Glossary
Glossary of 28 AWS, CDK, Linux, Python, and developer-tooling terms used across CloudBytes/dev.
AWS
- AWS CDK #aws-cdk
- AWS Cloud Development Kit — an open-source framework for defining AWS infrastructure as code in TypeScript, Python, Java, C#, or Go. The CDK synthesises programs into AWS CloudFormation templates that AWS deploys on your behalf.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- AWS Lambda #aws-lambda
- Amazon's event-driven, serverless compute service. Run code in response to triggers (HTTP, S3 events, EventBridge, etc.) without provisioning servers. Billed per invocation and millisecond of execution.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- Amazon S3 #amazon-s3
- Amazon Simple Storage Service — object storage with virtually unlimited capacity, organised into buckets. Used for static assets, backups, data lakes, and Lambda code artefacts.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- Amazon EC2 #amazon-ec2
- Elastic Compute Cloud — Amazon's virtual-server-as-a-service. EC2 instances are virtual machines you launch from images (AMIs) into a VPC, with configurable CPU, memory, networking, and storage.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- Amazon VPC #amazon-vpc
- Virtual Private Cloud — an isolated, logically separate network inside AWS where you launch EC2 instances and other resources. Includes subnets, route tables, internet gateways, and security groups.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- AWS IAM #iam
- Identity and Access Management — AWS's permissions system. Defines users, roles, and policies that control who can perform which actions on which AWS resources.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- Amazon EFS #amazon-efs
- Elastic File System — managed, network-mounted POSIX filesystem accessible from EC2, Lambda, and on-prem servers. Scales elastically; pay per GB stored.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- Amazon FSx for Lustre #amazon-fsx-lustre
- Managed high-performance Lustre filesystem on AWS. Designed for HPC, ML, and media workloads where throughput and parallel access matter more than long-term storage cost.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- AWS SAM #aws-sam
- Serverless Application Model — an open-source framework for defining serverless apps (Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB) using a shorthand YAML on top of CloudFormation.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- AWS CloudFormation #cloudformation
- AWS's infrastructure-as-code service. CloudFormation deploys stacks of AWS resources defined in JSON or YAML templates; AWS CDK and AWS SAM both compile down to CloudFormation under the hood.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- Amazon RDS #amazon-rds
- Relational Database Service — managed Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and Aurora databases on AWS. RDS handles backups, replicas, patching, and failover.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
- AWS DMS #aws-dms
- Database Migration Service — moves data from a source database (on-prem or cloud) to a target database with minimal downtime. Supports homogeneous and heterogeneous migrations.
- Reference: docs.aws.amazon.com
Linux
- WSL2 #wsl2
- Windows Subsystem for Linux v2 — runs a real Linux kernel inside a lightweight VM on Windows 10/11. Lets developers run Ubuntu (or other distros) alongside Windows with near-native performance.
- Reference: learn.microsoft.com
- Ubuntu #ubuntu
- A widely used Debian-based Linux distribution maintained by Canonical. Ships with apt as its package manager and a six-month release cadence, with LTS releases every two years.
- Reference: ubuntu.com
- SSH #ssh
- Secure Shell — a cryptographic network protocol for operating remote services securely. Common uses: remote terminal sessions, file transfer (scp/sftp), and authenticating Git pushes.
- Reference: en.wikipedia.org
Windows
- Hyper-V #hyper-v
- Microsoft's hypervisor, built into Windows 10/11 Pro and Enterprise (and enabled on Home via a sideload script). Hosts virtual machines including the Linux kernel that powers WSL2.
- Reference: learn.microsoft.com
Python
- Python venv #python-venv
- Python's built-in virtual-environment module (`python -m venv`). Creates a per-project Python interpreter with its own `pip` and isolated packages, avoiding system-wide dependency conflicts.
- Reference: docs.python.org
- pip #pip
- The reference package installer for Python. Reads requirements from PyPI and installs them into the active environment (system or virtualenv).
- Reference: pip.pypa.io
- FastAPI #fastapi
- A modern Python web framework built on Starlette and Pydantic. Uses type hints to generate OpenAPI docs, request/response validation, and dependency-injection patterns out of the box.
- Reference: fastapi.tiangolo.com
- Flask #flask
- A long-standing Python micro-framework for building web applications and APIs. Minimal core, big ecosystem; used inside Airbnb, Netflix, Uber, and many smaller services.
- Reference: flask.palletsprojects.com
- Selenium #selenium
- A browser-automation library used for end-to-end UI testing and headless web scraping. Drives Chrome, Firefox, and other browsers via the WebDriver protocol.
- Reference: selenium.dev
- Jupyter Notebook #jupyter-notebook
- An interactive document format combining code, prose, and rich output. Common in data science and prototyping; runs Python via IPython by default but supports many other kernels.
- Reference: jupyter.org
Web
- Jamstack #jamstack
- An architecture where the frontend is a pre-built static bundle (JavaScript + Markup) that talks to APIs at runtime. Pages are CDN-cached, simplifying scale, security, and performance.
- Reference: jamstack.org
- Astro #astro
- An Islands-architecture web framework that ships zero JavaScript by default. Renders to HTML at build time and lets you opt into React/Vue/Svelte/etc. for individual interactive components.
- Reference: astro.build
- Pelican #pelican
- A Python static-site generator that takes Markdown/reStructuredText posts and themes them into a static blog. CloudBytes/dev was originally built on Pelican before migrating to Astro.
- Reference: getpelican.com
- Firebase Hosting #firebase-hosting
- Google's static-site hosting service with global CDN, custom domains, and an emulator suite for local previews. Used to host CloudBytes/dev.
- Reference: firebase.google.com
DevOps
- GitHub Actions #github-actions
- GitHub's built-in CI/CD platform. Workflows run in YAML-defined jobs triggered by events (push, pull_request, schedule, etc.) inside hosted runners.
- Reference: docs.github.com
- Docker #docker
- A platform for building and running containerised applications. Containers package code and dependencies in a portable image format that runs identically on a developer laptop, CI runner, and AWS Lambda or ECS.
- Reference: docker.com