# AWS Well-Architected Framework

> AWS's checklist of good practices for building systems in the cloud that hold up.

- Level: Intermediate
- Topics: AWS, Cloud
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/aws-well-architected-framework/
- In Spanish: [AWS Well-Architected Framework](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/aws-well-architected-framework/)

The **AWS Well-Architected Framework** is a guide, written by AWS from thousands of customer reviews, that describes what a good cloud system looks like and which questions to ask about yours. It is not a product you switch on; it is a set of principles, best practices and questions such as "how do you back up your data?" or "how do you know when something breaks?".

It is organized in six **pillars**: operational excellence (running and improving the system day to day), security, reliability (recovering from failures), performance efficiency (using the right resources for the job), cost optimization, and sustainability (reducing the environmental impact). The pillars often pull against each other, like reliability against cost, and the framework helps make those trade-offs on purpose instead of by accident.

Teams use it in a **Well-Architected review**: they go through the questions for one workload, honestly, and end up with a list of risks ranked high and medium, plus an improvement plan. AWS offers the free Well-Architected Tool in the console to run these reviews, and "lenses" with extra questions for specific cases like serverless, machine learning or SaaS. It is also a common language: AWS partners, auditors and certifications all refer to it.

## An analogy

A building inspector's checklist. It does not build the house for you, but walking through it room by room shows where the wiring, the plumbing or the budget will give you trouble later.

## Keep in mind

- Six pillars: operations, security, reliability, performance, cost and sustainability.
- It is guidance and questions, not a service that changes your resources.
- A review produces a list of risks and a plan to fix them.
- The Well-Architected Tool in the AWS console is free to use.

## Go deeper

- [AWS Well-Architected Framework (official docs)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/welcome.html)
- [AWS Well-Architected](https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/well-architected/)

## Related terms

- [Cloud computing](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cloud-computing/): Renting computers over the internet instead of buying your own.
- [Framework](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/framework/): A ready-made skeleton for an app: it sets the structure and calls your code.
- [Workload](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/workload/): Any job you run on computers: an app, a database, a nightly report, an AI model.
- [Serverless](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/serverless/): Code that runs only when called; you never see or manage the server.
- [Machine learning](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/machine-learning/): Teaching computers by showing them examples instead of writing every rule.
- [SaaS, PaaS and IaaS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/saas-paas-iaas/): Three ways to rent computing, depending on how much of the work you hand over.
- [Cloud console](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cloud-console/): The website where you log in to see and manage everything you rent in the cloud.