Anti-Corruption Layer
Translating a foreign model at the boundary so it does not leak in.
4 to work through
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intermediate
A card platform integrates with a network whose data model and semantics differ fundamentally from its own. Where should the translation live and what discipline does it require?
2 min answer -
intermediate
A new service must integrate with a legacy system whose data model is entangled and poorly named. What does an anti-corruption layer actually do, and how do you know it is working?
2 min answer -
intermediate
A platform integrates retailer systems with inconsistent models. What does an anti-corruption layer prevent, and where does it belong?
2 min answer -
intermediate Multiple choice
A team integrates a vendor CRM whose customer model contradicts theirs. Six months later vendor field names and status codes appear throughout the codebase. What was missing and what is the fix now?
2 min answer
2 terms in this topic
Anti-Corruption Layer
A translation boundary that keeps another system's model — usually a legacy or vendor one — from leaking into your domain.
patternModel Translation Boundary
The layer at which an external system's model is converted into your own, preventing its concepts and accidents from spreading into your domain.
Neighbouring topics
Architecture Patterns
General material on architectural patterns and their trade-offs.
Layered Architecture
The default shape, its clarity, and where a technical partition fails.
Event-Driven Architecture
Publishing facts, and trading comprehensibility for decoupling.
Pipes and Filters
Independent transformation steps composed into a pipeline.
Publish/Subscribe
Broadcast to every subscriber, as distinct from work distribution.
Competing Consumers
Scaling throughput with instances, at the cost of ordering.
Saga
Local transactions with compensating actions across services.
CQRS
Separate models for writing and reading, each optimised for its job.
Event Sourcing
The event log as the system of record, with state as a projection.
Outbox
Making the event atomic with the business write it describes.
Strangler Fig
Incremental replacement behind a routing facade.
Sidecar & Ambassador
Cross-cutting behaviour in a co-deployed process.
Service Mesh
Sidecars applied estate-wide, and the scale at which that pays.
API Gateway
A single entry point for policy, routing and protocol translation.
Backend for Frontend
A narrow backend per client experience, owned by that client's team.
Cell-Based Architecture
Complete isolated copies each serving a subset of customers.
Sharding Patterns
Directory versus embedded keys, logical shards and rebalancing.
Materialized Views
Precomputed query results, refreshed incrementally or in full.
Orchestration vs Choreography
A coordinator that knows the flow, or services that react to events.