title: Compute -> Overview

## Overview ##

Compute component is the oldest one and allows you to manage cloud and virtual
servers offered by different providers such as Amazon, Rackspace, Linode and
more than [20 others](/supported_providers.html).

Besides managing the servers this component also allows you to run deployment
scripts on the newly created servers. Deployment or so called "bootstrap"
scripts allow you to execute arbitrary shell command. This functionality is usually
used to prepare your freshly created server and install your SSH key and some
kind of configuration management tool (Puppet / Chef / cfengine) on it.

### Terminology ###

* **Node** - represents a cloud or virtual server.
* **NodeSize** - represents node hardware configuration. Usually this is amount
of the available RAM, bandwidth, CPU speed and disk size. Most of the drivers
also expose hourly price (in dollars) for the Node of this size.
* **NodeImage** - represents an operating system image.
* **NodeLocation** - represents a server physical location.
* **NodeState** - represents a node state. Standard states are: running,
rebooting, terminated, pending and unknown.