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
Fully-Loaded Tenant Cost True Cost to Serve, Cost Per Tenant, Loaded Unit Cost	concept	Unit Economics	The total cost of serving one tenant including the per-tenant floors that do not scale with usage - infrastructure minimums, control-plane overhead, fleet operations, support and abuse - which is what makes sm…
Funnel-Stage Cost Ratio Attempts per Conversion Cost, Pre-Conversion Cost Multiple	metric	Unit Economics	The cost incurred by all the attempts that precede one revenue event, expressed per revenue event, which exposes the case where making each attempt cheaper makes the business more expensive.
Unit Economics	metric	Unit Economics	Infrastructure cost expressed per unit of business value delivered, which reveals efficiency trends that absolute spend cannot.
Unit Economics of a System	metric	Unit Economics	The cost to serve one unit of business value — a customer, an order, a request — which determines whether a system's economics improve or worsen with scale.