Well-Architecture Framework is a set of concepts, design principles, recommendations and best practices for designing and operating workloads in a cloud environment. It allows for a consistent approach to evaluating cloud architectures and ensures scalable designs are implemented. While each cloud vendor has their take on the Framework, in general, the Frameworks are cloud agnostic and be applied to any Cloud environment and vendor. We will focus on AWS Framework but all providers should have a similar version.

The aim of the Well-Architected Framework isn't to specify a specific solution but a general process that allows you to develop a solution that fits your needs and criteria.

AWS's Framework has 6 pillars

• Operational Excellence

• Security

• Reliability

• Performance Efficiency

• Cost Optimization

• Sustainability

Operational Excellence

The operational excellence pillar focuses on running and monitoring systems, and continually improving processes and procedures. Key topics include automating changes, responding to events, and defining standards to manage daily operations.

The goal of operational excellence is the ability to support the development and run workload effectively, gain insights into operations and continuously improve and support processes and procedures.

• Perform operations as code

• Annotated documentation

• Make small frequent and reversible changes

• Frequently refine operation procedures

• Anticipate failure and learn from them

Security

The security pillar focuses on protecting information and systems. Key topics include confidentiality and integrity of data, managing user permissions, and establishing controls to detect security events.

• Implement a strong identity foundation

• Enable traceability

• Apply security at all layers

• Automate security best practices

• Protect data in transit and at rest

• Keep people away from data

• Prepare for security events

Reliability

The reliability pillar focuses on workloads performing their intended functions correctly and consistently and the ability to recover quickly from failure to meet demands. Key topics include distributed system design, recovery planning, and adapting to changing requirements.

• Automatically recover from failure

• Test recovery procedures

• Scale horizontally to increase aggregate system availability

• Stop guessing capacity

• Manage change in automation

Performance Efficiency

The performance efficiency pillar focuses on the structured and streamlined allocation of IT and computing resources to meet system requirements efficiently. Key topics include selecting resource types and sizes optimized for workload requirements, monitoring performance, and maintaining efficiency as business needs evolve.

• Democratize advance technologies

• Go global in minutes

• Use serverless architectures

• Experiment more often

• Mechanical sympathy

Cost Optimization

The cost optimization pillar focuses on avoiding unnecessary costs. Key topics include understanding spending over time and controlling fund allocation, selecting resources of the right type and quantity, and scaling to meet business needs without overspending.

• Adopt a consumption model

• Measure overall efficiency

• Stop spending money on data centre operations

• Analyze and attribute expenditure

• Use managed services to reduce the cost of ownership

Sustainability

The sustainability pillar focuses on minimizing the environmental impacts of running cloud workloads. Key topics include a shared responsibility model for sustainability, understanding impact, and maximizing utilization to minimize required resources and reduce downstream impacts.

• Understand your impact

• Establish sustainability goals

• Maximize utilization

• Anticipate and adopt new and more efficient hardware and software offerings

• Use managed services

• Reduce the downstream impact of your cloud workloads

Purpose of the Framework

The purpose of the framework isn't just to ensure your cloud solution works. It's to ensure that the solution is effective, efficient and secure. The framework aims to ensure an understanding when making decisions to ensure that the pros and cons are considered against best practices and identify areas for improvement.