---
title: "Glossary and official references"
chapter: "15"
---

# Glossary and official references

Use this compact glossary when a conversation becomes acronym-heavy.

## A–Z glossary

| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| ALB | Application Load Balancer for HTTP/HTTPS traffic |
| ARN | Unique AWS resource name |
| Aurora | AWS relational database compatible with MySQL/PostgreSQL |
| AZ | Isolated location inside an AWS Region |
| CAF | Cloud Adoption Framework for organizational cloud change |
| CDK | Define cloud infrastructure using programming languages |
| CIDR | Notation for an IP address range |
| CloudFront | Global content delivery network |
| CloudTrail | Record of AWS API activity |
| CloudWatch | Metrics, logs, alarms, dashboards, and operations |
| DMS | Database Migration Service |
| DR | Disaster recovery |
| EBS | Block storage for EC2 |
| EC2 | Resizable virtual machines |
| ECR | Container image registry |
| ECS | AWS container orchestration |
| EFS | Shared managed Linux file system |
| EKS | Managed Kubernetes |
| EventBridge | Event bus and event routing |
| Fargate | Serverless compute for containers |
| IAM | Identity and Access Management |
| IaC | Infrastructure as code |
| IGW | Internet gateway |
| KMS | Managed encryption keys |
| Lambda | Event-driven serverless functions |
| NACL | Stateless subnet network rules |
| NAT | Outbound address translation for private resources |
| NLB | Network Load Balancer for high-performance L4 traffic |
| OU | Organizational unit containing AWS accounts |
| PrivateLink | Private service connectivity through VPC endpoints |
| RDS | Managed relational databases |
| Region | Separate AWS geographic area |
| RPO | Maximum acceptable data loss measured in time |
| RTO | Maximum acceptable recovery time |
| S3 | Durable object storage |
| SCP | Organization policy that limits maximum permissions |
| Security group | Stateful resource firewall |
| SLO | Measurable service reliability target |
| SNS | Publish/subscribe notifications |
| SQS | Durable managed message queue |
| VPC | Private regional network |
| WAF | Web application firewall |

## Official starting points

- [AWS Well-Architected Framework](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/welcome.html)
- [AWS Architecture Center](https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/)
- [AWS Prescriptive Guidance](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/)
- [AWS Control Tower](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/controltower/)
- [AWS Security Documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/security/)
- [AWS Disaster Recovery guidance](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/disaster-recovery-workloads-on-aws/)
- [AWS SAA-C03 Exam Guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/solutions-architect-associate-03.html)

## Accuracy rule

AWS services, limits, features, and exam guides change. Use this fieldbook to
understand decisions, then verify implementation details in current official
documentation before production work.