--- title: The Map of System Topologies | daily.dev description: A comprehensive taxonomy of software system topologies organized by their degree of partitioning into layers (technical) and subdomains (domain). The map... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-map-of-system-topologies-njwkc1tzq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Map of System Topologies | daily.dev og:description: A comprehensive taxonomy of software system topologies organized by their degree of partitioning into layers (technical) and subdomains (domain). The map... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-map-of-system-topologies-njwkc1tzq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/NJWkc1tZq.png og:image:alt: The Map of System Topologies og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Map of System Topologies **[ITNEXT](https://daily.dev/sources/itnext)** · 20 min read · 253 upvotes · 9 comments ## Summary A comprehensive taxonomy of software system topologies organized by their degree of partitioning into layers (technical) and subdomains (domain). The map covers five major regions: Monolithic systems (true monoliths, monoliths with auxiliary layers, plugins), Layered architectures (ordinary, scaled, and special variants), Plugin family (hexagonal, microkernel, separated presentation), Services area (barebone services, services with extensions, hierarchies), and Fragmented patterns (layers of services, layered services, hierarchies). Each topology is analyzed for its appropriate use case, from small cohesive projects to huge recursive decompositions. Key motifs include managing layers, platform layers, and the principle that system size and complexity drive the choice of partitioning strategy. This is an excerpt from the book 'Architectural Metapatterns: the Pattern Language of Software Architecture'. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@rushgust\_d** · 7 upvotes > I think this is the best article today ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Sandwich Architecture](https://daily.dev/posts/sandwich-architecture-mwkwiwj3s) · ITNEXT · 136 upvotes · 2 comments - [Software architecture patterns: Full catalog & how to choose](https://daily.dev/posts/software-architecture-patterns-full-catalog-how-to-choose-3yx5kohlx) · Netguru · 39 upvotes · 2 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#microservices](https://daily.dev/tags/microservices), [#domain-driven-design](https://daily.dev/tags/domain-driven-design) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-map-of-system-topologies-njwkc1tzq) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Map of System Topologies","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-map-of-system-topologies-njwkc1tzq","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-map-of-system-topologies-njwkc1tzq"},"datePublished":"2026-05-05T07:35:28.474Z","dateModified":"2026-05-05T07:35:54.974Z","description":"A comprehensive taxonomy of software system topologies organized by their degree of partitioning into layers (technical) and subdomains (domain). 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