AWS Well-Architected Framework
Architecture Building in technology is quite a challenge; references or blueprints might be available, but in my experience, designs continue to change as decisions are made daily, each crucial for the proper functioning and stability of the final architecture.
In this article, we are going to discuss the AWS Well-Architected Framework and one of the major challenges, which is getting the most out of an AWS workload. We will start by providing an introduction to what the AWS Well-Architected Framework is, examples of its implementation, and results. Later, in the second part of this article, we will move on to real-life examples and ways to use them.
What is the Well-Architected framework (WAF)?
The Well-Architected Framework Is a structured and systematic approach for designing cloud architectures that are secure, reliable, efficient, and cost-effective. It provides a pillar approach based on AWS’s experience in the best architectural practices and experience with many clients.
The following diagram summarizes the structure of the framework and can be of great help; however, it is an extensive framework that may seem difficult to navigate for practical purposes:
First, understand these statements:
- The framework includes pillars representing fundamental categories, covering essential aspects to consider when designing an architecture.
- As a framework, it includes core design principles as guidelines for architecting solutions.
- Each pillar contains its design principles with corresponding guidelines.
- Each pillar has areas to segment practices or themes to address the questions.
- Finally, the respective questions for each area.
As a first tip: The relevant aspect here is to see this diagram as a telephone directory or an index of a book. A quick way to find how to address or investigate my needs based on AWS best practices.
In the next diagram, you can see all the practice areas of each pillar so you can look faster for your architectural needs:
If you have to resolve a Security pillar risk, for example, detection of unexpected change, search through these practice areas. In this case, you will find the questions to ask about your workload, and inside each question, you could find remarkable things like:
- Introduction to this practice area.
- Involved AWS services around these practice areas.
- Implementation guidance with steps.
- Common anti-patterns.
- Level of risk exposed.
- Benefits of these practices.
- Resources.
By workload, I mean a collection of resources and code that make up a cloud application. To assist the reader’s visualization of the documentation regarding the security pillar and the aforementioned areas, in my day-to-day as a solutions architect, it is highly valuable to review the documentation alongside AWS expertise and solution implementation of a practice area, for example, let’s see the documentation for the Security pillar:
By now, you should be able to see what a great tool the Well-Architected Framework is for reviewing or even designing a new application architecture. Surely, you’ll be able to bring new ideas into your daily work that will allow you to improve the design of future projects.
For newcomers to this framework, search for the Well-Architected Tool in the AWS Management Console to start using it. You register a workload to begin implementing the framework. Typically, you start with a session to understand the architecture and functionality of the workload and then proceed with each pillar until they are completed, generating the final report with the identified risks. Below, you can see a broad overview of this process:
Each pillar question will contain a series of points to validate whether it complies with the practice or not. For example, In the following example question, you can see an actual example of the points included in a question assessment, where each item is marked based on whether it is covered or not for the evaluated workload:
This framework should not be approached as an audit; it should focus on initiating a conversation and reviewing what I can improve in my workload to achieve an architecture with better processes and practices continually.
In the end, based on the answers, you can generate a report with the identified high or medium risks and improvement plans to address or mitigate them according to each solution and requirement:
With this knowledge, we can now come to a few conclusions about the benefits and objectives of this framework:
Summary
We now thoroughly understand the fundamental elements of the well-architected framework. We have looked at a broad overview of how it operates and how to use it, acknowledging that it is a powerful and quite extensive framework.
Remember that this architecture review is an iterative process to address new difficulties that emerge daily in the rapidly evolving world of technology and to evaluate action plans.
This post will continue with the fascinating topic of the well-architected framework in a later section, where we will use an analogy to understand how to lay a foundation so that we can build the framework’s pillars.
