Graceful degradation preserves a deliberately supported subset of a service when another part fails. An article page might omit recommendations while still showing the requested article. The important word is supported: a partial answer must remain useful and truthful under its product contract. Returning something is not automatically safer than returning an explicit failure. ...
A circuit breaker decides whether a new call should reach a dependency that appears unhealthy. It can reject promptly instead of spending resources on another likely failure. It does not repair that dependency, cancel calls already running, or prove that rejected work would have failed. Its value depends on the failure signals and recovery policy it actually implements. ...
Block storage exposes addressable blocks through a device interface. Object storage exposes named objects through an API. Neither label alone specifies durability, consistency, sharing, or price. Start with the application’s required operations, then check the particular service’s contract. A filesystem, database, or compatibility layer can add behavior, but it cannot make every underlying interface interchangeable. ...
Small does not mean unfinished; it means each boundary has a clear job and a visible owner.
A static origin is a boundary you can name, cache, and roll back.