Cloud, network and AI terms in plain English

A

Anomaly detection

Finding behavior that differs from a learned normal pattern, such as a sudden rise in latency on one path.

B

Bandwidth

The maximum rate a connection can carry data, usually measured in megabits or gigabits per second.

BGP

Border Gateway Protocol, the routing protocol networks use to exchange paths with each other, including cloud providers.

Blueprint

In VergForge, a saved, reusable combination of cloud and network building blocks with parameters teams can set.

C

Cloud on-ramp

A private entry point into a cloud provider’s network from your own network or a data center.

Colocation

Renting space, power and cooling for your equipment in a third-party data center.

Cross-connect

A physical cable inside a data center that links your equipment to a carrier or cloud provider.

D

Data egress

Data leaving a cloud provider’s network. Providers usually charge for it.

Disaster recovery

Plans and systems that restore operations after an outage, often by failing over to another site or region.

E

Encryption in transit

Protecting data while it moves between systems so it cannot be read if intercepted.

G

GPU cloud

A cloud service that rents graphics processors for AI training and inference.

H

Hybrid cloud

Running workloads across on-premises infrastructure and one or more public clouds.

I

Inference

Using a trained AI model to produce answers or predictions for new input.

Infrastructure as code

Defining infrastructure in version-controlled files so it can be created and changed automatically.

J

Jitter

Variation in delay between packets. High jitter harms voice and video.

L

Latency

The time data takes to travel from one point to another, usually measured in milliseconds.

M

Micro-segmentation

Dividing a network into small isolated zones with rules for what may talk to what.

MPLS

Multiprotocol Label Switching, an older private WAN technology many companies are replacing.

Multi-cloud

Using services from more than one public cloud provider.

P

Packet loss

Data packets that never reach their destination, which slows or breaks applications.

Private interconnect

A dedicated connection between your network and a cloud provider that does not use the public internet.

S

SASE

Secure Access Service Edge, a model that combines networking and security services delivered from the cloud.

SD-WAN

Software-defined wide area network, which steers traffic across multiple links using central policy.

Segmentation

Separating network traffic into groups, such as production and development, so they cannot reach each other freely.

Service level agreement

A contract that defines the performance and availability a provider commits to.

T

Throughput

The amount of data actually delivered over a connection in a given time.

Training

Teaching an AI model from data, which often requires moving large datasets to GPUs.

V

Virtual circuit

A logical private connection over shared physical infrastructure, kept separate from other traffic.

Z

Zero trust

A security approach that verifies every user and service on every request instead of trusting the network location.