The AWS Well-Architected Framework helps cloud architects build secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient infrastructure for their applications. It provides a consistent approach to evaluate architectures and implement scalable designs. The framework is built around six pillars:
Table of Contents
1. Operational Excellence
Focuses on running and monitoring systems to deliver business value and continually improving processes and procedures.
Key Design Principles:
- Perform operations as code
- Annotate documentation
- Make frequent, small, reversible changes
- Refine operations procedures frequently
- Anticipate failure
- Learn from all operational failures
Best Practices:
- Organization: Implement a structure that supports business objectives.
- Prepare: Design workloads to support operational excellence.
- Operate: Implement operations as code and align operations processes to support business objectives.
- Evolve: Continuously improve procedures and operations.
2. Security
Ensures the protection of information, systems, and assets while delivering business value through risk assessments and mitigation strategies.
Key Design Principles:
- Implement a strong identity foundation
- Enable traceability
- Apply security at all layers
- Automate security best practices
- Protect data in transit and at rest
- Prepare for security events
Best Practices:
- Identity and Access Management: Manage identities and permissions effectively.
- Detective Controls: Implement logging and monitoring.
- Infrastructure Protection: Secure network and compute resources.
- Data Protection: Protect data through encryption and access control.
- Incident Response: Prepare and respond to incidents effectively.
3. Reliability
Ensures a workload performs its intended function correctly and consistently when expected to.
Key Design Principles:
- Automatically recover from failure
- Test recovery procedures
- Scale horizontally to increase aggregate system availability
- Stop guessing capacity
- Manage change in automation
Best Practices:
- Foundations: Set up AWS accounts and manage quotas.
- Workload Architecture: Design reliable workloads with failover strategies.
- Change Management: Manage changes through automated processes.
- Failure Management: Plan for and manage failures.
4. Performance Efficiency
Focuses on using IT and computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements and to maintain efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.
Key Design Principles:
- Democratize advanced technologies
- Go global in minutes
- Use serverless architectures
- Experiment more often
- Mechanical sympathy
Best Practices:
- Selection: Choose the right resource types and sizes.
- Review: Continuously evaluate resource efficiency.
- Monitoring: Monitor performance and adjust resources accordingly.
- Trade-offs: Make informed decisions on performance vs. cost.
5. Cost Optimization
Focuses on avoiding unnecessary costs and understanding where money is being spent, while maintaining the ability to run systems efficiently and effectively.
Key Design Principles:
- Implement cloud financial management
- Adopt a consumption model
- Measure overall efficiency
- Stop spending money on undifferentiated heavy lifting
- Analyze and attribute expenditure
Best Practices:
- Expenditure Awareness: Implement cost allocation tags and budget alerts.
- Cost-Effective Resources: Use appropriate pricing models and instances.
- Matching Supply and Demand: Scale based on demand and utilize auto-scaling.
- Optimizing Over Time: Regularly review and optimize costs.
6. Sustainability
Focuses on minimizing the environmental impacts of cloud workloads. It promotes designing workloads that maximize utilization and minimize waste.
Key Design Principles:
- Understand your impact
- Establish sustainability goals
- Maximize utilization
- Anticipate and adopt new, more efficient hardware and software offerings
Best Practices:
- Usage Patterns: Design efficient architectures that reduce waste.
- Component Efficiency: Choose more efficient instances and optimize code.
- Data Management: Optimize data storage and processing.
- Continuously Improve: Regularly review and adjust for sustainability.
Summary
The AWS Well-Architected Framework provides a comprehensive approach to designing and operating reliable, secure, efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable systems in the cloud. By adhering to these six pillars, organizations can ensure that their cloud infrastructure supports their business objectives effectively.