What are systems that automate cloud operations called?

The term "orchestration" refers to systems that automate cloud operations by managing the interactions between various services and resources in the cloud. This includes automating the deployment, management, scaling, and integration of applications and services, which typically involves coordinating multiple tasks and processes to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

Orchestration enables organizations to streamline workflows and improve resource utilization in cloud environments, allowing for dynamic scaling, load balancing, and the management of workloads across different cloud environments. For instance, with orchestration, a cloud platform can automatically provision additional resources in response to increased demand or can automate the deployment of applications with consistent configurations.

In contrast, authentication relates to verifying user identities; federations involve allowing users to access multiple systems with a single set of credentials; and ephemeral refers to resources that are short-lived and often created and destroyed quickly, such as temporary virtual machines. These concepts do not pertain to the automation of cloud operations in the same way orchestration does.