AWS Well-Architected Framework
Introduction
The AWS Well-Architected Framework helps you understand the pros and cons of decisions you make while building systems on AWS. By using the Framework you will learn architectural best practices for designing and operating reliable, secure, efficient, and cost-effective systems in the cloud. The AWS Well-Architected Framework documents a set of foundational questions that allow you to understand if a specific architecture aligns well with cloud best practices.
This framework is intended for those in technology roles, such as chief technology officers (CTOs), architects, developers, and operations team members. It describes AWS best practices and strategies to use when designing and operating a cloud workload, and provides links to further implementation details and architectural patterns. For more information, see the AWS Well-Architected homepage.
Five Pillars
1. Operational Excellence
Run and monitor systems to deliver business value. Continually improve supporting processes and procedures.
2. Security
Protect information, systems, and assets. Deliver business value through risk assessments and mitigation strategies.
3. Reliability
Recover from infrastructure or service disruptions, dynamically acquire computing resources to meet demand, and mitigate disruptions such as misconfigurations or transient network issues.
4. Performance Efficiency
Use computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements, and to maintain that efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.
5. Cost Optimization
Run systems to deliver business value at the lowest price point. Avoid unnecessary costs, analyzing spend over time, and scaling to meet business needs without overspending.
General Design Principles
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Stop guessing your capacity needs
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Test systems at production scale
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Automate to make architectural experimentation easier
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Allow for evolutionary architectures
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Drive architectures using data
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Improve through game days
Conclusion
The AWS Well-Architected Framework provides architectural best practices across the five pillars for designing and operating reliable, secure, efficient, and cost-effective systems in the cloud. The Framework provides a set of questions that allows you to review an existing or proposed architecture. It also provides a set of AWS best practices for each pillar. Using the Framework in your architecture will help you produce stable and efficient systems, which allow you to focus on your functional requirements.