According to the video, what are some decisions that architects make? select four options.

AWS Well-Architected helps cloud architects build secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient infrastructure for a variety of applications and workloads. Built around six pillars—operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and sustainability—AWS Well-Architected provides a consistent approach for customers and partners to evaluate architectures and implement scalable designs.

The AWS Well-Architected Framework includes domain-specific lenses, hands-on labs, and the AWS Well-Architected Tool. The AWS Well-Architected Tool, available at no cost in the AWS Management Console, provides a mechanism for regularly evaluating workloads, identifying high-risk issues, and recording improvements.

AWS also provides access to an ecosystem of hundreds of members in the AWS Well-Architected Partner Program. Engage a partner in your area to help analyze and review your applications.

Reliance Steel and Aluminum Uses AWS Well-Architected Framework to Build Better in the Cloud (4:02)

The AWS Well-Architected Framework describes key concepts, design principles, and architectural best practices for designing and running workloads in the cloud. By answering a few foundational questions, learn how well your architecture aligns with cloud best practices and gain guidance for making improvements.

The operational excellence pillar focuses on running and monitoring systems, and continually improving processes and procedures. Key topics include automating changes, responding to events, and defining standards to manage daily operations.

The security pillar focuses on protecting information and systems. Key topics include confidentiality and integrity of data, managing user permissions, and establishing controls to detect security events.

The reliability pillar focuses on workloads performing their intended functions and how to recover quickly from failure to meet demands. Key topics include distributed system design, recovery planning, and adapting to changing requirements.

The performance efficiency pillar focuses on structured and streamlined allocation of IT and computing resources. Key topics include selecting resource types and sizes optimized for workload requirements, monitoring performance, and maintaining efficiency as business needs evolve.

The cost optimization pillar focuses on avoiding unnecessary costs. Key topics include understanding spending over time and controlling fund allocation, selecting resources of the right type and quantity, and scaling to meet business needs without overspending.

The sustainability pillar focuses on minimizing the environmental impacts of running cloud workloads. Key topics include a shared responsibility model for sustainability, understanding impact, and maximizing utilization to minimize required resources and reduce downstream impacts. 

AWS Well-Architected Lenses extend the guidance offered by AWS Well-Architected to specific industry and technology domains, such as machine learning (ML), data analytics, serverless, high performance computing (HPC), IoT, SAP, streaming media, the games industry, hybrid networking, and financial services. To fully evaluate workloads, use applicable lenses together with the AWS Well-Architected Framework and its six pillars.

Unlike the Framework and Lenses, which are aligned with all six pillars of the Well-Architected Framework, AWS Well-Architected Guidance focuses on a specific use case, technology, or implementation scenario.

“CyberAgent, Inc. has been able to rapidly learn about AWS and visualize potential business risks by adopting the AWS Well-Architected Framework. In addition, we were able to use the knowledge we accumulated from AWS Well-Architected best practices to implement architectural changes and successfully resolve risks.”

Shota Tsuge, Senior Organizational Reliability Engineer - CyberAgent, Inc.

“NEC has conducted AWS Well-Architected Framework Reviews on various projects to improve the quality of integration. In the development of Water Counter Cloud Service, we conducted a review at an early stage of the design process. This enabled us to identify design issues early and resolve them quickly, allowing us to deliver services to Sakai City Waterworks and Sewerage Bureau as quickly as possible. The AWS Well-Architected Framework is also very useful for training engineers, and is indispensable for improving our technical capabilities as a system integrator.”

Nobuaki Iijima, General Manager - NEC Corporation

AWS Well-Architected Partner Program members have in-depth training on the AWS Well-Architected Framework, and are empowered to implement best practices, measure workload states, and make improvements where required. 

Customers engaged with these partners see significant cost savings, improved application performance, and reduced security risks. Engage an AWS Well-Architected Partner and ask about AWS service credits.

If you’re new to AWS, use this path to learn how to design applications and systems on AWS. Build technical skills as you progress along the path toward AWS Certification.

Take our self-paced training that provides pillar-specific design principles and examples of AWS Well-Architected best practices.

Learn more about what it takes to become an AWS Well-Architected Partner and how to run a successful engagement.

Increasingly, businesses are going through a digital transformation journey to meet evolving consumer needs. Customers are also more and more likely to be using social networks, mobile applications, and digital technologies. Due to this change, digital strategy is now an integral part of the overall business strategy. 

Many enterprises are obtaining computing power through cloud services platforms via the internet and adopting a cloud-first strategy for most application development. This has furthered a change in application design—previously, functionality and statefulness were prioritized, but now most consumer-facing applications are moving to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and digital platforms. The application design focus is now much more focused on user experience, statelessness, and agility.

Choosing the right application architecture depends on your business requirements. In this post, we will examine four architecture choices for enabling digital transformation, depending on general business needs.

Traditional 3-tier application architecture

We all know about the 3-tier application architecture—it is a client-server architecture with a typical structure consisting of the presentation layer, application layer, and database layer. 

It has a user interface, business/data access logic, and data access. Many enterprise applications were created using the simple 3-tier application architecture.

What is the issue with 3-tier application architecture?

Simply speaking, the 3-tier application model is outdated. It was designed for application development before the proliferation of public cloud and mobile applications and has had difficulty adapting to the cloud.

Over time, an application can become too large and complex to make frequent changes. Not only that, but it also requires the maintenance of at least three layers of hardware and software, which can be inefficient for the business. 

The 3-tier application model is also frequently called a monolithic architecture. These days, we have multiple new architecture models, and below, we will examine a few that are available now in the cloud era.

1. Microservices architecture

In a cloud model, complex applications designed as a collection of services and data are fully decoupled from the application. Microservices are an architectural style that structures the application as a collection of services. Each service can be written in a different programming language and tested separately. They are independently deployable and organized around business capabilities.

Take the example of an e-commerce application developed using microservices architecture. Each microservice can focus on a single business capability (e.g., shopping cart, search, customer review). Each of these can be a separate service written in different programming languages, deployed in different infrastructure, and managed by different teams. 

Each service communicates with the others using a lightweight protocol. For a 3-tier, we all know about the Model View Controller (MVC) framework. Sidecar, Ambassador, and Adapter are some of the frameworks that support microservices architectures.

Microservices architecture vs. monolithic architecture

In monolithic architecture, all these components coexist as a single module managed (mostly) by a single team—everything is bundled together. If you need to update, you need to deploy the entire application, and this slows down changes for larger complex applications. For smaller applications, monolithic architecture is often the best solution. 

See the video “What are Microservices?” for a closer look at the differences between microservices architecture and monolithic architecture:

Microservices, containers, and Kubernetes

One of the best choices for creating and running microservices application architectures is by using containers. Containers encapsulate a lightweight virtualization runtime environment for your application and allow you to move the application from the developer's desktop all the way to production deployment. You can run containers on virtual machines or physical machines in the majority of available operating systems. Containers present a consistent software environment, and you can encapsulate all dependencies of your application as a deployable unit. Containers can run on a laptop, bare metal server, or in a public cloud. 

Many organizations use Kubernetes to manage containers and ensure that there is no downtime. Kubernetes provides container orchestration in multiple hosts and is used for container lifecycle management. You can automate deployment, auto-scale your application, and build fast and ship fast using Kubernetes.

For a deeper dive into Kubernetes, see our video “Kubernetes Explained”:

Red Hat OpenShift is one of the most popular leading hybrid cloud enterprise container platforms. Many public cloud providers offer Containers-as-a-Service (CaaS). Some of the other Kubernetes engines available are IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, open source Kubernetes, AWS (EKS, ECS, and Fargate), Google GKS, and Azure AKS.

Usually each microservice is built by a different small team, and they choose their programming language and deployment schedule. A service mesh like Istio is used by enterprises to govern communication between microservices and management. In a service mesh, requests are routed through proxies (such as Sidecar) between microservices.

2. Cloud native architecture

Cloud native architecture is designed specifically for applications planning to deploy in the cloud, and microservices are a critical part.

Cloud native is an approach to building and running applications that exploits the advantages of the cloud computing delivery model. Cloud native is a term used to describe container-based environments, and it is about how applications are created and deployed, not where. 

Cloud native technologies empower us to run applications in public, private, and hybrid clouds. Cloud native development is essential to getting applications to market quickly; it helps people, processes, and technologies to build, deploy, and manage apps that are ready for the cloud.

The video “What is Cloud Native?” gives more of a background on the cloud native approach: 

The cloud native architecture model uses DevOps, continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD), microservices, and containers. Most of the enterprises use the twelve-factor methodology for designing scalable and robust cloud native applications.

In the cloud, applications must be able to run concurrently in multiple nodes, share a configuration/session state, have a centralized logging mechanism, and be able to deploy using DevOps and a CI/CD process. Many cloud providers give guidelines for cloud native development—Amazon Web Services (AWS) has its well-architected framework, Google has various guides on how to build cloud native applications, and Microsoft Azure has its cloud patterns guide. 

Usually, cloud native applications are stateless by nature. The services communicate with each other using REST-based protocols or messaging. The API Gateway, container registry, message-oriented middleware (MOM: Publish/Subscribe or Request/Response), service mesh, and orchestrations could be part of cloud native architecture. 

3. Event-driven serverless architecture

Event-driven architecture (EDA) is based on decoupled systems that run in response to events. An event-driven architecture uses events to trigger and communicate between decoupled services. EDA has been here for a long time, but it now has more relevance in the cloud. 

So, what is new? If properly used, it can provide a significant increase in agility, cost savings, and operational benefits. The distributed serverless EDA can execute code known as functions that scale automatically in response to a REST API or an event trigger. 

For the serverless model, there is no server management needed. The serverless model is also quickly scalable (so quick updates and deployment are possible) and it is stateless.

Here are some of the currently available cloud serverless services from different cloud providers: 

Types of serverless

• Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS): Upload pieces of functionality to the cloud and let these pieces be executed independently.
• Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS): Utilize services from a third party, such as application management, database management, and cloud storage.
• Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS): Functions for mobile applications.

4. Cloud-based architecture

How can we make monolithic applications work well in a cloud environment? Cloud-based architecture is best suited for building a modern web application (static/dynamic websites), deploying a web application, connecting to a database, and analyzing user behavior.

A traditional cloud-based application architecture involves load balancers, web servers, application servers, and databases. It can benefit from cloud features such as resource elasticity, software-defined networking, auto-provisioning, high availability, and scalability. 

This type of architecture is ideal for organizations that don't have to worry about maintaining a server. The serverless functions support different programming languages, such as PHP, Java, .NET, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Docker, and Go.

API Gateway is an important service that makes it easy for developers to create and publish secure APIs. The APIs will act as a front door for applications to access data and business logic. It also takes care of authorization and access control. Developers use API Gateway to invoke different serverless functions for different API calls.

How to decide which architecture model is best for your application

The decision you make when choosing an architecture model can influence the success or failure of your project. You should make your choice based on your application and on non-functional requirements. For example, you don’t choose airplane transportation when you want to travel just a few miles. 

Consider the following before choosing an architecture for your app project:

• Is it monolithic-first or microservice-first? (For smaller projects with a simple application requirement, monolithic may be a right choice.)
• Is your team ready to utilize microservices? 
• Does your team have an existing cloud-based DevOps and CI/CD process? 
• What is your hosting model? Private, public, hybrid?
• How does the application architecture affect your project?
• Does a combination of multiple architecture model work for you? 
• Do you need persistence and sessions for your applications? 

Summary

Web application architecture keeps evolving to meet the digital business requirements and changing IT infrastructure environment. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, Automation, Advanced Robotics, Edge Computing, Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and APIs are redefining what is possible in many industries. Increasing complexity in infrastructure, application, and data size requires new architecture approaches. Most of enterprises are adopting a multicloud approach by using one or more cloud providers. Enterprises are consuming cloud services by either using private, public, or hybrid with SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS models. 

In earlier days, application deployment was a difficult process and could not be done during normal business hours. However, different deployment methods (such as blue-green and canary deployment) along with DevOps and CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery) now allow deployment at any time without any application outages.

Monolithic architectures are still valid for many applications but the right architecture must be used for your digital use case to achieve agility and time-to-market. For a simple application, consider choosing a traditional monolithic approach. The cloud native or microservices patterns work great for evolving applications with complexities. It makes sense to use microservices architecture when you have multiple experienced teams that use multiple languages and deployment schedules. A comparison between traditional 3/N-tier application vs. cloud-based architecture models is given below for reference.

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