The Computing Series

F4 — The 10 Architecture Tradeoffs

# Tradeoff The Dial
AT1 Consistency vs Availability Correctness vs staying up
AT2 Latency vs Throughput Fast per request vs many requests/sec
AT3 Simplicity vs Flexibility Easy to understand vs easy to extend
AT4 Precomputation vs On-Demand Pay at write time vs read time
AT5 Centralisation vs Distribution Single authority vs no single point
AT6 Generality vs Specialisation All cases vs common case optimised
AT7 Automation vs Control System decides vs human decides
AT8 Coupling vs Cohesion Independent deploy vs co-located logic
AT9 Correctness vs Performance Right answer vs fast answer
AT10 Synchronous vs Asynchronous Immediate response vs deferred

Use: Name the tradeoff before making any architectural decision. An unnamed tradeoff is a surprise waiting to happen.


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