AWS Well-Architected Framework For Startups
Tags: startup, aws, beginners, devops
Published: 2020-10-16 12:40:48

As an early-stage startup, you face a lot of challenges with business, technology, talent, and market competition. You have to worry about building your MVP and the latest features you want to add in the next sprint in order to penetrate your market. Here innovation and disruption are your springboards for success. AWS gives your startup a breadth of tools that allow a fast start to deep capability. From essentials like user management, scalable frameworks, and business logic tools to cutting edge image analysis, voice recognition, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, the startups using this technology most effectively will be the ones changing the game.

There is no value in worrying about failing storage or a compromised server. Your teams are usually focusing on the core business product and service it can become challenging to build a system that delivers on your expectations and requirements. That's why it's important to study AWS managed services and follow best practice guidelines to ensure you have the right set of checklists to go through to achieve a “standardized” approach to creating your environment.

Creating a software system is a lot like constructing a building. If the foundation is not solid, structural problems can undermine the integrity and function of the building. AWS has provided these guidelines in a framework called the [Amazon AWS Well-Architected Framework](https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/well-architected/) built around 5 pillars, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Operational Excellence. This framework was first introduced by Dr. Werner Vogels several years ago.

Incorporating these pillars into your architecture helps produce stable and efficient systems. This allows you to focus on the other aspects of design, such as functional requirements.

![AWS WA](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/02955a8yga5xx13c38jo.jpg)

In this post, I provided an overview of the Well-Architected Framework’s five pillars. You can find more details—including definitions, FAQs, and resources—in each pillar’s whitepaper, link below.

[Read the full Well-Architected whitepaper >>](https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/architecture/AWS_Well-Architected_Framework.pdf)

## Well-Architected Framework

Amazon AWS has created this framework out of their vast experience with Cloud customers, large and small, and have been adopting it since then. Not only, but they changed their certification exams to be built around the Well-Architected framework. This shows the importance and efficiency of following it.

![AWS Well Architected](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/vrg4exgcjsofq5h6u9jv.png)

The framework helps cloud architects build the most secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient infrastructure possible for their applications. It provides a consistent approach for startups to evaluate architectures and provides guidance to implement designs that scale with your product needs over time.

1. __Cost Optimization__ guides around the ability to run systems to deliver business value at the lowest price point.

2. __Performance Efficiency__ guides around the ability to use computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements, and to maintain that efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.

3. __Reliability__ guides around the ability of a system to recover from infrastructure or service disruptions, dynamically acquire computing resources to meet demand, and mitigate disruptions such as misconfigurations or transient network issues.

4. __Operational Excellence__ guides around the ability to run and monitor systems to deliver business value and to continually improve supporting processes and procedures.

5. __Security__ guides around the ability to protect information, systems, and assets while delivering business value through risk assessments and mitigation strategies.

As you see, these pillars are a must for your production cloud environment to ensure that you are running a fast and reliable environment that runs on the minimal cost and in a secure environment. These are the essential aspects of an environment to run.

##Certifications

Use the Well-Architected Framework to guide your ideation process as well as to develop Proofs of Concept. You can fit all pieces together by getting your team AWS certified beforehand and then setting post-deployment plans to establish DevOps environments that support scalability and rapid growth.

[Read this guide about AWS Certification and Training for startups >>](https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/Training-APAC-microsite/site-startup/index/AWS_course_guide-startup.pdf)

Once your application is up and running, set up DevOps best practices for capturing and responding to user feedback to drive future innovation.