Terminology

2185 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 areas2185 Architecture Fundamentals77 Distributed Systems107 Data Architecture110 Cloud Architecture89 Networking88 API & Integration Architecture82 Reliability & Resilience75 Observability70 Performance & Capacity Engineering72 Security Architecture81 Cost Architecture & FinOps66 Business Architecture67 Architecture Communication67 Enterprise Architecture66 Legacy Modernization66 AI-Era Architecture69 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 Architecture64 Streaming & Real-Time Data69 Data Governance & Semantics69 Frontend & Experience Architecture66 Edge, Mobile & IoT68 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture65 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk64

Kind Any concept785 practice729 pattern362 metric125 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

6 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Content Delivery Network CDN	tool	Networking	A geographically distributed cache that serves content from a location near the user instead of from the origin.
Flow Logs	tool	Network Troubleshooting	Records of accepted and rejected network connections, giving a queryable history of what actually talked to what.
NAT Gateway Network Address Translation	tool	Networking	A managed device that lets instances in a private subnet make outbound connections without being reachable inbound.
NAT Gateways	tool	NAT & Egress	The component that lets private instances reach the internet, and one of the most reliably surprising line items on a cloud bill.
Network API Gateways	tool	API Gateways	The ingress component that terminates external connections and routes into the estate — considered from the network rather than the API-management angle.
Security Group Firewall Rules, NSG	tool	Networking	A stateful, instance-level firewall that allows specified traffic and denies everything else by default.