Since 2015, the AWS Well-Architected Framework has been helping AWS customers and partners improve their cloud architectures. The framework consists of design principles, questions, and best practices across multiple pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Cost Optimization. At AWS re:Invent 2021, we introduced a new Sustainability Pillar to help organizations learn, measure, and improve their workloads using environmental best practices for cloud computing.

In 2017, we introduced AWS Well-Architected Lenses and extended the best practice guidance to specific industry and technology domains, such as serverless, high performance computing (HPC), internet of things (IoT), software as a service (SaaS), foundational technical review (FTR), and financial services. Use the applicable Lenses together with the pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework to fully evaluate your workloads.

In 2021, we added four new lenses for various technologies and industries at the request of our customers. If you are planning a new workload for the new year, check out the new and updated Lenses to help guide you through the implementation of AWS best practices.

New AWS Well-Architected Lenses

Streaming Media Lens (September 29, 2021)
The Streaming Media Lens helps customers apply best practices in the design, delivery, and maintenance of their cloud-based streaming media workloads. Whether you’ve just started designing a greenfield video application on AWS or are looking to migrate an existing workload, this Lens provides perspective on best practices and can spark new ideas. To learn more about best practices for architecting and improving your streaming media workloads on AWS, see the Streaming Media Lens documentation.

SAP Lens (October 29, 2021)
The SAP Lens is a collection of customer-proven design principles and best practices for ensuring SAP workloads on AWS are well-architected. The SAP Lens is based on insights that AWS has gathered from customers, AWS Partners, and the SAP Specialist Architect community. The Lens is designed to help you adopt a cloud-native approach to running SAP. To learn more, see the SAP Lens documentation.

Games Industry Lens (November 19, 2021)
The Games Industry Lens helps customers review and improve cloud-based architecture for game development, deployment, operations of gaming platforms, and to support massive player scale. The Lens presents common games deployment scenarios and identifies key elements to ensure your platforms are in accordance with the best practices of AWS Well-Architected Framework. Learn the best practices for designing, architecting, and deploying your games workloads on AWS in the Games Industry Lens documentation.

Hybrid Networking Lens (November 22, 2021)
The Hybrid Networking Lens provides best practices and strategies to use when designing hybrid networking architectures. This Lens supports a broad spectrum of use cases and helps set you up for success in building hybrid networking architectures and integrating your on-premises data center with AWS operations. It outlines three areas to consider when designing hybrid network connectivity for your workload: data layer, monitoring and configuration management, and security. To learn more, see the Hybrid Networking Lens documentation.

Updated AWS Well-Architected Lens

Machine Learning Lens (October 13, 2021)
The Machine Learning (ML) Lens introduces a set of established and repeatable best practices across the ML lifecycle phases. You can apply this guidance and architectural principles when designing your ML workloads or after your workloads have entered production as part of continuous improvement. The Lens includes guidance and resources on implementing the best practices on AWS. To learn more, see the ML Lens documentation.

Data Analytics Lens (October 29, 2021)
The Data Analytics Lens is a collection of customer-proven best practices for designing well-architected analytics workloads. It contains insights that AWS has gathered from real-world case studies and helps you learn the key design elements of well-architected analytics workloads, along with recommendations for improvement. For more information about building your own data analytics workload, see the Data Analytics Lens whitepaper.

Management and Governance Lens (December 17, 2021)
The Management and Governance Lens (M&G Lens) provides clear guidance to help you prepare your environment, regardless of your stage of cloud adoption, with a focus on eight different functions. Those functions are controls and guardrails, network connectivity, identity management, security management, monitoring and observability, cloud financial management, service management, and sourcing and distribution. To learn more, see the M&G Lens documentation.

To get started with your favorite lenses, visit the AWS Well-Architected page. You can learn, measure, and build using architectural best practices and tools.

To review your workloads using the AWS Well-Architected Framework, we recommend using the AWS Well-Architected Tool, a self-service tool designed to help you review AWS workloads at any time, without the need for an AWS Solutions Architect.

It provides a mechanism for regularly evaluating your workloads, identifying high-risk issues, and recording your improvements applying your favorite Lenses. You can also leverage Custom Lenses to record and track progress towards your organization’s internal best practices.

If you want to train these best practices, AWS Well-Architected Labs provides codes and documentation in the format of hands-on labs to help you learn, measure, and build using architectural best practices categorized into levels. Also, you can access an ecosystem of hundreds of members in the AWS Well-Architected Partner Program in your area to help analyze and review your applications.

You can refer to the AWS Architecture Center, a collection of reference architecture patterns, vetted architecture solutions, and best practices. If you’re new to AWS, use the Architect Learning Plan to learn how to design applications and systems on AWS. Build technical skills as you progress along the path toward AWS Certification.

This is My Architecture is a video series that showcases innovative architectural solutions on AWS by customers and partners. We would love to hear more from you, especially about your success stories in building your applications on AWS Well-Architected Framework. Please share with your account team to introduce your stories.

– Channy