The Cloud Hosting Dictionary

Apache

The standard webserver application that ships with the majority of Linux operating system distributions.

Auto Scaling

The ability for you to set how and when you server should shrink or grow without a reboot, when you get changes in traffic.

Autohealing

The ability for VPS.NET clouds to automatically move your cloud server to another section of the cloud in the case of hardware failure.

Bandwidth

The amount of data that can be carried from your VPS server to the Internet in a given time period – usually in a month. Bandwidth is usually expressed in Gigabytes (GB) or TeraBytes (TB).

Cloud

A highly available and scalable platform on which you run your cloud server

Cloud Migration

When your server is moved from one location to another. All your data is moved and you may get a new IP address.

Cloud Server

A Linux or Windows based server hosted on highly redundant storage and hardware with scalability and availability.

Cloudkeeper

A white label control panel systems designed for VPS.NET resellers and reseller customers to add/edit/manage their nodes and Cloud VPS servers. Cloudkeeper includes support for PayPal payments as well as its own dedicated ticket support system.

cPanel

cPanel is a powerful web hosting control panel that provides a graphical interface and automation tools designed to simplify the process of hosting a web site. cPanel utilizes a three-tier structure that provides capabilities for administrators, resellers, and end-user website owners to control the various aspects of website and server administration through a standard web browser.

CPU

Central Processing Unit – the processor that runs your cloud servers. Increasing CPU power is one way to increase the speed of your websites and applications.

Dedicated IP Address

A dedicated IP address is allocated for the exclusive use of your server.

DNS

Domain Name System. The system that converts your domain name into an IP address.

Domain Name

A name such as “yourdomain.com” which is typically used as a website address.

Enterprise Storage

A storage solution from a blue chip company (HP/NetApp/IBM) that has very high levels of performance, redundancy and feature set.

HA

High availability means that if a part of the system fails another part will leap right in and take over, avoiding any interuption to your service.

HV

HV or Hypervisor is physical server used to provide memory and CPU to your cloud servers.

Hypervisor Migration

Your CPU and memory are moved to another server in the cloud.

IIS

Internet Information Services is the Web Server application that ships with Windows to provide the ability to serve web pages. This is similar to Apache. IIS is required if your website is written in the ASP programming language.

IP Address

A set of four numbers that point to a location on the internet.

LAMP Stack

Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP combined together on a cloud server to host many popular applications such as WordPress or other PHP based applications.

Linux

A free popular operating system (OS) that powers a majority of the websites on the Internet.

MySQL

A common open-source database application.

NGINX

A replacement for Apache, that runs faster and uses less resources.

Node

A bundle of disk space, memory, bandwidth and CPU all wrapped up into one package. Think of it as a lego brick that you can use by itself or to stack up together with more nodes to create a larger VPS server.

OS or O.S.

This stands for Operating System such as Windows or Linux.

PHP

A programming language that many popular web applications are written in

R1SOFT

A backup program that copies only the parts of files that have changed, rather than the entire file.

RAID

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks – This means that your data is stored on two or more disks, so that if a single disk fails you will not lose your data. The failed disk can then be removed and replaced.

RAM

Random Access Memory. The memory allocated to your cloud server. More memory can be used to increase the speed and/or number of applications and processes you can run at the same time.

Root Access

A super-user account with all rights or permissions to all files and programs, in all modes – single- or multi-user – within a Linux OS environment.

SAN

Storage Area Network. The hardware on which the disk portion of your hosting is stored, which is physically separate from the HV’s. This has high levels of redundancy via RAID

SAN Migration

Your data is moved to another storage device but your IP stays the same.

Server

An allocation of resource, either physical or virtual, that can be used to run an application or website.

Snapshot backups

An automatic backup that takes a photo of your server at any moment in time.

SSL Certificate

Enabling secure communication for your website to allow you to handle ecommerce and other similar, secure, websites.

VPS

A Linux or Windows-based server hosted on a single physical server, not a cloud.

W3TC

Stands for W3 Total Cache, this is a WordPress plug-in module that improves the user experience of your WordPress site by increasing server performance and reducing the download times. This means more people can view your website faster than if this plugin was not installed.

WAMP

Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Similar to LAMP, but using Windows instead.

WHMCS

WHMCS is an all-in-one client management, billing and support solution for online businesses. Handling everything from sign-up to termination, WHMCS is a powerful automation and support tool and is usually used with Cpanel control panel systems.

WIMP

Windows, IIS, MySQL and PHP. Used to provide native support for websites written in ASP and other Windows-based languages.

Windows

The most common desktop operating system, developed by Microsoft.

WordPress

A popular blogging platform used to power 19 percent of the top 10 million websites.