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The only thing in life as sure as the sun rising is that no AWS architecture will be the same.
When designing solutions, keeping the six pillars of a well-architected framework in mind is essential. You should think of them the same as the pillars/infrastructure holding up your house. You don't notice or ever see them, but they are certainly in place and work.
If your infrastructure has a solid foundation, you can handle changes, failures, and other issues you'll inevitably face.
Here's a reference (or introduction) to the pillars:
Operational Excellence
This pillar focuses on running and monitoring systems to deliver business value and continually improving processes and procedures.
Best Practices:
Automate manual tasks for system management. This includes code deployments, security configurations, and backup procedures.
Implement robust monitoring and logging solutions to gain insight into system operations and performance.
Continuously evaluate the operational procedures to improve and adapt to the changing business needs.
Security
Prioritize the protection of information and systems. Key topics include confidentiality and data integrity, identifying and managing who can do what with privilege management, and protecting systems.
Best Practices:
Implement strong identity and access management controls.
Encrypt data in transit and at rest.
Follow the AWS best practices for infrastructure security, including regular audits and the principle of least privilege.
Reliability
The ability of a system to recover from infrastructure or service disruptions, and dynamically acquire computing resources to meet demand and mitigate disruptions.
Best Practices:
Design systems that are fault-tolerant and capable of self-recovery.
Implement robust backup solutions and disaster recovery strategies.
Ensure systems can scale horizontally to meet increasing loads.
Performance Efficiency
Using computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements and maintaining that efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.
Best Practices:
Choose the appropriate types and sizes of resources based on workload requirements.
Continuously monitor performance and adapt to changes.
Utilize advanced technologies like serverless and machine learning to improve performance.
Cost Optimization
The ability to run systems to deliver business value at the lowest price point.
Best Practices:
Use the most cost-effective resources for your workloads.
Scale resources to meet business demands without overspending.
Implement tools and procedures to monitor and control costs.
Sustainability
Designing your architecture while being mindful of your environmental impact and energy consumption.
Best Practices:
Don’t provision resources you won’t use.
Right size your resources and maximize utilization.
The AWS Well-Architected Framework is a comprehensive guide for building efficient, secure, and reliable cloud infrastructure.
Each solution will be different, so it is essential to take a holistic approach when designing specific solutions. This framework is not just a set of guidelines but a roadmap for successful cloud adoption and management.
Hopefully, you find this helpful as a reference or a reminder to always ensure you build on a solid foundation.
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