Terminology

681 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 areas681 Architecture Fundamentals38 Distributed Systems73 Data Architecture71 Cloud Architecture55 Networking51 API & Integration Architecture45 Reliability & Resilience40 Observability33 Performance & Capacity Engineering34 Security Architecture50 Cost Architecture & FinOps12 Business Architecture9 Architecture Communication8 Enterprise Architecture8 Legacy Modernization11 AI-Era Architecture34 Software Architecture & Engineering37 Architecture Patterns34 Architecture Decision-Making30 The Architect's Meta-Skills8

Kind Any concept258 practice180 pattern127 protocol32 tool32 case-study26 metric26

2 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Configuration Drift	concept	Infrastructure as Code	Divergence between the infrastructure described in code and the infrastructure actually running, usually caused by manual changes.
Terraform State IaC State File	concept	Infrastructure as Code	The file mapping declared resources to real infrastructure, without which the tool cannot tell what it already created — and which becomes critical infrastructure in its own right.