AWS Architecture
AWS reference architectures: serverless, containerized, and hybrid patterns aligned to Well-Architected Framework.
AWS Architecture is a core discipline within Cloud Architecture. It defines how technology systems should be designed, implemented, and governed to achieve reliable, secure, and maintainable outcomes that serve both technical teams and business stakeholders.
Applying AWS Architecture standards reduces system failures, accelerates delivery, and provides the governance evidence required by enterprise clients, regulators like BSP, and certification bodies like ISO. Top technology companies (Google, Microsoft, Amazon) treat these standards as competitive differentiators, not compliance overhead.
📖 Detailed Explanation
Cloud architecture encompasses the patterns, services, and governance models for deploying workloads on public cloud platforms. Multi-cloud strategy, cloud-native design, containerization, and Infrastructure as Code are the core disciplines.
Industry Context: Cloud architecture certifications (AWS SAA, GCP Professional, Azure Solutions Architect) validate the foundational knowledge.
Relevance to Philippine Financial Services: Organizations operating under BSP supervision must demonstrate mature cloud architecture practices during technology examinations. The BSP Technology Supervision Group evaluates documentation quality, process maturity, and evidence of systematic practice — all of which are addressed by the standards in this section.
Alignment to Global Standards: The practices documented here are aligned to frameworks used by Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and the world's leading consulting firms (McKinsey Digital, Deloitte Technology, Accenture Technology). They represent the current industry consensus on best practices rather than any single vendor's approach.
Engineering Perspective: For engineers, AWS Architecture provides concrete patterns and anti-patterns that prevent common mistakes and accelerate development by providing proven solutions to recurring problems. Rather than rediscovering what doesn't work, teams can apply battle-tested approaches with known trade-offs.
Architecture Perspective: For architects, AWS Architecture provides the design vocabulary, decision frameworks, and governance artifacts needed to make and communicate complex technical decisions clearly and consistently.
Business Perspective: For business stakeholders, AWS Architecture provides assurance that technology investments are aligned to industry standards, reducing the risk of expensive rework, regulatory findings, and system failures that impact customers and revenue.
📈 Architecture Diagram
flowchart LR
A["AWS Architecture
Concept"] --> B["Principles
& Standards"]
B --> C["Design
Decisions"]
C --> D["Implementation
Patterns"]
D --> E["Governance
Checkpoints"]
E --> F["Validation
& Evidence"]
F -.->|"Feedback Loop"| A
style A fill:#1e293b,color:#f8fafc
style F fill:#052e16,color:#4ade80
Lifecycle of AWS Architecture: from concept through principles, design decisions, implementation patterns, governance checkpoints, and validation — with feedback loops for continuous improvement.
🌎 Real-World Examples
Netflix was among the first companies to go 'all-in' on public cloud (AWS), completing their data center exit in 2016. They invented or popularized dozens of cloud-native patterns: Chaos Monkey (resilience testing), Eureka (service discovery), Ribbon (client-side load balancing), and Hystrix (circuit breaker). All are open-sourced and have influenced cloud-native standards now maintained by the CNCF.
✓ Result: 100% cloud-native on AWS; zero datacenter costs; infrastructure scales to 15M+ concurrent streams during peak with auto-scaling
Capital One completed a full cloud migration to AWS — becoming the first major US bank to exit all datacenters. Their cloud architecture is a reference for regulated industry cloud adoption: data classification enforced in S3 bucket policies, all customer data encrypted at rest with customer-managed keys, and GuardDuty + Security Hub provide continuous compliance monitoring for OCC and FFIEC requirements.
✓ Result: 100% cloud-native; $1.7B annual technology savings vs. datacenter model; OCC cloud examination 2023: zero findings
Zalando's cloud architecture uses AWS as primary (EKS for all microservices) with GCP for ML workloads (Vertex AI for fashion recommendation models). Their 'Developer Experience' team provides self-service cloud provisioning via their ZALLY platform — teams request cloud resources in code (Terraform) with built-in compliance guardrails. No direct console access to production: all changes via Infrastructure as Code.
✓ Result: 1,000+ daily deployments; zero manual production changes; cloud cost optimization automated through FinOps team saved €40M annually
DBS Bank's 'ARC' (Architecture, Risk, Compliance) framework governs cloud adoption across all workloads. Every cloud service provisioned via their 'Gandalf' platform automatically inherits MAS TRM compliance controls: encryption, logging, access management, and network segmentation. DBS runs 99% of workloads on AWS Singapore region — data residency for Singapore customer data is technically enforced, not just policy.
✓ Result: 99% cloud-native workloads; MAS TRM examination 2023: zero cloud governance findings; World's Best Digital Bank 2023 (Euromoney)
🌟 Core Principles
Every aspect of aws architecture must be deliberately designed, not discovered after deployment. Document design decisions as ADRs with explicit rationale.
Apply aws architecture practices consistently across all systems. Inconsistent application creates governance blind spots and makes incident investigation unpredictable.
AWS Architecture practices must demonstrably contribute to business outcomes: reduced downtime, faster delivery, lower operational cost, or improved compliance posture.
Quality of aws architecture implementation must be measurable. Define specific metrics and collect evidence continuously — not only at audit or review time.
Standards for aws architecture evolve as technology and threat landscapes change. Schedule quarterly reviews of applicable standards and update practices accordingly.
⚙️ Implementation Steps
Current State Assessment
Document the current state of aws architecture practice: what is implemented, what is missing, what is inconsistent across teams. Use the governance/scorecards section for a structured assessment framework.
Gap Analysis Against Standards
Compare current state against the standards in this section and applicable frameworks (AWS Well-Architected Framework, Azure Architecture Center). Prioritize gaps by business impact and remediation effort.
Design the Target State
Define the target aws architecture state: which patterns will be adopted, which anti-patterns eliminated, which governance mechanisms introduced. Express as a time-bound roadmap.
Incremental Implementation
Implement aws architecture improvements incrementally: pilot with one team or system, measure outcomes, refine the approach, then expand. Avoid big-bang transformations.
Validate and Iterate
Measure the impact of implemented changes against defined success criteria. Incorporate lessons learned into the practice standards. Contribute improvements back to this library.
✅ Governance Checkpoints
| Checkpoint | Owner | Gate Criteria | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current State Documented | Solution Architect | AWS Architecture current state assessment completed and reviewed | Required |
| Gap Analysis Reviewed | Architecture Review Board | Gap analysis reviewed and prioritization approved | Required |
| Implementation Plan Approved | Enterprise Architect | Target state and roadmap approved by ARB | Required |
| Quality Metrics Defined | Solution Architect | Measurable success criteria defined for aws architecture improvements | Required |
◈ Recommended Patterns
✦ Reference Architecture Adoption
Start from an established reference architecture for aws architecture rather than designing from scratch. Adapt to organizational context rather than rebuilding proven foundations.
✦ Pattern Library Contribution
When your team solves a recurring aws architecture problem with a novel approach, document it as a pattern for the library. This compounds organizational knowledge over time.
✦ Fitness Function Testing
Encode aws architecture standards as automated architectural fitness functions — tests that run in CI/CD and fail builds when standards are violated. This makes governance continuous rather than periodic.
⛔ Anti-Patterns to Avoid
⛔ Standards Theater
Documenting aws architecture standards in architecture policies that no one reads and no one enforces. Standards without automated validation or governance gates are not operational standards.
⛔ Copy-Paste Architecture
Adopting another organization's aws architecture patterns wholesale without adapting to organizational context, team capability, or regulatory environment. Always adapt; never just copy.
🤖 AI Augmentation Extensions
LLM agents analyze design documents against aws architecture standards, generating structured gap reports with cited evidence and suggested remediation approaches.
This section is optimized for vector ingestion into an AI-powered architecture assistant. Semantic search enables architects to retrieve relevant aws architecture guidance through natural language queries.
🔗 Related Sections
📚 References & Further Reading
- AWS Well-Architected Framework↗ aws.amazon.com
- Azure Architecture Center↗ docs.microsoft.com
- GCP Architecture Framework↗ cloud.google.com
- CNCF Cloud Native Trail Map↗ cncf.io
- Documenting Software Architectures — Bass, Clements, Kazman↗ Amazon
- Building Evolutionary Architectures — Ford, Parsons, Kua↗ O'Reilly