AWS offers more than 100 cloud-based products. Designing the perfect architecture in terms of performance, security, flexibility, and cost can be a daunting task.

A poor architecture decision can lead to angry customers, services disruptions and extra engineering costs. With so many options, and so many things that can go wrong, how do you design the right AWS architecture?

The first step is realizing where your company is: in which industry are you? Do you need to build a data pipeline? A centralized logging system? A real-time analytics dashboard?

Then go to the AWS solutions center, select your industry and look for cases that relate to your company. You can also visit the AWS Architecture center where you will find specific implementations.

AWS has been around for a while now, and many big companies had implemented its product and learned what the best practices are. You don’t need to innovate here, follow a recipe.

Before you go into implementation mode, it will pay off that you go over the AWS Well-Architected Framework.

This framework is a collection of AWS architecture best practices and design principles around:

  • Calibrating your capacity needs
  • Simulating production environments for testing
  • Deployment automation
  • Testing evolutionary steps in your architecture

In short: don’t try all the AWS products, evaluate architecture designs specific to your industry and your business problems. Test them. Then, before you implement your solution, learn about the Well-Architected Framework.

[Looking to certify as an AWS Architect? I recommend this book: “AWS Certified Solutions Architect Official Study Guide.”]

Leo Celis