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

4 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Follower Fetching Closest-Replica Fetch, Rack-Aware Consumption	pattern	Streaming Cost	Letting a consumer read from the in-sync replica in its own availability zone instead of from the partition leader, which removes consumer-side cross-zone transfer charges and adds replication delay to every read.
Retention Cost	metric	Streaming Cost	The storage bill for keeping a log replayable, which is set by retention multiplied by throughput multiplied by the replication factor.
Streaming Cost Model	concept	Streaming Cost	The cost structure of an always-on streaming system, where compute runs continuously regardless of volume and cross-zone data movement is a major line item.
Tiered Storage Remote Storage Offload, Long-Term Log Retention, Hot-Cold Log Tiering	pattern	Streaming Cost	Keeping recent log segments on broker local disk and older ones in object storage, which decouples retention from broker sizing and turns replay from an emergency measure into a routine design tool.