Terminology

2205 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 areas2205 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 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 concept794 practice734 pattern368 metric125 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

6 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Backup Restore Testing	practice	Backup Strategies	Periodically performing a full restore and measuring it, on the basis that an untested backup is a hypothesis rather than a capability.
Immutable Backup Object Lock, WORM	pattern	Backup Strategies	A backup that cannot be modified or deleted for a defined retention period, even by an administrator — the control that makes backups survive ransomware and insider error.
Maersk and NotPetya: Recovery from a Single Surviving Copy NotPetya 2017	case-study	Backup Strategies	A destructive malware outbreak encrypted Maersk's estate globally, and the domain controllers were recovered only because one office had been offline during the attack.
Point-in-Time Recovery PITR	concept	Backup Strategies	Restoring a database to any moment within a retention window by replaying transaction logs onto a base backup, rather than only to a snapshot boundary.
Restore Drill	practice	Backup Strategies	A scheduled, timed exercise of restoring from backup into a clean environment — the only thing that converts a backup from a hope into a control.
Verified Recovery Restore Assurance, Tested Recoverability	metric	Backup Strategies	The measure that matters in data protection - the proportion of backups demonstrably restorable within the stated RTO - as opposed to backup success rate, which is near 100% even where recovery is impossible.