Thinking like an architect: Well-Architected frameworks
Before you build a house, you check a list: strong walls, good locks, not too costly, easy to repair. Cloud architects use a list like that too. It helps them ask the right questions before anything is built.
- Before this course: Cloud Services in Practice (course 7.9.2). You can already launch a machine, set a firewall rule, use a role, pick a storage class and read a bill. This course is about how to put those pieces together well.
- The three big providers each publish a Well-Architected Framework: a set of pillars (areas) to check a design against.
| Provider | Pillars (as the provider names them) |
|---|---|
| AWS | Operational excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance efficiency, Cost optimization, Sustainability (six) |
| Microsoft Azure | Reliability, Security, Cost Optimization, Operational Excellence, Performance Efficiency (five) |
| Google Cloud | Operational excellence; Security, privacy, and compliance; Reliability; Cost optimization; Performance optimization; Sustainability (six) |
- AWS compares architecture to building a house: if the foundation is weak, structural problems follow. Neglecting the pillars makes it hard to build a system that meets your needs.
- Microsoft lists for each pillar its design principles and its trade-offs. Pillars pull against each other: more copies of data improve reliability but raise cost; more checks improve security but can slow people down. An architect's job is to choose on purpose and write the reason down.
- Review tools exist: for example, Microsoft offers the Azure Well-Architected Review, and Azure Advisor bases its recommendations on the same pillars.
- A good design starts from the business need, not the technology: who uses it, how bad an outage is, how much data loss is acceptable, and what it may cost.
- Pick a small workload to design for this course, for example an online booking site for a small clinic or shop.
- Write the business need in three sentences: who uses it, when, and what happens if it is down for an hour.
- Make a table with one row per pillar of the framework of your chosen provider.
- For each pillar, write one question you must answer (for example, Reliability: "What happens if one zone fails?").
- Mark the two pillars that matter most for this workload, and write one trade-off between them.
- Keep this table: you will fill in answers in each lesson and use it for the final project.
- Check: every pillar has a question, and you can explain one trade-off in one sentence.
Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.
Read the video script
[Host] "Anyone can launch a server. An architect asks: what happens when it breaks, who can get in, and what does it cost?"
[Text on screen: Reliability, Security, Cost, Performance, Operations, Sustainability] "The big clouds give you a checklist called a Well-Architected Framework."
[Screen: a two-column table, Choice and Trade-off] "Every choice has a price. Two copies are safer, and cost more. Write down why you chose."
[Host] "Start from the business need. Then design."
Fill in the pillar table for your chosen workload. For each pillar, write the question and your first answer. Underline the answers you are not sure about yet: the next lessons will help you answer them.
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I'm learning "Cloud Architecture: reliable, secure design" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Thinking like an architect: Well-Architected frameworks". What the lesson teaches: - Before this course: Cloud Services in Practice (course 7.9.2). You can already launch a machine, set a firewall rule, use a role, pick a storage class and read a bill. This course is about how to put those pieces together well. - The three big providers each publish a Well-Architected Framework: a set of pillars (areas) to check a design against. - Provider - Pillars (as the provider names them) - AWS - Operational excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance efficiency, Cost optimization, Sustainability (six) - Microsoft Azure - Reliability, Security, Cost Optimization, Operational Excellence, Performance Efficiency (five) - Google Cloud - Operational excellence; Security, privacy, and compliance; Reliability; Cost optimization; Performance optimization; Sustainability (six) - AWS compares architecture to building a house: if the foundation is weak, structural problems follow. Neglecting the pillars makes it hard to build a system that meets your needs. The exercise I'm working on: Fill in the pillar table for your chosen workload. For each pillar, write the question and your first answer. Underline the answers you are not sure about yet: the next lessons will help you answer them. I'm stuck. Please: 1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example. 2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step. 3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.
I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Thinking like an architect: Well-Architected frameworks" from the course "Cloud Architecture: reliable, secure design". Here's what the lesson says: Before you build a house, you check a list: strong walls, good locks, not too costly, easy to repair. Cloud architects use a list like that too. It helps them ask the right questions before anything is built. The activity: Fill in the pillar table for your chosen workload. For each pillar, write the question and your first answer. Underline the answers you are not sure about yet: the next lessons will help you answer them. Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words. Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.
Sources
- AWS, The pillars of the framework: docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/the-pillars-of-th
- Microsoft Learn, Azure Well-Architected Framework pillars: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/pillars
- Google Cloud, Well-Architected Framework: docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework
Designing for availability: zones, load balancers and auto scaling
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Network design: public and private subnets
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Least privilege at scale: reviews, analysis and guardrails
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Protecting data: encryption and secrets
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Backup and disaster recovery: RTO, RPO and four strategies
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Managed services, trade-offs and the design review
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Final project
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Quiz
What is a Well-Architected Framework?
A set of pillars (such as security, reliability and cost) that you use to check and improve a cloud design.
Why does an architect write down trade-offs?
Because pillars pull against each other (for example, more copies raise reliability and cost), so each choice should be made on purpose.
Why run app servers in two or more zones?
So the app keeps working if one zone (one location) fails.
What does a load balancer do with unhealthy servers?
It stops sending traffic to them and sends traffic only to healthy targets.
What does an Auto Scaling group do when an instance fails?
It replaces it to keep the desired capacity.
Where should a database usually live: a public or a private subnet?
A private subnet, so internet users cannot reach it directly.
What does a NAT gateway allow?
Instances in a private subnet can connect out, but outside services cannot start a connection to them.
Does a service control policy (SCP) grant permissions?
No. It only sets the maximum; permissions must still be granted by other policies.
Where should an app's database password be kept?
In a secrets service (such as AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault or Google Secret Manager), not in the code.
What is the difference between RTO and RPO?
RTO is how long the service may be down; RPO is how much data (measured in time) you can afford to lose.
Which disaster recovery strategy costs least, and which recovers fastest?
Backup and restore costs least; multi-site active/active recovers fastest.
Is replication the same as a backup?
No. Replication also copies mistakes and deletions, so you still need point-in-time backups.
Final exam
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Certificate
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