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

7 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
A/B Partition Update	pattern	OTA Updates	Writing firmware to an inactive partition and switching on next boot, so a failed update falls back to the previous image rather than bricking the device.
Edge Aggregation	pattern	Device Telemetry at Scale	Summarising or filtering telemetry at the device or gateway so that only what is needed leaves, which is usually the difference between a viable and an unaffordable design.
Last Writer Wins	pattern	Sync & Conflict Resolution	Resolving a conflict by keeping the version with the later timestamp — simple, deterministic, and it silently discards the other change.
Local First Write	pattern	Offline-First	Committing to local storage first and treating the server as an eventual replica, which makes the interface responsive and connectivity an optimisation.
Read Local Write Global	pattern	Edge Data Consistency	Replicating read-only state to every edge location while directing writes to a single authoritative region, which is the arrangement most edge data stores actually provide.
Reported Versus Desired State	pattern	Digital Twin	Holding two representations of a device — what it last said it was, and what it should be — with the gap between them driving reconciliation.
Zero Touch Provisioning	pattern	Device Provisioning	A device obtaining its identity and configuration on first boot without a human configuring it, which is the only approach that scales past a few hundred units.