AWS Glossary

AWS Terms & Concepts Explained

Your comprehensive guide to AWS terminology, architecture patterns, compliance frameworks, and cloud computing concepts. Written for everyone from CTOs to developers.

AWS Config Rules

Automated compliance checking service that evaluates AWS resource configuration against desired standards.

AWS Control Tower

Managed service that automates AWS landing zone setup, governance, and compliance monitoring.

AWS Landing Zone

Multi-account AWS environment blueprint providing baseline security, compliance, and operational foundation.

AWS Organizations Service Control Policies

Organization-wide IAM policies that define permission boundaries for AWS accounts and organizational units.

AWS Savings Plans

Flexible pricing commitment that reduces AWS costs by up to 72% compared to on-demand pricing.

AWS Shared Responsibility Model

Framework defining what security and compliance tasks AWS manages versus what customers must manage.

AWS Well-Architected Framework

AWS architectural best practices framework covering operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, and cost optimization.

FinOps

Cloud Financial Operations: the discipline of managing cloud costs through shared responsibility, visibility, and accountability.

HIPAA-Eligible AWS Services

AWS services certified to handle Protected Health Information (PHI) under HIPAA regulations.

Multi-Tenant Architecture

Software design pattern where multiple customers (tenants) share the same application infrastructure.

PCI DSS Cardholder Data Environment

Defined network scope in PCI DSS compliance that directly handles credit card payment data.

RAG Pipeline

Retrieval-Augmented Generation: combining document retrieval with AI models to answer questions based on specific data.

Reserved Instances vs Savings Plans

Comparison of AWS Reserved Instances and Savings Plans pricing models for cost optimization.

SOC 2 Type II Compliance

Independent audit certifying security controls for service organizations over an extended period.

VPC Peering vs Transit Gateway

Comparison of AWS networking solutions for connecting multiple VPCs and on-premises networks.

Can't Find What You're Looking For?

Our AWS experts can help explain any cloud concept or architecture pattern relevant to your business.

Talk to AWS Experts