Oracle Cloud Terminology

As you start using Oracle Cloud, it helps to understand the basic terminology we use to describe the Oracle Cloud features and services.

Term	Definition
Data center	A facility used to house computer systems and associated components. Oracle provides data centers in various geographical regions. An identity domain and the services associated with that domain must belong to a specific data center.
Data region	A geographical region that’s associated with one or more data centers. When you sign up for an Oracle Cloud account, you select a default data region, where your services will be hosted.
Identity domain	A domain that controls the authentication and authorization of the users who can sign in to an Oracle Cloud service and which features they can access. An Oracle Cloud service in a traditional cloud account must belong to an identity domain.
Oracle Account	Oracle Account is a unique customer account and can correspond to an individual, an organization, or a company that is an Oracle customer. This account gives you access to the Oracle.com website, which includes your access to applications, communities, and Oracle Technology Network (OTN). Note the following: An Oracle Account is different from an Oracle Cloud Account that you use to access your cloud services. For Oracle Infrastructure as a Service (Oracle IaaS) or Oracle Platform as a Service (Oracle PaaS) offerings, an Oracle account is no longer required if you’re signing up for the Free Oracle Cloud Promotion or for a new Oracle Cloud account. An Oracle Account is required if you’re using Oracle Store to purchase services or if you sign up for certain traditional metered Oracle PaaS offerings that are part of the Free Oracle Cloud Promotion. An Oracle Account is also required when logging support or service requests in My Oracle Support.
Oracle Cloud account	Use this account to access your cloud services and to sign in to the Infrastructure Classic Console or Applications Console, where you manage your account and your services. There are two types of Oracle Cloud accounts: traditional cloud accounts (also known as Cloud Service accounts) and cloud accounts with Oracle Identity Cloud Service.
Service	A Software offered in Oracle Cloud
Service console	The unique console of a service or the administrator console if the service has both an administrator console and a user console
Service Entitlement	Service entitlements represent the right to use Oracle Cloud services, based on the resources you’ve purchased or the rights assigned to you by your Cloud Account administrator.
Service instance	The existence of a cloud service, for example, an instance of Oracle Java Cloud Service
Service instance URL	The web address (URL) that you use to access a provisioned service instance.
Service name	A name assigned to your Oracle Cloud service. The service name must be unique in the identity domain. You can add a longer description to help you identify the service after it’s activated.
Service notification	An event reported on the Infrastructure Classic Console or Applications Console in the Message center. Notifications provide information about upcoming events such as system outages or blackouts, service maintenance, promotion expiry, or resource quota breach.