Host

“Host” is a widely used term in network computing. For the purposes of this glossary, the term very closely aligns with “node”. A host is a network-accessible computer that “hosts” a service, application, or other infrastructure component, with the ability to send and/or receive data from other computers attached to the same network. Just like a node, in cloud computing, a host can be a physical computer, a virtual computer, referred to as a VM, or even a container. Hosts typically have a “hostname” value as well as an IP address so they can be found on the network.

How or even if hosts substantially differ from nodes is nuanced and different people may have different opinions. For this high-level definition, we’ll treat them as the same. Please refer to the nodes definition.