Glossary · letter E
Event-driven architecture
Event-driven architecture
Definition
A pattern in which systems communicate by publishing and consuming events rather than calling each other directly. When something important happens in one system (an order is placed, a payment is received), it publishes an event — other systems that are interested subscribe to it and react independently.
Business application
In e-commerce, the event "customer placed an order" causes the WMS to reserve stock, the payment system to send a link, the CRM to record the activity and the marketing automation to add the customer to the "active" segment — all in parallel, without a single system orchestrating the whole.