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

4 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
AWS: Shuffle Sharding Shuffle Sharding, Virtual Sharding	case-study	Cell-Based Architecture	Assigning each customer a random subset of workers rather than a fixed shard, so that one abusive tenant affects almost nobody else.
Cell Cellular Architecture, Bulkhead Cell, Independent Stack	pattern	Cell-Based Architecture	A complete, independent instance of a system serving a subset of customers, sharing no state with other cells - so that almost every class of failure is bounded to one cell's population rather than the whole u…
Cell Router Cell Mapping Layer, Partition Front Door	pattern	Cell-Based Architecture	The thin shared component that maps a customer to their cell - the one part of a cell-based architecture that is not isolated, and therefore the part that must be simplest.
Cell-Based Architecture Cellular Architecture, Shuffle Sharding	pattern	Cell-Based Architecture	Running many complete, independent copies of the stack, each serving a subset of users, so any failure is confined to one cell.