[AWS (EC2 / S3 / CloudFront / Lambda)](atomicglue.co/glossary/aws-ec2-s3-cloudfront-lambda) — Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Amazon's cloud computing platform. EC2 provides virtual servers, S3 stores files, CloudFront is a CDN, and Lambda runs code without provisioning servers.
[Cloud Hosting](atomicglue.co/glossary/cloud-hosting) — Cloud hosting runs your site across a network of virtual servers that draw resources from a large underlying pool. It scales on demand and you pay only for what you use, making it flexible and resilient.
[Cloudflare](atomicglue.co/glossary/cloudflare) — Cloudflare is a global network that provides CDN, DDoS protection, DNS, web security, and edge computing services. It sits between your website and its visitors, optimizing and protecting every request.
[Context Window](atomicglue.co/glossary/context-window) — A context window is the maximum amount of text (measured in tokens) that an LLM can process at one time when generating a response. It limits how much of your content the AI can read before generating its answer. Content beyond the context window is invisible to the LLM.
[DNS Management (A Record / CNAME)](atomicglue.co/glossary/dns-management-a-record-cname) — DNS management is the process of configuring your domain's DNS records to control which servers handle your domain, email, and subdomains. A records point domains to IP addresses; CNAME records point domains to other domains.
[Domain Registrar](atomicglue.co/glossary/domain-registrar) — A domain registrar is a company authorized to sell domain name registrations, renewals, and transfers. It is where you buy and manage your domain ownership.
[Edge Computing](atomicglue.co/glossary/edge-computing) — Edge computing runs code on servers located close to your users geographically, reducing latency by processing data and logic at the network edge instead of a central data center.
[LLM (Large Language Model)](atomicglue.co/glossary/llm) — A Large Language Model (LLM) is a neural network trained on massive text data that can understand, generate, and manipulate human language. GPT-4, Gemini, and Claude are LLMs. They are the 'generation' engine in Generative Engine Optimization.
[Managed Hosting](atomicglue.co/glossary/managed-hosting-wordpress) — Managed WordPress hosting is a premium service where the provider handles all server administration, WordPress updates, security monitoring, backups, and performance optimization on your behalf.
[Nameserver](atomicglue.co/glossary/nameserver) — Nameservers are the authoritative servers that tell the internet where to find your website and email services. They host your DNS zone and respond to queries about your domain.
[Shared Hosting](atomicglue.co/glossary/shared-hosting) — Shared hosting is the budget tier of web hosting where multiple websites share a single server's resources. It is cheap, but your site's performance depends on your server neighbors.
[VPS](atomicglue.co/glossary/vps) — A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a virtual machine with dedicated resources carved out of a physical server. You get guaranteed CPU, RAM, and storage without the cost of a full dedicated server.
[Web Hosting](atomicglue.co/glossary/web-hosting) — Web hosting is a service that stores your website's files on a server and makes them accessible on the internet. Without hosting, your site has no home on the web.