Clock Synchronization
Noun · Development
Definitions
The process of keeping clocks on different systems aligned closely enough that timestamps, token validity, scheduling, and ordering assumptions continue to work. Clock synchronization is critical in distributed systems because time drift can break logs, caches, auth flows, and replication behavior in unexpected ways.
In plain English: Keeping system clocks aligned so time-based behavior stays reliable across machines.
Example: "The distributed lock failures were traced back to poor clock synchronization between nodes that were making lease decisions with skewed timestamps."