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Terminology

991 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 areas991 Architecture Fundamentals38 Distributed Systems73 Data Architecture71 Cloud Architecture55 Networking51 API & Integration Architecture45 Reliability & Resilience40 Observability33 Performance & Capacity Engineering34 Security Architecture50 Cost Architecture & FinOps30 Business Architecture28 Architecture Communication27 Enterprise Architecture27 Legacy Modernization27 AI-Era Architecture34 Software Architecture & Engineering37 Architecture Patterns34 Architecture Decision-Making30 The Architect's Meta-Skills27 Delivery & Release Engineering20 Platform Engineering & Developer Experience20 Testing & Quality Architecture20 Data Platform Architecture20 Streaming & Real-Time Data20 Data Governance & Semantics20 Frontend & Experience Architecture20 Edge, Mobile & IoT20 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture20 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk20
Kind Any concept379 practice294 pattern166 metric55 tool36 protocol35 case-study26

5 terms shown.

Term Kind Topic What it is
Adoption Curve metric Platform Adoption The proportion of teams actually using a platform capability over time, which is the only honest measure of whether the platform is working.
Base Image Currency metric Container Image Strategy How far behind the fleet's running images are from their patched base, which is the number that decides how fast a critical vulnerability can be closed.
Inner Loop Latency metric Inner Loop & Outer Loop The time from changing a line to observing its effect, repeated dozens of times a day and therefore the highest-leverage number in developer experience.
Internal Consumer SLO metric Platform SLOs A reliability commitment made to teams who cannot switch supplier, which is why it must be measured from their side rather than from the platform's.
Sidecar Overhead metric Service Mesh Operations The latency, memory and failure surface a mesh proxy adds per pod, which is the price of what the mesh provides and is frequently unmeasured.