Compute

Amazon's managed Kubernetes — AWS runs the control plane, you run (or don't) the nodes. Power and portability at the cost of Kubernetes's full operational weight.

Automatically adjusting capacity to match demand — the cloud's core elasticity promise, and a discipline of choosing the right metric, limits, and reaction speed.

AWS's fully-managed container-to-URL service — push an image or repo, get a scaling HTTPS endpoint, skip the orchestration entirely.

AWS's foundational virtual servers — the instance-type catalog, pricing models, and the rent-vs-commit math that underpins most AWS bills.

AWS's original PaaS — deploy code and it provisions the EC2, load balancers, and scaling underneath, with the resources left visible for when you outgrow the abstraction.

AWS's serverless container runtime — run containers on ECS or EKS without managing the underlying servers, trading per-node control for zero cluster ops.

AWS's function-as-a-service — code that runs on demand in Firecracker microVMs, scales to zero, and bills per millisecond. The reference implementation of serverless.

Azure's managed Kubernetes — a free control plane and deep Entra ID integration, the natural K8s choice for Microsoft-centric enterprises.

Microsoft Azure's virtual machines — the compute core for Windows, .NET, and hybrid enterprises, with hybrid licensing as a distinctive cost lever.

A dedicated physical server with no hypervisor between you and the hardware — maximum performance and control, at the cost of cloud elasticity.

Serverless that runs at the network edge in V8 isolates, not containers — near-zero cold starts and global-by-default, with a distinct execution model to design around.

The latency penalty when a serverless function runs after being idle — the defining performance tax of [serverless](/glossary/serverless/), and the thing every FaaS optimization targets.

A lightweight, isolated package that runs an application and its dependencies.

Google's original PaaS — the pioneering 'just deploy your code' platform, now a mature elder alongside its serverless successors.

Google's serverless container platform — deploy any container, scale to zero, pay per use. The middle path between functions and Kubernetes.

Google Cloud's virtual machines — live migration, sustained-use discounts, and per-second billing distinguish it from the EC2 model.

Google's managed Kubernetes — from the company that created Kubernetes — with Autopilot mode offering the most hands-off managed-K8s experience available.

The software layer that runs virtual machines by partitioning physical hardware — the invisible foundation every cloud instance depends on.

An architecture style where an application is split into small, independently deployable services.

A cloud model where the provider runs your code on demand without you managing servers.

A software emulation of a physical computer — the abstraction that made cloud computing possible, now sharing the stage with the lighter-weight container.