Training
Featured Course View All Courses
Get a Free Hour of SANS Training

Experience SANS training through course previews.

Learn More
Learning Paths
FeaturedView all Focus Areas
NEW - AI Security Training
Can't find what you are looking for?

Let us help.

Contact us
Free Resources

SANS Community Benefits

Connect, learn, and share with other cybersecurity professionals

Customer Case Studies

Discover how organizations and individual cyber practitioners use SANS training and GIAC certifications

AI Risk & Readiness

Explore expert-driven guidance, training, and tools to help defend against AI-powered threats and adopt AI securely

Join the SANS Community

Become a member for instant access to our free resources.

Sign Up
For Organizations

Public Sector

Mission-focused cybersecurity training for government, defense, and education

Partnerships

Explore industry-specific programming and customized training solutions

Sponsorship Opportunities

Sponsor a SANS event or research paper

Interested in developing a training plan to fit your organization’s needs?

We're here to help.

Contact Us
Group Purchasing
Group Purchasing

Cloud Vocabulary Taxonomy Guide

Login to download
Cloud Vocabulary Taxonomy Guide (PDF, 0.11MB)Published: 02 Feb, 2023
Created by:
Joshua Wright
Joshua Wright

Even the most dedicated analysts have a hard time keeping up with the churn of cloud technology. It doesn't help that several of the words we use for cloud functions have near-synonyms and can be nonintuitive. To help ensure we use the correct cloud vocabulary consistently, SANS Fellow, Joshua Wright, has put together a taxonomy of terms and phrases to use as a reference. This guide will help to communicate more clearly and hopefully make working with cloud technology a little bit easier.

Author

Joshua Wright
Joshua Wright

Joshua Wright

Fellow

SANS Faculty Fellow Joshua Wright is the author of SEC504 and Dynamic Incident Response (DAIR). A longtime RSA Conference panelist and open-source developer, he brings over two decades of research, offensive security, and teaching experience.

Read more about Joshua Wright

Resources

What Your M365 Logs Are Not Telling You

Poster & Cheat SheetsCloud Security
  • 8 Jul 2026

Secure Service Configuration in AWS, Azure, and GCP

Poster & Cheat SheetsCloud Security
  • 28 Oct 2025

Prevent Real Cloud Attacks with Terraform

Poster & Cheat SheetsCloud Security
  • 28 Oct 2025

Key Metrics: Cloud and Enterprise

Poster & Cheat SheetsCybersecurity Leadership, Cloud Security
  • 24 Oct 2025

Related Courses

  • Slide 1 of 10

    SEC540: Cloud Native Security and DevSecOps Automation

    AI SKILLS
    Advanced
    SEC540Cloud Security, Artificial Intelligence
    SEC540: Cloud Security and DevSecOps Automation
    • GIAC Cloud Security Automation (GCSA)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 38 CPEs / 38 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 19 Hands-On Labs

    • GIAC Cloud Security Automation (GCSA)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 38 CPEs / 38 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 19 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister
  • Slide 2 of 10

    SEC546: Securing Agentic AI

    NEW
    AI-FOCUSED
    Advanced
    SEC546Cloud Security, Artificial Intelligence
    SEC546
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours
    • Labs: 19 Hands-On Labs

    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours
    • Labs: 19 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister
  • Slide 3 of 10

    SEC522: Application Security: Securing Web Applications, APIs, and Microservices

    UPDATED
    Advanced
    SEC522Cloud Security
    SEC522: Application Security: Securing Web Applications, APIs, and Microservices
    • GIAC Certified Web Application Defender (GWEB)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 17 Hands-On Labs

    • GIAC Certified Web Application Defender (GWEB)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 17 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister
  • Slide 4 of 10

    SEC502: Cloud Security Tactical Defense

    Intermediate
    SEC502Cloud Security
    SEC502: Cloud Security Tactical Defense
    • GIAC Cloud Security Essentials (GCLD)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 36 CPEs / 36 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 40 Hands-On Labs

    • GIAC Cloud Security Essentials (GCLD)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 36 CPEs / 36 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 40 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister
  • Slide 5 of 10

    SEC545: GenAI and LLM Application Security

    NEW
    AI-FOCUSED
    Advanced
    SEC545Cloud Security, Artificial Intelligence
    SEC545: GenAI and LLM Application Security
    • GIAC AI Platform Security (GAIPS)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 20 Hands-On Labs

    • GIAC AI Platform Security (GAIPS)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 20 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister
  • Slide 6 of 10

    SEC549: Cloud Security Architecture

    UPDATED
    AI SKILLS
    Advanced
    SEC549Cloud Security, Artificial Intelligence
    SEC549: Cloud Security Architecture
    • GIAC Cloud Security Architecture and Design (GCAD)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 15 Hands-On Labs

    • GIAC Cloud Security Architecture and Design (GCAD)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 15 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister
  • Slide 7 of 10

    SEC510: Cloud Security Engineering and Controls

    UPDATED
    AI SKILLS
    Advanced
    SEC510Cloud Security, Artificial Intelligence
    SEC510: Cloud Security Controls and Mitigations
    • GIAC Public Cloud Security (GPCS)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 38 CPEs / 38 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 52 Hands-On Labs

    • GIAC Public Cloud Security (GPCS)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 38 CPEs / 38 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 52 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister
  • Slide 8 of 10

    SEC541: Cloud Security Threat Detection

    Advanced
    SEC541Cloud Security
    SEC541: Cloud Security Attacker Techniques, Monitoring, and Threat Detection
    • GIAC Cloud Threat Detection (GCTD)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 22 Hands-On Labs

    • GIAC Cloud Threat Detection (GCTD)
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 22 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister
  • Slide 9 of 10

    SEC480: AWS Secure Builder

    Essentials
    SEC480Cloud Security
    SEC480: AWS Secure Builder
    • GIAC AWS Secure Builder Micro-Credential
    • 12 CPEs / 12 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 9 Hands-On Labs

    • GIAC AWS Secure Builder Micro-Credential
    • 12 CPEs / 12 Hours (Self-Paced)
    • Labs: 9 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister
  • Slide 10 of 10

    SEC559: Identity Security for Cloud, Hybrid, and Agentic

    NEW
    AI SKILLS
    Advanced
    SEC559Cloud Security, Artificial Intelligence
    SEC559: Cloud and Hybrid Identity Security
    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours
    • Labs: 17 Hands-On Labs

    • 5 Days (Instructor-Led)
    • 30 CPEs / 30 Hours
    • Labs: 17 Hands-On Labs
    View course detailsRegister