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

6 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Legal Hold	practice	Records Retention & Legal Hold	Suspending deletion for specific records because of anticipated litigation or investigation, which must override the retention schedule and be provable.
Material Outsourcing Notification	practice	Sector Cloud Rules	The regulatory obligation to inform a supervisor before placing a critical function with a third party, which puts cloud adoption on a timeline architecture must respect.
Obligation Mapping	practice	Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture	Translating each legal or regulatory requirement into the specific design constraints it imposes, so that compliance becomes a set of testable properties rather than a document.
Provider Exit Plan	practice	Exit & Concentration Risk	A documented and tested plan for moving a workload off a provider, whose credibility is measured by what has actually been rehearsed rather than described.
Scope Reduction	practice	PCI-DSS Scoping	Shrinking the set of systems that store, process or transmit cardholder data, because the cost of the standard is proportional to the number of systems in scope.
Subject Access Fulfilment	practice	Data Subject Rights	The operational path from a request to a complete, verified, delivered response within the statutory period, across systems that were never designed for it.