Deployment Diagrams
What runs where, in which zone, behind which boundary.
4 to work through
-
intermediate Multiple choice
An auditor asks what happens to your service if a single availability zone fails. Which diagram answers the question directly?
3 min answer -
intermediate
What does a deployment diagram communicate that a container diagram cannot, and what is most often missing from it?
2 min answer -
intermediate Multiple choice
What does a deployment diagram show that a container diagram cannot?
2 min answer -
intermediate
Your deployment diagram shows three availability zones with every service replicated into each and a mesh spreading calls evenly across zones. Finance asks why network charges are $14k of a $90k monthly cloud bill. Estimate the cross-zone traffic implied by that number and say what you would annotate on the diagram.
3 min answer
3 terms in this topic
Deployment Diagrams
Where software actually runs — regions, zones, clusters, networks — and therefore what fails together.
conceptDeployment Topology View
A diagram showing where software actually runs — regions, zones, networks and hosts — which is where availability and cost properties become visible.
practiceFailure Domain Annotation
Writing on a deployment diagram what each group of nodes shares - image, configuration source, pipeline, control plane - so the diagram answers what …
Neighbouring topics
Architecture Communication
General material on communicating architecture.
Architecture Diagrams
Choosing an audience and refusing to mix levels of abstraction.
C4 Model
Context, container, component and code as four separate diagrams.
Context Diagrams
The system as one box, with its users and external systems.
Sequence Diagrams
Ordered message exchange, and walking the failure of each arrow.
Data-Flow Diagrams
Following the data across trust boundaries rather than the calls.
Communicating Threat Models
Making risk legible to people who will fund or accept it.
Writing Decision Records
Context, alternatives and consequences, written once and never edited.
Technical Proposals
A written argument circulated before the decision feels made.
Architecture Reviews
Reviewing early enough to influence rather than to veto.
Presenting to Executives
Decision first, cost, risk, and what happens if we do nothing.
Presenting to Engineers
Mechanism, alternatives rejected, and what you are unsure about.
Explaining Trade-offs
Naming what was given up, and the condition that would change it.
Handling Disagreement
Arguing from consequences, and escalating in the room.
Negotiation
Trading on interests rather than positions, with priced options.
Documentation Practice
Keeping documents close to the code and honest about staleness.
Presentation Skills
Structure, pacing and the slide that carries the decision.
Written Communication
Writing that survives being read without you in the room.
Facilitation
Running a design session that reaches a decision.