Terminology

2185 terms, tools, patterns and metrics an architect is expected to use precisely. Each one gets a short explanation of what it is, and — where it matters — what it is commonly confused with. Search filters as you type; the column headers sort.

All areas2185 Architecture Fundamentals77 Distributed Systems107 Data Architecture110 Cloud Architecture89 Networking88 API & Integration Architecture82 Reliability & Resilience75 Observability70 Performance & Capacity Engineering72 Security Architecture81 Cost Architecture & FinOps66 Business Architecture67 Architecture Communication67 Enterprise Architecture66 Legacy Modernization66 AI-Era Architecture69 Software Architecture & Engineering71 Architecture Patterns71 Architecture Decision-Making63 The Architect's Meta-Skills61 Delivery & Release Engineering66 Platform Engineering & Developer Experience70 Testing & Quality Architecture66 Data Platform Architecture64 Streaming & Real-Time Data69 Data Governance & Semantics69 Frontend & Experience Architecture66 Edge, Mobile & IoT68 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture65 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk64

Kind Any concept785 practice729 pattern362 metric125 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

5 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Airbnb's Service-Oriented Migration	case-study	Legacy Modernization	Airbnb decomposed a large Rails monolith by first extracting a unified data-access layer, so that services were built on owned data rather than on shared database tables.
Airbnb: Monorail to Service-Oriented Architecture Airbnb SOA Migration	case-study	Application Decomposition	Airbnb decomposed a large Rails monolith into services, and the difficult part was data ownership rather than code extraction.
eBay's Architectural Generations	case-study	Legacy Modernization	eBay rewrote its core platform several times across its first decade, each time because the previous generation had hit a limit that could not be tuned away.
Southwest 2022: Legacy Software Meeting Its Design Limits Southwest Airlines Meltdown	case-study	Modernisation Business Case	A crew scheduling system that worked adequately for routine disruption could not cope with a large-scale one, and the airline cancelled roughly 16,700 flights.
TSB 2018: A Big-Bang Migration That Was Not Reversible TSB IT Migration	case-study	Cutover Planning	A UK bank moved millions of customer accounts to a new platform in a single weekend cutover, and the failure locked customers out for weeks.