is not affiliated with Microsoft. Check Microsoft Learn for current product terminology, documentation, and exam details.