Terminology in xneelo Cloud

General cloud terminology

• Cloud computing
  
  

  Cloud computing, in a broad sense, is the delivery of computing services over the internet. Rather than managing your own physical infrastructure hardware, virtual infrastructure and services can be set up remotely. Cloud services are vast, and include computing, networking, storage, databases, software, and analytics.

  
  

• Cloud hosting
  
  

  Cloud hosting refers to making a website or application available on the internet using interconnected cloud resources. This differs from traditional web hosting, where a single dedicated server contains the files and content.

  
  

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas)
  
  

  Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas) is a cloud service model where a provider offers customers access to virtual infrastructure on-demand. This typically includes creating compute, storage, and networking resources. A service provider manages the physical infrastructure and hardware; the customer manages their virtual infrastructure and resources.

  
  

Cloud billing terminology

• Pay-as-you-go (PAYG)
  
  

  Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) is a pricing model where the cloud services and resources are charged on a per-use basis. The total charges are based on what is actually used and the duration of use.

  In xneelo Cloud, our PAYG pricing is based on existence hours. This means you only pay for the resources you’ve created and for how long they exist.

  
  

• Usage metering
  
  

  Usage metering is the process where the use of a service or resources is regularly monitored and recorded. These usage values are totalled, and used to generate invoices. The creation time and deletion timestamps are accurately recorded, so usage is not overcharged or undercharged.

  
  

• Usage
  
  

  Usage is considered to be the duration a resource exists. This is taken from the time of creation to deletion, regardless of the resource state or whether it is active or inactive.

  
  

• Per hour rate
  
  

  The per hour rate is the unit price of a resource or service per hour. ‘Hours’ refer to the number of hours that a resource exists.

  
  

• Per gigabyte-hour rate
  
  

  The per gigabyte-hour rate is the unit price of a resource or service per gigabyte-hour. Gigabyte-hours refers to the total number of Gigabytes provisioned in a number of hours. 

  For example, if a 10 GB resource is provisioned and exists for 2 hours, the total is 20 GBhrs. If you then resize the volume, increasing it to 20 GB, and the new volume exists for a further 2 hours, then the additional GBhrs will be 40 GBhrs. The total for the 4 hour duration would be 60 GBhrs.

  
  

xneelo Cloud terminology

• Cloud project
  
  

  A cloud project is a container that groups a set of cloud resources together in a single workspace. Cloud projects can include multiple users with different specific permissions to create and manage resources within that project.

  You can create and delete cloud projects in the xneelo Control panel, and all resource usage within that project will be recorded and billed to your account.

  
  

• Project limits
  
  

  A project limit or quota refers to the amount of cloud resources that are allowed to be provisioned within a project. Limits are configured by xneelo and are set for all customers.

  Limits are set on both the size and number of cloud resources. For example, a total limit of 12 VCPUs, and a total limit of 1000GB of volume storage can be provisioned within a project.

  
  

• Resource
  
  

  A resource is a virtual infrastructure resource that exists in a cloud project. For example: 

  • Instances (virtual machines for computing)
  • Volumes (virtual storage volumes)
  • Images (virtual machine images)

  
  

• User
  
  

  A user represents an individual identity within a specific domain or project. Users are given specific role-based permissions.

  
  

• Dashboard
  
  

  The xneelo Cloud dashboard is a front-end web interface that provides the tools to create and manage cloud service and resources within a project. The dashboard can be launched from the xneelo Control Panel.

  The dashboard includes an overview of your resource usage and limits, and access to xneelo Cloud’s compute, network and storage services.

  
  

Compute terminology

• Instance
  
  

  An instance is a virtual machine that can be used like a hardware server. It serves as a digital environment to run applications or services. Instances are available in different flavors.

  
  

• Flavor
  
  

  A flavor is a combination of computing resources (vCPUs and RAM). When creating an instance you can select a flavor to suit your workload.

  For example, for a small workload, you could select the flavor ‘s-g-1cpu-1gb’, which will provision 1 VCPU and 1GB of RAM.

  
  

• Image
  
  

  An image is a collection of files for a specific operating system that you use to create an instance. A set of pre-built public images are available which are maintained by xneelo. You can also create custom images, which cannot be accessed by other cloud domains.

  
  

• Boot source
  
  

  A boot source is the template used to create an instance. A boot source could be an image, an image snapshot, a volume, or a volume snapshot.

  
  

• Key pair
  
  

  Key pairs (SSH keys) are used to secure and authenticate access to an instance. They are a combination of a public key (to encrypt data) and a private key (to decrypt data). You can create or import a key pair and assign it to an instance.

  
  

• Resize instance
  
  

  An instance resize refers to selecting a new flavor for an instance, in order to scale the instance up or down. The instance will be converted to the new flavor, the remaining configuration and attached devices will remain the same.

  
  

• Instance snapshot
  
  

  An instance snapshot is a point-in-time copy of an instance. You can create an instance snapshot to generate an image that preserves the disk state of your running instance. This helps you safeguard your data and configurations for easy restoration later.

  
  

Storage terminology

• Block storage
  
  

  Block storage refers to the storage of data that is saved in fixed-sized chunks called ‘blocks’. In a cloud context, the block storage concept is based on traditional block devices, such as physical hard drives.

  
  

• Volume
  
  

  Volumes are block storage devices that can be attached or detached from an instance at any time. This is a flexible way to provide additional storage capacity for data and applications. Volumes can be created, imported from a snapshot, or increased in size when needed.

  
  

• Bootable volume
  
  

  A bootable volume allows you to launch an instance from that volume. It serves as the persistent storage that saves the instance data.

  
  

• Non-bootable volume
  
  

  A non-bootable volume serves as ‘decoupled storage’. It can be attached and detached to instances at any time, without losing the data stored.

  
  

• Volume types
  
  

  Volume types are the different storage tiers available in xneelo Cloud. Volume types offer varying levels of performance and price, catering to different storage requirements.

  There are currently 2 volume types available: standard and premium.

  
  

• Standard volume type
  
  

  Standard volumes utilise spinning disk technology and are best suited for environments which require low to medium read and write speeds. They provide cost-effective storage for large quantities of less frequently accessed data.

  The standard volume type is the default selection for non-bootable volumes.

  
  

• Premium volume type
  
  

  Premium volumes utilise NVMe SSD technology and are best suited for environments which require high performance read and write speeds. Premium volumes are priced higher as they provide improved performance for transactional data which is frequently accessed. 

  The premium volume type is the default selection for all bootable volumes.

  
  

• Volume snapshot
  
  

  A volume snapshot is a point-in-time copy of an instance or storage volume. You can create a snapshot to capture the current state of the data and installed applications, and roll back if needed. Snapshots are used for a variety of tasks, including backups, system recovery and cloning.

  
  

• Gigabytes
  
  

  A gigabyte is a unit of measurement for data storage capacity. 1 gigabyte equals 1000³ bytes and 0.93 gibibytes.

  Certain cloud services use gibibytes (not gigabytes) as the primary unit when provisioning, such as images. However, all usage is considered as gigabytes for the purposes of usage-based billing.

  
  

• Gibibytes
  
  

  A gibibyte is a unit of measurement for data storage capacity. 1 gibibyte equals 1024³ bytes.

  Certain cloud services use gibibytes as the primary unit when provisioning, such as volumes and snapshots.

  
  

Network terminology

• Network
  
  

  A network in this context refers to a virtual network that provides connectivity in cloud environments. A network in the cloud refers to the interconnected infrastructure of instances, storage, and applications.

  
  

• Ingress
  
  

  Ingress refers to incoming network traffic. For example, the inbound traffic going to an instance.

  
  

• Egress
  
  

  Egress refers to outgoing network traffic. For example, the outbound traffic from an instance.

  
  

• Route
  
  

  A route is a defined path to a specific network address. Routing protocols help data make its way across networks. Routes direct traffic from one IP to a destination IP (a hop). Data packets will travel through multiple routes across the internet from origin to final destination.

  
  

• Port
  
  

  A port is a connection point for attaching a single device. It is a virtual point where network connections start and end. For example, the network interface of an instance is connected to a network.

  A port or port number is a number assigned to uniquely identify a connection endpoint and to direct data to a specific service.

  
  

• Security Group
  
  

  A security group is a set of rules that controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic to and from an instance. A security group can be considered as a virtual firewall that improves the security of your cloud by managing communication and access to and from your instances.

  Within a security group, rules can be created for specific traffic types, ports or source addresses which control the flow of ingress and egress traffic.