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WELL-ARCHITECTED FRAMEWORK REVIEW

The AWS Well-Architected Framework Review (WAFR) is a process designed to assess the architecture of AWS cloud environments against best practices defined by AWS. The review helps organizations identify areas of improvement and optimize their architectures for performance, security, reliability, cost efficiency, and operational excellence.

 

Pillar 1: Operational Excellence

Assess how well the system is operated and monitored. Including areas such as:

  • Make frequent, small, reversible changes
  • Refine operations procedures    frequently
  • Anticipate failure
  • Learn from all operational failures
Pillar 2: Security

Identify potential vulnerabilities, data protection measures, identity and access management practices, and compliance with security best practices.

  • Identity and access management.
  • Infrastructure protection.
  • Data protection.
  • Incident response.
Pillar 3: Reliability

Evaluate fault tolerance, disaster recovery mechanisms, Backup and restore processes, and system resilience to ensure high availability.

  • Change Management
  • Failure Management
  • Monitoring
Pillar 4: Performance Efficiency

Analyze resource utilization, scalability, and application performance to identify opportunities for optimization.

  • Democratize advanced technologies
  • Go global in minutes
  • Experiment more often
Pillar 5: Sustainability
  • Reduce Computational Intensity: Optimize algorithms and processes to minimize resource usage.
  • Leverage Batch Processing: Improve efficiency by processing tasks in batches.
  • Adjust Availability: Balance high service levels with reduced resource consumption.
Pillar 6: Cost Optimization

Review cost management practices, cost allocation, and usage optimization strategies.

  • Instances rightsizing
  • Analyze Amazon S3 usage and reduce cost by leveraging lower cost storage tiers
  • Review networking and reduce costs by deleting idle load balancers

PROCESS WALK-THROUGH

Discovery Phase

  • Understand the existing AWS architecture, infrastructure, applications, and associated workloads.
  • Collect relevant documentation, such as architectural diagrams, deployment configurations, and operational processes.
  • Engage with stakeholders to gather insights into business objectives, pain points, and current challenges.

Evaluation Phase

Evaluate the architecture against the six pillars of the Well-Architected Framework:

  • Operational Excellence
  • Security
  • Reliability
  • Performance Efficiency
  • Cost Optimization
  • Sustainability

Recommendation Phase

  • Provide a comprehensive report detailing areas of improvement and recommendations aligned with each of the six pillars.
  • Offer actionable steps to enhance the architecture’s performance, security, reliability, cost efficiency, and operational excellence.
  • Prioritize recommendations based on criticality, business impact, and feasibility of implementation.

Implementation Phase

  • Collaborate with the client to develop an implementation plan for the identified recommendations.
  • Leverage AWS best practices, architectural patterns, and services to implement the proposed changes.
  • Work closely with stakeholders and technical teams to execute the implementation plan effectively.

 

Review & Optimization Phase

  • Continuously review and optimize the AWS architecture to align with the Well-Architected Framework, adapting to new challenges and business needs.
  • Maximize efficiency and value by leveraging new AWS features, services, and cost-saving opportunities.

Sample of WAFR Report