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A Well Architected Framework Review is a structured, expert-led process designed to assess and enhance the performance, security, and cost-efficiency of cloud infrastructures. This blog delves into the phased implementation of the AWS Well Architected Review Process, why a customized approach is crucial for different business needs, and how partnering with an expert Well Architected Partner can help you achieve optimal cloud performance and cost savings.
One of the major reasons why businesses choose AWS as their cloud partner is its extensive range of services catering to various use cases and performance requirements. This versatility helps businesses to scale easily, integrate cutting-edge technologies, and dynamically adapt their infrastructure to user demands. There are also multiple subtypes within the same instance family that one can choose from, to optimize their costs or performance further.
However, managing such a broad array of services within a complex cloud infrastructure could take time and effort. Without a carefully designed architecture, businesses may face inefficiencies, such as underutilized resources, wasted volumes, and unnecessary costs. Optimizing this infrastructure from scratch could use up a lot of time and resources, which could be focused elsewhere to drive your business growth.
That’s why AWS offers the AWS Well Architected Framework, a blueprint of sorts, that could help you benchmark various aspects of your cloud architecture with global benchmarks and standards for building and managing cloud environments.
Based on their vast experience of working with organizations across the world, the framework sets forth key concepts, design principles, and best practices that ensure your cloud architecture is robust and cost-efficient. The AWS Well Architected Review (WAR) leverages this framework to systematically analyze and optimize your cloud setup, ensuring it meets these high standards.
While the terms AWS Well Architected Review and AWS Well Architected Framework are sometimes used interchangeably, it’s important to note that the framework sets the standards, while the AWS Well Architected Review Process refines your infrastructure to align with these benchmarks.
The pillars of AWS Well Architected Framework
The AWS WAR Framework is created based on six foundational pillars that influence different facets of any cloud infrastructure.
- Operational Excellence - Defining operational standards, monitoring workloads, and enabling continuous improvement.
- Security - Protecting customer and business data, controlling access privileges, and managing security events.
- Reliability - Addressing resource availability, disaster recovery, and managing service disruptions.
- Performance Efficiency - Streamlining resource selection, rightsizing, and performance monitoring.
- Cost Optimization - Tracking cloud costs, eliminating waste, and optimizing spend while the business scales.
- Sustainability - Designing the cloud architecture for environmentally conscious resource management.
Each of these pillars further consists of various design principles and best practices, that serve as guidelines for achieving the highest standards on various functional aspects. The core purpose of this framework is to find any areas of improvement in your infrastructure, critical issues that should be addressed as well as opportunities for cost and performance optimization. Through the AWS Well Architected Review Process, this framework ensures that these principles and practices are effectively implemented, leading to a more robust and efficient cloud environment.
Who performs the AWS Well Architected Reviews?
Although the framework has been formulated by AWS, they themselves do not typically perform hands-on Well Architected Reviews. A certified AWS partner usually does this, called an AWS Well Architected Partner which is an organization that possesses the necessary understanding and expertise to evaluate and optimize your cloud infrastructure. They work collaboratively with your team to identify areas for improvement, optimize your architecture, and ensure that it meets the highest standards for security, performance, and cost-efficiency.
Alternatively, you could also build an in-house team of certified AWS experts for Well Architected Review, but the former option is often more economical, requires less time and effort, and also provides easy access to seasoned experts in the industry.
Understanding the AWS Well Architected Review Process
The AWS Well Architected best practices are designed to enhance cloud architectures to better support business needs. AWS suggests a three-phase approach towards the whole AWS Well Architected Review Process - Prepare, Review, and Improve - which involves thorough preparation for the review, analyzing the current architecture, identifying various risks, and implementing resolutions as per priority. Let’s dive deeper into these phases.
Phase 1 - Prepare
The Prepare Phase begins a few weeks before the infrastructure review date and involves several activities that ensure a smooth and effective analysis.
Defining a Workload: Identifying the specific workload you want to review. The term ‘workload’ in this context means a set of technology, people, and processes that deliver business value, like a customer-facing website.
Defining a Core Team: Teaming up the right individuals responsible for the workload and each of the review pillars. These sponsors should stick with the review process entirely and have the authority to act upon resolving the identified risks.
Deciding on the Pillars: Determining which of the six AWS Well Architected Framework pillars (Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, Sustainability) will be reviewed, since there may be instances where you need to focus on specific pillars only. It is also advisable to follow the review of the pillars in the same order as defined in the AWS Well Architected Framework (listed above).
Deciding on Session’s Type: Mutually deciding upon the comfortable format for the review session, such as a full-day meeting or multiple shorter sessions, and whether the review will be conducted live or asynchronously.
Collecting Necessary Data: Gathering all relevant architecture documentation and data, including diagrams and AWS Trusted Advisor checks, to support the review process.
Phase 2 - Review
The actual AWS Well Architected Review Process begins during this phase. Here the focus is on evaluating the workload against AWS best practices and identifying areas for improvement.
Identifying Risks: After careful evaluation of the architecture, the experts generate a report on your cloud architecture to categorize and understand High-Risk Issues (HRIs), Medium-Risk issues (MRIs), and Low-Risk Issues (LRIs), based on their impact on the business.
Prioritizing Risks: Evaluating the potential severity and impact of each risk and considering its potential business consequences, the experts engage with key stakeholders to prioritize the risks.
Determining Prescriptive Solutions: The AWS Well Architected Partner will then work with teams to develop appropriate solutions for the identified risks. This phase involves researching, discussing, and understanding the complexity of each solution.
Phase 3 - Improve
This phase involves creating and executing a plan to address the identified risks and optimize the cloud architecture for better cost efficiency and performance.
Creating Improvement Plan: Developing a plan to address HRIs, MRIs, and LRIs based on their priority. This plan will have the actions outlined, ownerships assigned, and timelines set for implementation.
Implementing the Changes: This step involves the final implementation of the changes and optimizations suggested in the AWS Well Architected Review Process. You can use tools like the Eisenhower matrix to prioritize improvements based on their impact and complexity. Improvements are made starting with high-priority, low-effort items and moving through the list systematically.
Continuous Monitoring: The Well Architected Reviews also need continuous tracking and monitoring of the resolutions implemented and make adjustments as needed. This helps to dynamically improve the workload's architecture to better support business needs and adapt to changes over time.
Structuring the AWS Well Architected Review Process into these phases ensures a systematic approach to optimizing cloud architecture, leveraging the best and latest offerings by AWS to enhance security, performance, and cost-efficiency.
Another important query is the time needed to go through these phases. The timelines can vary significantly based on factors such as the architecture in question, the specific pillars under review, and the complexity of the challenges. While exact durations can differ, AWS recommends a general timeframe of 90 to 180 days for a comprehensive review and effective implementation.
Maximizing AWS WAR benefits with a tailored approach
The AWS Well Architected Review Process offers a comprehensive methodology to understand, troubleshoot, and optimize your cloud infrastructure. However, applying this framework across diverse businesses—each with varying sizes, architectural complexities, and specific needs—requires a customized strategy that would address their specific needs.
A one-size-fits-all approach without deeply diving into a customer’s specific objectives, maturity level, pain points, and capabilities will not deliver the desired enhancements. The resulting recommendations offered after the AWS Well Architected Review Process could also be too generic and businesses could waste a lot of time and resources in trying to implement them, only to understand that it’s ineffective.
That’s why expert AWS Well Architected Partners, like CloudKeeper, exclusively offer a customized approach to the reviews, ensuring a more effective and impactful exercise. Moving away from lengthy questionnaires and generalized suggestions, they implement automated reviews, tailored recommendations, and end-to-end support, often provided free of cost.
Here are some of the enhancements offered by an AWS WAR Partner.
Customer-centric Engagement Model
Comprehensive architecture consultations are conducted to fully understand your unique infrastructure, its gaps, and your desired outcomes before jumping into the AWS WAR. This foundation analysis allows for an action plan that aligns with your specific needs and objectives.
Pre and Post-WAR Essential
Detailed discussions are done with the stakeholders before and after the review process, often scheduled for 90 minutes. This ensures the review is focused on the areas that matter most to you and that the steps outlined are both relevant and feasible for your organization.
Automated Reviews
An automated assessment process is employed using advanced scripting, that thoroughly evaluates your cloud infrastructure. The result is a streamlined AWS WAR process that reduces time and effort by fivefold, saving both resources and money.
Custom Recommendations
By understanding your unique challenges, capabilities, and goals, personalized suggestions are made to fine-tune your cloud architecture. This ensures that your time and resources are invested in an effective AWS Well Architected Review Process and the changes deliver maximum impact.
Short, Medium, and Long-Term Strategies
A precise action plan is provided, detailing exactly what needs to be done in a phased approach, for successful implementation of the resolutions of High-Risk Issues (HRIs), Medium-Risk Issues (MRIs), and Low-Risk Issues (LRIs) according to their urgency and impact.
End-to-End Support
Having an action plan is not enough and real progress happens when those plans are put into action. The partner offers continuous support throughout your cloud optimization journey, ensuring that recommendations are implemented correctly and effectively.
Thus, by combining the fundamentals of AWS Well Architected Review Framework with the customized approach by an experienced partner, businesses can seamlessly optimize their cloud infrastructure and achieve cost and performance efficiency.
Conclusion
The AWS Well Architected Review is a powerful framework that helps assess and enhance cloud infrastructures, optimizing operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. The true value of AWS WAR lies not just in identifying areas for improvement but in implementing the recommendations. A well-structured framework without effective execution would not deliver tangible results.
In Well Architected Reviews, a customized approach is essential since different businesses have their unique challenges, maturity levels, and business goals. This is where an expert AWS Well Architected Partner comes into the picture, who helps in tailoring the process to your environment and provides continuous end-to-end support.
With an expert partner like CloudKeeper, businesses will be able to seamlessly integrate the AWS Well Architected Review Process into their strategy, optimizing infrastructure, enhancing performance, and achieving significant cost savings.
