Do you ever wonder if you’re realizing the full benefits of your IT Infrastructure? Is your current infrastructure built in a way that will help to achieve your business and technical outcomes? The AWS  Well-Architected Framework can help your company create a more efficient and effective IT infrastructure, even if it’s not in an AWS environment.

The best way to ensure your workload is meeting best practices and understand the business impact of your architecture is through a Well-Architected Review (WAR). A WAR uses the Well-Architected Framework as a guideline to ensure you are building a secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient infrastructure for your applications, so you can focus on scaling your business while your infrastructure scales with it.

You may be wondering, “Is it even worth it to perform a Well-Architected Review on my architecture?” You could easily spend countless business hours trying to understand if the WAR is right for you, but we will simplify this process by breaking down the four most common scenarios that we have seen while conducting WAR’s for our customers. This way you can make this valuable decision sooner rather than later.

Is an AWS Well-Architected Review Right For You?

Choosing to do an AWS Well-Architected Review boils down to two factors. The intricacy of your workload and the depth of your AWS knowledge and expertise are two factors that create four common situations that your company may fall into. Each situation has its own outlook on whether you should follow through with a WAR.

Relatively Simple Workload, Little to Zero AWS Knowledge

In this category, customers may be using some of the most common AWS Services (i.e. EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, etc.), have a lower AWS spend, and have very few complexities to meet their infrastructure needs. If you have a simple workload and do not spend a substantial amount of your IT budget on your AWS workload, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t go through a WAR. Nonetheless, if you have plans to scale your infrastructure soon or do not know if your architecture is set up to optimize costs, you may still see a benefit from a WAR.

Relatively Simple Workload, Deep AWS Expertise

Businesses with relatively simple workloads and a higher knowledge of AWS do not necessarily need to consider a WAR. Although WAR’s provide substantial benefits, your internal team may have the expertise needed to conduct one yourself using the free documentation that AWS provides to the public. There is always an opportunity to find value in a WAR, but if you have confidence in your own cloud experts and your company’s cloud practice, you might want to keep this work internal.

Highly Complicated Workload, Deep AWS Expertise

In this scenario, your company may have a highly complex workload, but you have an experienced cloud team already in place to manage your infrastructure. In this case, a WAR would be optional. However, receiving a WAR from a WAR-certified AWS Partner Network (APN) partner can provide an extra set of eyes that will help to provide feedback on the architecture your experts have built. Ultimately, if you fall into this bucket, you may decide that your team has everything under control, or you may decide that a second look wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.

Highly Complicated Workload, Little to Zero AWS Knowledge

Managing a complex infrastructure can be a strenuous process, especially if you don’t have the resources or skillset to handle it. If your company has a complicated workload and you don’t feel you have the know-how to ensure your infrastructure is running efficiently, you would greatly benefit from a WAR. AWS customers in this category commonly struggle to optimize their AWS costs and do not see the full potential of their AWS workload. After helping these customers through a WAR, we often identify other opportunities for our customers to utilize AWS and see additional business value. We recommend these types of customers to take advantage of a WAR, and the findings may be worth their weight in gold.

All in all, a Well-Architected Review is not necessary in every scenario, but they can provide value no matter your business’s situation. Even if you have gone through a WAR within the last year, AWS recommends that these reviews are conducted on a semi-continuous basis to address newer concerns with your architecture.

After reviewing these common scenarios, you may realize you want to conduct a WAR on your infrastructure. You may be thinking, “Who can help me through this process and help me see the benefits of a WAR now?” Good news for you: you have partners that are here to help! AWS has a Well-Architected Partner Program where AWS trains APN Consulting Partners on how to perform Well-Architected reviews. Our company along with others have this certification and we can help you establish good architectural habits, eliminate risk, and respond faster to changes that affect designs, applications, and workloads. If you’re interested in conducting a WAR for your infrastructure, feel free to reach out to us by filling out the form below, or find another partner that will be able to assist you in your needs.

Still have a question about AWS Well-Architected Reviews? Contact us to get your answer