AWS recognizes the value in educating our customers in best practices for architecting in the cloud.

The AWS Well-Architected

Framework enables customers to improve their cloud-based architectures and better understand the business impact of their design
decisions. We address general design principles as well as specific best practices and guidance in five conceptual areas that we define
as the pillars of the Well-Architected Framework.

We commonly apply the Well-Architected Framework by reviewing an existing architecture with your technical team based on the
following pillars:

Security
The ability to protect information, systems, and assets while
delivering business value through risk assessments and
mitigation strategies. (e.g., Utilizing identity management,
encryption, logging, key management, etc.)
Reliability
The ability of a system to recover from infrastructure or service
failures, dynamically acquire computing resources to meet
demand, and mitigate disruptions such as misconfigurations or
transient network issues. (e.g., Utilizing service limits, multi
AZ/Region, scalability, backup/DR, etc.)

Performance Efficiency Cost Optimization

The ability to use computing resources efficiently to meet
system requirements, and to maintain that efficiency as
demand changes and technologies evolve. (e.g., Utilizing
resource utilization, storage architecture, caching, latency
requirements, etc.)
The ability to avoid or eliminate unneeded cost or suboptimal
resources. (e.g., Utilizing Spot/RI usage, environment tuning,
service selection, account management, billing, etc.)

Operational Excellence
The ability to run and monitor systems to deliver business value and to
continually improve supporting processes and procedures. (e.g., Utilizing
Runbooks, Playbooks, CI/CD, Game Days, Infrastructure as Code, RCAs)

During the review you will be asked a series of questions, which will help us better understand the architecture of your critical
applications. We will provide you with resources that will help you understand the AWS platform, its services and features, and
architectural guidance for design and implementation of your systems that run on AWS infrastructure. This will include suggested next
steps on how to implement best practices for identified areas of risk.

Frequently Asked Questions Sample Well-Architected Review Questions

Q How long does a Well-Architected review take? Security

A The time it takes will vary according to the complexity and  How are you leveraging AWS service level security
scope of the application. However, most reviews will take features?
between 1-3 hours.  How are you managing keys?

Q How do I prepare for the meeting and who should I invite?
A In order to fully prepare you for the questions that will be
asked and the members of your team that will need to be
present, we have included a list of sample questions for you
to review.
Q Can I have a copy of the results?
A Yes, we will provide you with a summary of the results and
suggested next steps on how to implement best practices.
Reliability
 How does your system adapt to changes in demand?
 How are you testing your resiliency?
Performance Efficiency
 How do you select the appropriate instance types for your
system?
 How do you use tradeoffs to improve performance?

Q How does this differ from AWS Trusted Advisor?
A Trusted Advisor is as an ongoing operational series of
checklists that look at your day to day usage. The Well-
Architected review looks at your usage of AWS and how it
corresponds to the tenets of recommended utilization and
deployment. While Trusted Advisor is different in focus,
both are intended to complement each other.
Cost Optimization
 Are you considering cost when you select AWS services for
your solution?
 Have you sized your resources to meet your cost targets?
Operational Excellence
 How do you monitor your workload to ensure it is operating
as expected?
 How do you respond to unplanned operational events?

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