How to design an amazing AWS Architecture Diagram?

Are you confused with the huge amount of information you are getting regarding AWS architecture diagrams? We understand and are here to assist you in making your journey as simple as possible. We at Holori made it extremely simple to not only visualize but also build an AWS architecture diagram, as well as determine the cost, all in a single app.

What is an AWS Architecture Diagram?

An Amazon Web Services diagram provides a visual overview of your existing or future infrastructure. It uses icons to represent specific types of products, resources, and services. It utilizes lines to explain links between distinct items so that viewers can grasp the pictorial representation and flow of information in the architecture diagram.

Before you deploy your infrastructure, you can use these types of diagrams to iterate on what your architecture should look like. The AWS architecture diagrams are useful during the entire lifetime of your application. Your application is evolving, and so is your architecture.

What are the benefits of using AWS architecture diagrams?

AWS architecture diagrams are useful when your application or project is hosted on the AWS cloud. One can use this as a support for presentations to showcase a present/future project outline or even for budget approval. By looking at AWS Cloud architecture diagrams, DevOps and cloud architects can quickly visualize and collaborate on the entire cloud infrastructure.

In a nutshell, an AWS architecture diagram is the “Google map” of your company’s IT infrastructure providing visibility, instructions, and alternatives.

10 reasons to create AWS diagram ?

1. Enhanced communication across teams
2. Finding errors and removing them
3. Planning for future expansion
4. Identifying useless resources to optimize costs
5. Explaining infrastructure to non-tech stakeholders
6. Identifying security loopholes
7. Establishing, evaluating, and improving security
8. Auditing infrastructure
9. Support to generate technical documentation
10. Speed up on-boarding of new tech member

How to draw an AWS architecture diagram using Holori software?

Step-by-step guide

1. First of all, have in mind your requirements to build your infrastructure and the first idea of your budget
2. Go to https://app.holori.com/ and create a new project. You can give it a project name and a short description
3. If you have an existing AWS infrastructure that you want to visualize or perform modifications, we offer either the possibility to connect through SSO to your AWS account and import your infrastructure or to import your infrastructure through terraform. For starting a new project from scratch please read the guide further.
4. On the left panel, Holori’s AWS architecture diagram tool lists the products of many cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, GCP, OVH, Alibaba, Linode, Scaleway, etc. All cloud services are organized by category (compute, storage, network) making it easy to find the right service and understand what is the equivalent of another cloud provider. Each AWS product is featured by the latest and official AWS architecture icon.

5. You can now select the right AWS product icon, click on it and the icon will appear in the center of the grid. Do the same for all the products you want to use.

6. Then you can connect all the icons using arrows and form a placement group. Group can be used to represent AWS availability zones for example -Paris or Frankfurt, VPC.

7. After this, you can define attributes for specific resources such as CPU, Ram, Network, Disk, GPU, etc

8. You can also find equivalent products of the same specification from different providers. For example — Amazon EC2 and Azure Virtual Machine.

9. Now that your AWS architecture diagram is ready, you can see the AWS cost estimation for the project. You can compare the cost for this infra in multiple AWS regions. Along with that, you can also look for alternatives and see the cost for an equivalent infra at another provider or for an infra the services of multiple cloud providers. This step is crucial as deploying the first time right will save you future trouble and sleepless nights making changes to reduce cloud costs. Holori aims to provide cloud cost optimization as high as 70%.

10. Once you know for sure on which cloud platform you want to deploy your infrastructure, you can opt for 2 options :

a. The preferred option is to deploy the infrastructure with a direct AWS cloud console connection. This requires granting the right permission to Holori software.

b. The second possibility is to provision your infrastructure through the terraform export option. For this, you will need to fill the terraform attributes located on the right-side panel.

Why should you use Holori for drawing AWS diagrams ?

Users say the Amazon Web Services console is a nightmare. There is too much information on the AWS console making it not user-friendly at all. So for new users, it is extremely complicated and time-consuming to learn to use the console.

If creating cloud infrastructure is like climbing a mountain’s peak, then the AWS console is the laborious, step-by-step trip that appears impossible. Using Holori, on the other hand, is like taking a helicopter to get there instantly.

Holori AWS architecture diagram software gives you the peace of mind that your architecture is done right, from Dev to live release.

Easy to use & all in one tool (design, estimate, deploy) :

With Holori all the functions are accessible with just one tap. All you need is to drag and drop components onto the grid, estimate your cloud cost, import/export your cloud infra using terraform, and whatnot your infra is ready. Over and above you can add new resources to your existing infrastructure. You can create infrastructure in the blink of an eye.

Truly multi-cloud :

With Holori all the functions are accessible with just one tap. All you need is to drag and drop components onto the grid, estimate your cloud cost, import/export your cloud infra using terraform, and whatnot your infra is ready. Over and above you can add new resources to your existing infrastructure. You can create infrastructure in the blink of an eye.

Traveling from Paris to NYC with Air France or with Delta Airlines, isn’t it the same? They offer the same level of service (maybe not the food). The final result is the same, you were in Paris and you landed in NYC. The same pattern can be applied to the cloud. You can obtain a cloud product or service with similar specs from a variety of vendors to name a few Azure, AWS GCP, OVH, and IBM cloud. So choose Holori to go multi-cloud and save a lot of money for future growth and expansion.

Cost estimation & optimization and comparison :

Holori can estimate the entire cost of your AWS architecture project as well as the specific costs of each AWS service, giving you more visibility prior to deployment. Furthermore, Holori will compare cloud services and give you recommendations for cross-cloud optimization possibilities. At least, with Holori you can have peace of mind knowing that you take the best deal on the market.

Connected to cloud account / import & export terraform :

Holori architecture diagram tool connects to the main cloud providers’ console API. This allows us to import your existing infrastructure avoiding redoing everything manually. When you have performed the changes on your architecture, Holori will deploy your new infrastructure.If your company policy doesn’t allow access to Holori, you can use Infrastructure as Code to automate things. Holori offers import and export terraform features. With our services, you manage your cloud quickly, effortlessly, and smoothly.

No certification required :

Cloud became so complex over the years that cloud providers released certification courses to be able to use their technologies and services. At Holori, we know for sure that cloud providers will never push for standardization and make sure you are vendor lock-in.

Holori’s goal is to fight this and the cloud diagramming software is the first pillar to make the cloud simple again. With Holori’s tool, you can manage your live infrastructure for all cloud providers through a visual console. If you are not familiar with any cloud providers’ technology, you can just draw something generic and we will convert it into an AWS architecture diagram in a single click.

Using AWS is complex. Make it simple. Use Holori AWS architecture diagram tool !