Compute
Compute as a resource envelope — CPU, memory, local storage, network — rather than a machine you own. Instance lifecycle, what an architecture choice reserves, and the decision between virtual machines, containers, managed containers and functions.
You are not renting a machine. You are renting a bounded share of CPU, memory, local storage and network bandwidth, on a processor architecture you chose, with a lifecycle that can end without asking you.
Q · What am I actually buying when I choose an instance size, and which of its dimensions will constrain my workload first?
Stop thinking "a server" and start thinking "a box with four walls". The mental shift matters because each wall has a different enforcement mechanism, and hitting one is nothing like hitting another.
Q · What happens at each boundary of the resources a workload has been allocated, and why do the boundaries behave so differently?
A compute instance is born, becomes eligible for traffic, serves, drains and dies — and every one of those transitions is a place where requests get dropped if the application does not participate.
Q · What states does a compute instance pass through, and at which of them can it silently lose the requests it was supposed to serve?
Virtual machine, container, managed container platform, or functions. Six questions decide it, and every answer must come with why, what it costs, and what you would use instead.
Q · Which execution model fits this workload, and what am I giving up by choosing it?