glossary.html.md.erb

---
title: Glossary
---

<strong><%= modified_date %></strong>

| Term          | Definition   |
| ------------- | ------------ |
| API           | Application Programming Interface |
| Availability Zone (AZ)    | A functionally independent segment of network infrastructure, often correlated with geographical region, designated to increase availability and fault-tolerance. A cloud operator can select or assign AZs on platforms such as AWS and vSphere. |
| BOSH          | BOSH is 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 is 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.product_short%> that contains the application ready to run on Diego. A droplet is the result of the application staging process. |
| Managed Services | Services provided by third-parties, but integrated into Cloud Foundry through APIs so that Cloud Foundry 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, and the Cloud Foundry Eclipse Plugin. |
| Org | An org is the top-most meta object within the <%=vars.product_short%> infrastructure. Only an account with administrative privileges on a <%=vars.product_short%> instance can manage its orgs. |
| Routes        | A route, based on a domain with an optional host as a prefix, may be associated with one or more applications. For example, `myapp` is the host and `<%=vars.app_domain%>` is the domain when using the route `myapp.<%=vars.app_domain%>`. It is possible to 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 resource provisioned will differ by service; could be a database or an account on a multi-tenant application. |
| 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.product_short%> by which the raw bits of an application are transformed into a droplet that is ready to execute. |
| UAA           | User Account and Authentication Service, which provides the technological basis for Dashboard Single Sign-On available to Cloud Foundry users when accessing pertinent Managed Services. |
| Warden        | The mechanism for containerization on Diego that ensures applications running on <%=vars.product_short%> have a fair share of computing resources and cannot access either the system code or other applications running on Diego. |