Identify Design Principles of the AWS Cloud
Source: Dev.to
AWS Well-Architected Framework
The AWS Well‑Architected Framework provides guidance for building cloud architectures that are secure, resilient, efficient, cost‑effective, operationally manageable, and aligned with sustainability goals. It is organized into six pillars, each representing a major area of design decisions and trade‑offs.
Operational Excellence
Focus: Running and monitoring systems, improving processes, and delivering changes safely.
What it includes:
- Operations as code (repeatable, automated processes)
- Monitoring, incident response, post‑incident learning
- Continuous improvement
Associated terms: monitoring, automation, runbooks, deployments, incident response
Security
Focus: Protecting data, systems, and assets while managing risk.
What it includes:
- Identity and Access Management (least privilege)
- Detection (logging/monitoring for threats)
- Infrastructure protection
- Data protection (encryption)
- Incident response
Associated terms: IAM, permissions, encryption, audit logs, threat detection
Reliability
Focus: Consistently delivering intended functionality and recovering from failures.
What it includes:
- Fault‑tolerant design
- Recovery planning and testing
- Handling change and scaling
- Designing to prevent and mitigate failures
Associated terms: failover, redundancy, backups/restore, disaster recovery, multi‑AZ
Performance Efficiency
Focus: Using computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements as demand changes.
What it includes:
- Choosing the right resource types and sizes
- Using managed services where possible
- Monitoring performance and making data‑driven improvements
- Evolving with new AWS services/features
Associated terms: latency, throughput, right‑sizing for performance, instance‑type selection, caching
Cost Optimization
Focus: Avoiding unnecessary costs and getting the best value.
What it includes:
- Right‑sizing to reduce waste
- Measuring and attributing spend (cost visibility)
- Using cost‑effective pricing models (e.g., Savings Plans, Reserved Instances)
- Turning off unused resources
Associated terms: reduce bill, eliminate idle, budgeting, cost allocation tags, “cheapest option”
Sustainability
Focus: Minimizing environmental impact and improving energy efficiency.
What it includes:
- Using managed services and efficient architectures
- Optimizing resource utilization (scale only when needed)
- Selecting Regions based on sustainability needs (where applicable)
- Reducing overall compute/storage/network waste
Associated terms: carbon footprint, energy usage, reduce waste, efficient resource utilization
Exam‑Style Summary
- Operational Excellence: Run, monitor, and improve operations.
- Security: Protect identities, data, and systems.
- Reliability: Prevent failures and recover quickly.
- Performance Efficiency: Meet performance needs with efficient resource choices.
- Cost Optimization: Eliminate waste and control spending.
- Sustainability: Reduce energy use and environmental impact.