Instanz

Instanz is a German noun meaning an occurrence, an example, or a particular case within a set of possibilities. The term originates from Latin instantia and entered German through historical usage and legal language. In general usage it can denote a specific instance of something among many similar ones.

In legal contexts, Instanz denotes a stage or authority in a judicial process. The first instance (erste Instanz) is the court or proceedings in which a case is initially heard, while higher instances handle appeals or reviews. The term thus conveys a procedural layering within courts or tribunals.

In information technology and computing, Instanz is commonly used to translate the English term instance. It designates a single execution, copy, or deployment of a software component. Examples include a database instance, a server instance, or a virtual machine instance. In object-oriented programming, an instance refers to a concrete object created from a class, containing data and behavior defined by that class. Instances can run in isolation, be scaled, or be replicated in distributed systems.

In cloud and deployment contexts, multiple compute instances may operate behind load balancers and share data through databases or storage services. The term also appears in discussions of environments such as development, testing, and production, where separate instances represent distinct runtime contexts.

See also: instance, class, replication, virtualization.