AWS Well-Architected Overview

Introduction

• Presenter: Mark Isaacs, Senior Startup Solution Architect at AWS
• Purpose: Overview of AWS Well-Architected
  • What it is
  • How it can help

Why AWS Well-Architected Exists

• AWS Solution Architects have extensive experience in designing and reviewing customer architectures
• Identifies best practices and core strategies for building systems on AWS

Benefits of AWS Well-Architected

• Helps build secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient infrastructure
• Mechanism for your cloud journey
  • Learn strategies and best practices
  • Measure architecture against best practices using the Well-Architected Tool
  • Improve architectures by addressing high-risk issues

Importance for Startups

• Minimize risk of one-way decisions early in design
• Gauge the state of your architecture
• Create improvement roadmaps

The Five Pillars of AWS Well-Architected

• Operational Excellence
  • Running and monitoring systems for business value
  • Automating changes, responding to events, defining standards
• Security
  • Protecting information and systems
  • Confidentiality and integrity of data, privilege management, detecting security events
• Reliability
  • Ensuring workloads perform correctly and consistently
  • Distributed system design, recovery planning, handling change
• Performance Efficiency
  • Efficient use of IT and computing resources
  • Selecting appropriate resource types, monitoring performance, maintaining efficiency
• Cost Optimization
  • Avoiding unnecessary costs
  • Controlling spending, selecting appropriate resources, analyzing spend, scaling efficiently

AWS Well-Architected Lenses

• Extend guidance to specific industry and technology domains
  • Examples: Serverless applications, Foundational Technical Review, SaaS lenses
• Use lenses with the AWS Well-Architected Framework and five pillars

Using the Well-Architected Tool

• Executes the well-architected process on a selected workload
• Details stored securely in your AWS account
• Workloads can be shared for collaboration on review or remediation steps
  • Workload sharing
  • API for programmatic access

Architecture Health Process

• Consistent, blame-free approach
• Lightweight process (hours, not days)
• Conversational, not an audit
• Identifies critical issues and areas for improvement
• Outcome: Actions to improve customer experience with the workload
• Early implementation improves success and limits technical debt

Recommended Health Check Milestones

• Early in the design phase
• Before go-live date
• Continuously as architecture changes

Conclusion

• Encourage building well-architected solutions as part of your DNA
• Stay tuned for deep dives into each of the well-architected pillars