Google Cloud glossary
Key Google Cloud certification terms and acronyms.
Definitions are AI-assisted and reviewed for general accuracy — verify critical details against Google Cloud's official documentation.
Anthos
A GCP platform for managing and deploying applications consistently across on-premises, GCP, and other cloud environments.
Apache Beam
Open-source unified programming model for defining portable batch and streaming data processing pipelines.
AutoMLAutomated Machine Learning
Vertex AI capability that automates model selection and hyperparameter tuning for users with limited ML expertise.
BigQuery
A fully managed, serverless data warehouse on GCP that enables SQL analytics over large datasets.
BigQuery
Fully managed, serverless data warehouse on GCP that enables fast SQL analytics over large datasets using columnar storage.
BigQuery
A fully managed, serverless data warehouse optimized for large-scale analytical SQL queries using columnar storage.
Bigtable
Fully managed wide-column NoSQL database on GCP optimised for low-latency, high-throughput workloads at petabyte scale.
CDCChange Data Capture
Technique that tracks row-level changes in a source database and propagates those changes to downstream systems.
CDNContent Delivery Network
Cloud CDN caches HTTP(S) load-balanced content at Google's edge nodes to reduce latency for end users.
Cloud Armor
A GCP DDoS protection and web application firewall service that applies security policies to HTTP(S) load balancers.
Cloud Armor
A GCP network security service providing DDoS protection and WAF rules for external load balancers.
Cloud CDNCloud Content Delivery Network
A GCP service that caches content at Google's globally distributed edge points of presence to reduce latency.
Cloud Composer
Fully managed workflow orchestration service on GCP built on Apache Airflow for authoring, scheduling, and monitoring pipelines.
Cloud IAPCloud Identity-Aware Proxy
A GCP service that controls HTTPS access to applications by verifying user identity before allowing a connection.
Cloud Interconnect
A GCP service providing dedicated or partner physical connections between an on-premises network and GCP VPC.
Cloud Interconnect
A GCP service providing high-bandwidth, low-latency private connectivity between on-premises networks and GCP.
Cloud KMSCloud Key Management Service
A managed service for creating, importing, and managing cryptographic keys used to encrypt GCP resources.
Cloud KMSCloud Key Management Service
Managed service on GCP for creating, importing, and managing cryptographic keys used to encrypt data.
Cloud Load Balancing
A fully managed, scalable GCP service that distributes incoming traffic across backend instances globally or regionally.
Cloud Monitoring
A GCP service that collects metrics, logs, and traces from GCP resources and displays them in dashboards and alerts.
Cloud Monitoring
A GCP observability service that collects metrics, events, and metadata from GCP services and custom sources for alerting and dashboards.
Cloud Run
A fully managed serverless platform on GCP for running stateless containers triggered by HTTP requests or events.
Cloud Run
A fully managed serverless platform that runs stateless containers triggered by HTTP requests or events.
Cloud Spanner
Fully managed, globally distributed relational database offering strong consistency and horizontal scalability.
Cloud Spanner
A fully managed, globally distributed relational database service that provides strong consistency and horizontal scalability.
Cloud Spanner
A fully managed, globally distributed relational database service on GCP offering strong consistency and horizontal scaling.
Cloud SQL
A fully managed relational database service on GCP supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server.
Cloud SQL
A fully managed relational database service supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server on GCP.
Cloud Storage
Fully managed object storage service on GCP offering multiple storage classes for varying access frequency and cost.
Clustering
BigQuery feature that physically sorts table data by one or more columns to improve filter and aggregate query performance.
CMEKCustomer-Managed Encryption Keys
An encryption option allowing customers to control the keys used to encrypt GCP data at rest via Cloud KMS.
CMEKCustomer-Managed Encryption Keys
Option allowing customers to control the encryption keys used to protect data at rest in GCP services via Cloud KMS.
CUDCommitted Use Discount
A GCP billing discount applied when a customer commits to a specific resource usage level for one or three years.
DAGDirected Acyclic Graph
Airflow construct representing a workflow as a graph of tasks with directed edges and no cycles, used in Cloud Composer.
Data Catalog
Fully managed metadata management and data discovery service on GCP for tagging and searching data assets.
Dataflow
Fully managed stream and batch data processing service on GCP based on the Apache Beam programming model.
Dataflow
A fully managed stream and batch data processing service based on Apache Beam running on GCP.
Dataproc
Managed Spark and Hadoop service on GCP that provisions clusters quickly for batch and query workloads.
Datastream
Fully managed change data capture and replication service on GCP that streams data from operational databases into GCP.
Deployment Manager
GCP's native infrastructure-as-code service that uses YAML or Python templates to define and deploy GCP resources.
ELTExtract, Load, Transform
Data integration pattern where raw data is loaded first into the target system and transformed there, often using SQL.
ETLExtract, Transform, Load
Data integration pattern in which data is extracted from sources, transformed, then loaded into a target store.
Firestore
Fully managed, serverless NoSQL document database on GCP with real-time sync and offline support.
Firestore
A serverless, scalable NoSQL document database on GCP designed for mobile, web, and server applications.
gcloud
The primary CLI tool in the Google Cloud SDK used to manage GCP resources and services from a terminal.
GCSGoogle Cloud Storage
A globally unified, scalable object storage service offering multiple storage classes for various access and cost needs.
GCSGoogle Cloud Storage
GCP's managed object storage service offering multiple storage classes for different access frequency needs.
GKEGoogle Kubernetes Engine
A managed Kubernetes service on GCP for deploying, scaling, and operating containerized applications.
GKEGoogle Kubernetes Engine
A managed Kubernetes service on GCP for deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications.
IAMIdentity and Access Management
GCP's system for controlling who can take which actions on which resources using roles, permissions, and policies.
IAMIdentity and Access Management
GCP's system for granting principals fine-grained access to resources using roles and policies.
IAMIdentity and Access Management
GCP framework for defining who (identity) can do what (role/permission) on which resource.
KMSKey Management Service
Cloud KMS is a managed service for creating, rotating, and controlling cryptographic keys used to encrypt GCP resources.
Looker Studio
Web-based BI and data visualisation tool on GCP that connects to data sources including BigQuery to create interactive dashboards.
Org PolicyOrganization Policy
A GCP constraint mechanism applied at organization, folder, or project level to enforce resource configuration rules.
Organization Policy
A GCP resource hierarchy constraint that enforces configuration restrictions across an organization, folder, or project.
Partitioning
BigQuery feature that divides a table into segments by a column (date, integer range, or ingestion time) to improve query performance and reduce cost.
Preemptible VM
A Compute Engine VM available at a lower price that GCP can terminate with 30-second notice when capacity is needed.
Pub/SubPublish/Subscribe
A fully managed asynchronous messaging service on GCP that decouples senders and receivers of messages.
Pub/SubPublish/Subscribe
A fully managed asynchronous messaging service that decouples services producing messages from services consuming them.
Pub/SubPublish/Subscribe
Fully managed asynchronous messaging service on GCP that decouples message producers from consumers at scale.
RPORecovery Point Objective
The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time that a system can tolerate after a failure.
RTORecovery Time Objective
The maximum acceptable duration of time within which a service must be restored after a disruption.
Shared VPC
A GCP feature allowing multiple projects to share a single host project VPC network while maintaining separate resource billing.
Shared VPC
A GCP networking model that allows multiple projects to share a single VPC network hosted in a designated host project.
SLAService Level Agreement
A contractual commitment between a provider and customer defining minimum service performance and remedies for failures.
SLAService Level Agreement
A contractual commitment by GCP defining the guaranteed uptime percentage and remedies if that target is not met.
SLOService Level Objective
A target reliability or performance goal, expressed as a measurable metric, agreed upon for a service.
Terraform
An open-source Infrastructure as Code tool by HashiCorp used to provision and manage GCP resources declaratively.
Vertex AI
Unified managed ML platform on GCP for building, training, deploying, and monitoring machine learning models.
VPCVirtual Private Cloud
A logically isolated virtual network within GCP that provides global, scalable connectivity for resources across regions.
VPCVirtual Private Cloud
Logically isolated virtual network within GCP that controls traffic flow to and from GCP resources.
VPCVirtual Private Cloud
A globally scoped, software-defined network in GCP that provides isolated networking for resources across regions.
VPC PeeringVirtual Private Cloud Peering
A GCP networking feature that connects two VPC networks so resources in each can communicate using internal IP addresses.
VPNVirtual Private Network
Cloud VPN establishes an encrypted IPsec tunnel between an on-premises network and a GCP VPC network.