Architecture & DesignAcronym Anarchy: Cloud Acronyms - How Many Do You Know?

Acronym Anarchy: Cloud Acronyms – How Many Do You Know?

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Acronyms are rampant in the tech space. Over a decade ago, I presented a challenge to have people look at a list of acronyms to determine how many they could name. I presented a list of over 100 acronyms related to development. I followed this up with a second list of acronyms related to Java terms.

The Cloud has been front and center in the press for several years now. Whether you are using AWS or doing VCC, you are likely to come across numerous acronyms. Today’s challenge focuses on a list of acronyms related to Cloud computing.

I recently read an article that claimed to have a comprehensive list of Cloud Acronyms. The list included six acronyms: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, HPC, MDM, and DaaS. After seeing it, I created the list of Cloud computing acronyms, which is below. To determine what I might have missed, I did a few searches. In those searches, I found an ultimate list with 30 terms that was able to outdo the comprehensive list I had seen earlier. This “ultimate list” did contain a couple of acronyms that I didn’t have, HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and SQL (Structured Query Language). Because they were ultimately further from the core of Cloud computing than some already included, I left them off my list.

Without further ado, below are over 80 acronyms. How many of the following can you identify?

AES

HTTPS

S3

AWS

IA

SaaS

BI

IA/CND

SDMN

BYOC

IaaS

SDN

BYOD

IV

SD-LAN

CAMP

IP

SD

CBC

IPaaS

SLA

CD

IoT

SMTP

CDMI

IPSec

SNS

CDN

JSON

SOAP

CDPI

JWT

SQS

CENC

KVM

SPA

CI

L2TP

SRP

COA

LAMP

SSD

COOP

LDAP

SSH

CQRS

LXC

SSL

DaaS

M2M

SWF

DBaaS

MDM

SWT

DNS

ML

TCP

DTLS

MPLS

TLS

EC2

NBI

UDP

EFS

OSS

VDI

EME

PaaS

VM

FTP

PII

VMHD

HaaS

RAID

VOD

HPC

REST

VPC

HTTP

RDS

VPD

Click to the next page to see each acronym expanded. Review the list and see how many you can identify. Can you get them all? As a hint, some of these acronyms lean toward network computing and the Web. After all, such areas are part of Cloud computing!

On the previous page you were given over 80 acronyms. Were you able to write out what you thought each stood for? Below is the list again with each Cloud acronym expanded for you! If you were able to get more than 75 of these, you are a technical Cloud acronym expert! If you got fewer than 25, you might not be ready to dive deep into the technical aspects of Cloud computing just yet!

  • AES = Advanced Encryption Standard, Advanced Encryption System
  • AWS = Amazon Web Services, Advanced Wireless Service
  • BI = Business Intelligence
  • BYOC = Bring Your Own Cloud
  • BYOD = Bring Your Own Device
  • CAMP = Cloud Application Management for Platforms
  • CBC = Cypher Block Chaining
  • CD = Continuous Deployment
  • CDMI = Content Data Management Interface
  • CDN = Content Delivery Network
  • CDPI = Control to Data-Plane Interface (SDN CDPI)
  • CENC = Common Encryption
  • CI = Continuous Integration
  • COA = Cloud Oriented Architecture
  • COOP = Continuity of Operation
  • CQRS = Command and Query Responsibility Segregation
  • DaaS = Desktop as a Service
  • DBaaS = Database as a Service
  • DNS = Domain Name Server
  • DTLS = Datagram Transport Layer Security
  • EC2 = Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
  • EFS = Elastic File System
  • EME = Encrypted Media Extension
  • FTP = File Transfer Protocol
  • HaaS = Hardware as a Service
  • HPC = High Performance Computing
  • HTTP = Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • HTTPS = Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secured
  • IA = Information Assurance
  • IA/CND = Information Assurance/ Computer Network Defense
  • IaaS = Infrastructure as a Service
  • IV = Initialization Vector
  • IP = Internet Protocol
  • IPaaS = Integration Platform as a Service
  • IoT = Internet of Things
  • IPSec = Internet Protocol Security
  • JSON = JavaScript Object Notation
  • JWT = JSON Web Token
  • KVM = Kernel-based Virtual Machine
  • L2TP = Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol
  • LAMP = Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP
  • LDAP = Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, Lightweight Data Access Protocol
  • LXC = Linux Containers
  • M2M = Machine to Machine
  • MDM = Mobile Device Management
  • ML = Machine Learning
  • MPLS = Multiprotocol Label Switching
  • NBI = Network Business Intelligence, Network-based Intelligence (SDN NBI)
  • OSS = Open Source Software, Operations Support Systems, Open Sound System, Online Service System (SAP), Object Storage Server, Online Search Service
  • PaaS = Platform as a Service
  • PII = Personally Identifiable Information
  • RAID = Redundant Array of Independent Disks
  • REST = Representational State Transfer
  • RDS = Relational Database Services
  • S3 = Amazon Simple Storage Service
  • SaaS = Software as a Service
  • SDMN = Software Defined Mobile Network
  • SDN = Software- Defined Networking
  • SD-LAN = Software Defined Local Area Network
  • SD-WAN = Software Defined Wide Area Network
  • SLA = Service Level Agreement
  • SMTP = Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, Simple Message Transmission Protocol
  • SNS = Social Networking Service, Amazon Simple Notification Service
  • SOAP = Simple Object Access Protocol
  • SQL = Structured Query Language
  • SQS = Amazon Simple Queue Service
  • SPA = Service Preference Architecture
  • SRP = Secure Remote Password, Server Relay Protocol, Service Request Processor, Server Requester Processor
  • SSD = Solid State Drive
  • SSH = Secure Shell
  • SSL = Secure Socket Layer
  • SWF = Amazon Simple Workflow Service
  • SWT = Simple Web Token
  • TCP = Transmission Control Protocol
  • TLS = Transport Layer Security
  • UDP = User Datagram Protocol
  • VDI = Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
  • VM = Virtual Machine
  • VMHD = Virtual Machine Hard Drive
  • VOD = Video on Demand
  • VPC = Virtual Private Cloud
  • VPD = Virtual Private Desktop
  • VPN = Virtual Private Network
  • VPS = Virtual Private Server
  • WAN = Wide Area Network
  • WSDL = Web Services Description Language
  • WWW = World Wide web
  • XMPP = Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol

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