Cloud Computing Beginner

What is Virtual Machine (VM)?

A software-based emulation of a physical computer that runs its own operating system and applications.

Virtual machines run on a hypervisor that abstracts physical hardware, allowing multiple VMs to share a single physical server. Each VM has its own OS, CPU allocation, memory, and disk, providing complete isolation.

VMs are heavier than containers (full OS per VM) but provide stronger isolation. Popular hypervisors include VMware ESXi, KVM (Linux), and Hyper-V (Microsoft). Cloud VMs include EC2 (AWS), Azure VMs, and Compute Engine (GCP).

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Azure Virtual Machines & Networking Fundamentals

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Related Terms

Serverless Computing

A cloud execution model where the provider manages servers and dynamically allocates resources, charging only for actual usage.

A distributed computing paradigm that processes data near the source of generation rather than in a centralized cloud data center.

An AWS service that provisions and manages cloud resources using declarative JSON or YAML templates.

SLA (Service Level Agreement)

A formal agreement between a service provider and customer defining guaranteed levels of service availability and performance.

CDK (Cloud Development Kit)

A software development framework for defining cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages instead of YAML or JSON templates.

Region and Availability Zone

Geographic locations where cloud providers operate data centers, with zones providing redundancy within a region.

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