glossary.html.md.erb

---
title: Cloud Foundry component glossary
---

<%# Reset page title based on product title %>
<% if vars.platform_code != 'CF' %>

<% set_title(vars.app_runtime_abbr, "Component Glossary") %>

<% end %>

This topic tells you about <%= vars.app_runtime_first %> terms and definitions.


| Term          | Definition   |
| ------------- | ------------ |
| API           | Application Programming Interface |
| Availability Zone (AZ)    | An independent network infrastructure segment used to increase availability and fault tolerance. An AZ is often correlated with a geographical region. A cloud operator can select or assign AZs on platforms such as AWS and vSphere. |
| BOSH          | An open framework for managing the full development and deployment life cycle of large-scale distributed software applications. |
| CLI           | Command Line Interface |
| Domains       | A domain name like `<%= vars.app_domain %>`. Domains can also be multi level and contain sub-domains like the "myapp" in `myapp.<%= vars.app_domain %>`. Domain objects belong to an org and are not directly bound to apps. |
| Droplet       | An archive within <%= vars.app_runtime_abbr %> that contains the app ready to run on Diego. A droplet is the result of the application staging process. |
| Managed Services | Services provided by third parties that are integrated into <%= vars.app_runtime_abbr %> through APIs so that <%= vars.app_runtime_abbr %> users can provision reserved resources and credentials on demand. Also called Custom Services. |
| Management    | You can manage spaces and orgs with the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI), the Cloud Controller API (CAPI), and the Cloud Foundry Eclipse Plug-in. |
| Org | An org is the top-most meta object within the <%= vars.app_runtime_abbr %> infrastructure. Only an account with administrative privileges on a <%= vars.app_runtime_abbr %> instance can manage its orgs. |
| Routes        | A route, based on a domain with an optional host as a prefix, can be associated with one or more apps. For example, `myapp` is the host and `<%= vars.app_domain %>` is the domain when using the route `myapp.<%= vars.app_domain %>`. You can have a route that represents `<%= vars.app_domain %>` without a host. Routes are children of domains and are directly bound to apps. |
| Service       | A "factory" which produces service instances. |
| Service Instance | A reserved resource provisioned by a service. The provisioned resource differs by service. For example, the resource might be a database or an account on a multi tenant app. |
| Spaces        | An org can contain multiple spaces. You can map a domain to multiple spaces, but you can map a route to only one space. |
| Staging       | The process in <%= vars.app_runtime_abbr %> by which the raw bits of an application are transformed into a droplet that is ready to be run. |
| UAA           | User Account and Authentication Service, which provides the technological basis for Dashboard Single Sign-On. This is available to <%= vars.app_runtime_abbr %> users when accessing pertinent Managed Services. |
| Warden        | The mechanism for containerization on Diego that makes sure apps that are running on <%= vars.app_runtime_abbr %> have a fair share of computing resources and cannot access either the system code or other apps running on Diego. |