Terminology

2225 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 areas2225 Architecture Fundamentals77 Distributed Systems107 Data Architecture110 Cloud Architecture94 Networking88 API & Integration Architecture82 Reliability & Resilience75 Observability70 Performance & Capacity Engineering72 Security Architecture86 Cost Architecture & FinOps71 Business Architecture67 Architecture Communication67 Enterprise Architecture66 Legacy Modernization71 AI-Era Architecture74 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 Architecture69 Streaming & Real-Time Data69 Data Governance & Semantics74 Frontend & Experience Architecture66 Edge, Mobile & IoT68 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture65 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk69

Kind Any concept801 practice736 pattern377 metric127 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

8 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Consent Architecture	pattern	Consent Architecture	Capturing, storing and enforcing a person's permissions for specific processing purposes, across every system that acts on their data.
Deemed Status Provisional Outcome, Presumed Result, Timeout Resolution Rule	pattern	Financial Services Regulation	A provisional outcome assigned to a transaction whose true result is unknown after a timeout, resolved later by reconciliation - because a payments rail cannot leave money in an indeterminate state indefinitely.
External Key Store Hold Your Own Key, External Key Manager, HYOK	pattern	Digital Sovereignty	Holding the key-unwrapping function in a system the cloud provider does not operate so that a decrypt requires a call outward, converting a contractual promise about foreign access into a technical dependency.
Fail-Open Audit Boundary Audit Fail-Open Rule, Accountability Degradation Policy	pattern	Healthcare Data Protection	A pre-declared rule saying which classes of access may proceed when the audit trail cannot be written and which must be refused, so a logging failure does not become a safety failure or an invisible one.
Key-Custodian Separation Token Vault Separation, Split-Custody Pseudonymisation	pattern	Pseudonymisation	Keeping the mapping or key that re-identifies pseudonymised data in a system with a different access path from the data itself - so a breach of the analytical store yields behaviour without people.
Objection Register Opt-Out Register	pattern	Lawful Basis & Purpose Limitation	The durable default-allow counterpart to a consent store, holding every objection and opt-out and consulted at use time by every job, because switching a lawful basis from consent to legitimate interests inver…
Screening Enforcement Point Sanctions Control Placement, Party Screening Gate	pattern	Geo-Restriction & Sanctions	The place in a system where a restriction is actually enforced - which must match what the obligation is about, since sanctions apply to parties and licensing restrictions apply to locations, and a control pla…
Suppression List Do-Not-Reprocess List, Erasure Tombstone Registry	pattern	Data Subject Rights	A durable record of identifiers that must not be re-ingested, preventing an in-flight or replayed pipeline from recreating data that was just erased.