Harnessing the power of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other cloud platforms unlocks a multitude of advantages. It provides cost-effective access to robust IT infrastructure without the need for hefty investments in on-site equipment. This flexibility allows you to seamlessly scale your IT operations in line with your business demands, expanding during peak times and contracting when things slow down.
By leveraging cloud computing, your business can save both time and money, freeing up resources to focus on other critical projects. The AWS Well-Architected Framework is specifically designed to help you optimize these benefits.
But how can you ensure you’re adhering to this framework effectively? That’s where the AWS Well-Architected Framework Review (AWS WAR) comes into play, guiding you to maximize your cloud strategy.
What Is AWS WAR?
The AWS Well-Architected Review is a systematic assessment of your cloud architecture. It looks to see whether you’re following the AWS Well-Architected Framework and which areas of the framework you can improve upon.
This framework is an important resource if you’re building and running workloads on AWS. Aligning to it will help you optimize multiple areas of your cloud systems, including performance, cybersecurity, and cost effectiveness.
The 5 Pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework
The AWS Well-Architected Framework is divided into five pillars that look at different aspects of your cloud architecture. Those pillars are:
Operational excellence
How to run and monitor your systems, so they drive continuous improvement and deliver business value.
Security
Safeguarding your cloud systems and protecting the integrity and confidentiality of your data.
Reliability
How to minimize and mitigate disruptions that could affect your services.
Performance efficiency
Managing your computing resources efficiently and effectively to meet demand.
Cost optimization
Focuses on how to meet your IT needs while minimizing unnecessary expenses.
The Well-Architected Framework is complex and extremely comprehensive. It’s also regularly updated to accommodate industry trends. Organizations need to continuously stay up to date with those changes to adhere to the framework.
Conducting an AWS WAR will help with that. Use it to improve your security posture and maximize returns. Following are reasons why you should conduct an AWS review.
What Are the Benefits of an AWS WAR?
Cloud computing is a critical tool to address business needs. It’s cost efficient and helps organizations of all sizes secure the resources necessary to compete in today’s business landscape.
Naturally, you want to get the most out of those benefits, so your cloud services are safe, efficient, and give you the most bang for your buck. Regularly running an AWS WAR helps show you which elements of AWS you can optimize for better performance.
The AWS WAR is based on the five pillars of the Well-Architected Framework. Conducting a review will help you:
- Identify critical issues and prioritize solutions to those problems
- Stay current with any changes in AWS
- Reduce unnecessary expenses associated with your cloud infrastructure
- Optimize the performance of your AWS environment
- Help you maintain compliance and good security posture
From a cybersecurity POV, the AWS WAR is especially important as it can significantly reduce the number of security incidents your organization experiences.
Why AWS WAR is Important for Cybersecurity
If you’re building on AWS, it’s important you understand the shared responsibility model. This is a widely accepted cloud security framework that defines the security responsibilities of both the customer and the cloud service provider.
Under the shared responsibility model, AWS guarantees the security of the cloud. As the customer, you’re responsible for the security within the cloud.
This means AWS provides the security of the cloud infrastructure, while you provide the security for everything inside your cloud environment (like your apps and data).
Why is this important? Because most often these attacks happen due to a misconfiguration or some other form of human error. It’s actually estimated that 99% of cloud security failures are linked to the user/customer as opposed to the provider.
However, routinely conducting an AWS WAR will help you catch errors that could lead to a cyberattack. Additionally, it allows you to assess your security practices and understand steps you can take to strengthen your security posture.
Most importantly, an AWS WAR enables you to learn from any errors without the risk of experiencing a data breach firsthand.
Who Conducts an AWS WAR?
Following the Well-Architected Framework can be a challenge. It’s easy to make mistakes or overlook certain things when building and running workloads on AWS. That’s where the Well-Architected Partner Program comes in handy. This program allows authorized AWS Well-Architected partners help organizations using AWS. These partners recognized by AWS as having the expertise to:
- Review critical workloads
- Help organizations establish and maintain good architectural habits
- Minimize cybersecurity risks and more
In other words, they are qualified to help your organization align its practices to the AWS WAR Pillars.
Does an authorized partner have to conduct the AWS WAR?
Due to the complexity and comprehensiveness of the Well-Architected Framework, it’s recommended to use an AWS Certified Solutions Architect for your review.
With that said, anyone can conduct an AWS WAR using the AWS Well-Architected Tool. It’s located in your AWS Console and comes with an in-depth instruction guide that explains how to use it effectively.
If you decide to take a DIY approach to AWS WAR, familiarize yourself with the Well-Architected Framework before you start. Understanding the best practices for building on AWS will help you better identify the gaps in your current strategy, in addition to coming up with actionable steps for improvement.
When you should use an AWS partner for your review
There are two things to consider when planning an AWS WAR:
- The complexity of your architecture
- Your team’s AWS expertise
These factors should help you decide whether you’re going to conduct your own review or hire an authorized AWS consultant. If your team has expertise in AWS WARs, you could conduct in-house reviews if your architecture isn’t overly complicated.
But what if your architecture is complex? Even if you have the expertise, you still may need external help. They could help you identify issues that teams could easily overlook. Plus, working with an authorized AWS partner won’t overburden your internal resources.
And if your teams don’t have any expertise in conducting AWS WARs, hiring an authorized partner is the right path to move forward on –– regardless of your architecture’s complexity (or lack thereof).
Understanding the AWS WAR Process
The AWS review process is neither an audit nor an interrogation. Think of it as a non-accusatory conversation of your cloud architecture. The review process should help your organization to positively utilize AWS to reach your business goals.
Because the review process follows the AWS Well-Architected Framework, reviews always take a consistent approach when assessing your architecture. While every review process isn’t the same, they do share similar elements in order to maintain that consistency including:
An initial meeting about your cloud architecture
The first stage of the WAR process consists of an initial meeting between your organization and the solution architect conducting the review.
For this stage, you will:
- Identify the workloads that need to be reviewed
- Give the solution architect read access to any AWS accounts where those workloads reside
The AWS review meeting
The review meeting is where the actual AWS system assessment takes place. On average, the consultation usually lasts between two to four hours.
This time is when you’ll use the AWS Well-Architected Tool to evaluate whether you’re following AWS best practices. You’ll answer a series of questions related to the five pillars of the Well-Architected Framework. Answering the following questions will help you move forward with AWS WAR:
- How well do we follow the Well-Architected Framework?
- How can we use AWS to further improve your business performance?
- What are the critical issues in our architecture that need immediate attention?
The WAR report
The WAR report provides insights into your AWS systems and how well you have been following the Well-Architected Framework. This is where you’ll learn about what you’re doing right and where you need to improve. Typically, areas of improvement will be prioritized as either High Risk or Medium Risk.
At this point in the review process, you should be analyzing your improvement strategy. If an AWS Well-Architected Partner conducted the review for you, they should provide a prioritized plan for addressing your risks.
When Do You Need to Run an AWS WAR?
AWS recommends conducting a review every six to 12 months for each of your organization’s critical workloads.
A critical workload is a workload that’s quintessential to your business operations. What you will consider a critical workload depends heavily on your industry and business.
If you’re a retailer, your online payment gateway would be a critical workload. For manufacturers, it could be your supply chain IT system. These workloads keep your business running.
As the Well-Architected Framework is a living set of guidelines and best practices, it continues to evolve alongside other areas of technology. This means your architecture could be considered Well-Architected today, but you could have various elements deemed High Risk a few months later if the framework updates.
For this reason, it’s not a bad idea to err on the side of caution and conduct an AWS WAR every quarter. This will ensure your up to date with changes within your cloud environment and any external changes that could affect your performance, security, and stability.
Is an AWS WAR Enough to Keep My Systems Protected?
There’s little doubt that conducting an AWS WAR will improve your cybersecurity. After all, the best practices outlined in the Well-Architected security pillar cover a broad range of recommendations to keep your systems protected.
But you also need a response plan in case the worst happens. That’s where a managed security services solution like Fortra XDR or Alert Logic’s Managed Detection and Response can help.
A good XDR or MDR solution doesn’t just strengthen your security to protect your systems against external threats. It also enables you to act quickly in the event of a cyberattack –– because the quicker you respond, the easier it is to mitigate the impact.
See how safe your systems are by downloading our AWS Security Checklist.
The Bottom Line
Conducting your first AWS WAR can be intimidating, especially if this is your first time building on AWS. You may feel nervous because you don’t know what to expect after the review is completed. Understand that the AWS WAR is supposed to be a discussion –– not an indictment.
Conducting a WAR will help you produce secure and efficient systems that help your organization meet its business and cybersecurity goals. Combine this approach with an effective XDR or MDR solution and you can strengthen your cybersecurity and maintain good compliance posture.
