Foundations of Solution Design

Solutions Architect → designs, implements, + manages cloud computing infrastructure

key factors

business impacts

relevant AWS services/tools

core design tools

• AWS Console - Web-based management interface.
• AWS CLI - Command-line interface for AWS service management.
• AWS CloudFormation - Infrastructure as Code (IaC) service using template-based resource provisioning.
• AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit) - Infrastructure as code using familiar programming languages.
• AWS Diagrams/Architecture Center - Reference architectures and best practices.

infrastructure planning + management

• AWS Well-Architected Tool - Reviews architectures against AWS best practices.
• AWS Trusted Advisor - Real-time guidance for optimizing AWS environments.
• AWS Cost Explorer - Cost estimation and optimization tool.
• AWS Organizations - Account management and consolidated billing.
• AWS Control Tower - Set up and govern multi-account environments.

monitoring + security

• AWS CloudWatch - Monitoring and observability service.
• AWS CloudTrail - Governance, compliance, and audit capabilities.
• AWS Config - Resource inventory and configuration history tracking.
• AWS Security Hub - Security posture management.

deployment + devops

• AWS CodePipeline/AWS CodeDeploy/AWS CodeBuild - Continuous integration/deployment.
• AWS Elastic Beanstalk - Platform as a Service (PaaS) for application deployment.

third party tools

• Terraform - Multi-cloud Infrastructure as Code (IaC) platform.
• Draw.io or Lucidchart - Architecture diagramming tools.
• Git repositories - Version control for infrastructure code.

AWS Well-Architected Framework

https://aws.amazon.com/well-architected-tool/pricing/

framework for secure, reliable, efficient, cost-effective systems → evaluate, learn, measure, + improve cloud architectures

use the Well-Architected Tool (WA Tool) to perform a Well-Architected Framework Review (WAFR) to evaluate system’s architecture

six pillars

questions

design principles

lenses

Well-Architected Tool Features

workload → set of services that provide some business value

• includes: review owner, environment, regions, acc ids

milestones → marks key changes in architecture as it evolves

• product lifecycle: design, texting, going live, production
• perform workload reviews at major milestones

lenses → consistently measure architectures against pillars + design principles

• AWS provides lenses, you can also create and share custom lenses

high-risk issues (HRIs) → archicture/operational choices found by AWS that may cuase negative impacts

medium-risk issues (MRIs) → lower risk issues detected by AWS