AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog
AWS Well-Architected Framework Reviews Powered by Tevico: Transforming Challenges into Engaging Adventures
By Lalit Khatter, Partner Management Solutions Architect – AWS
By Bhupali Tambekar, CTO – Comprinno Technologies
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| Comprinno |
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When innovation converges with infrastructure in the dynamic world of cloud computing, then businesses build mechanisms to simplify the adoption of cloud technologies and enhance the experience of their user base.
Organizations want to adopt cloud using standardized methodology and utilizing industry best practices to attain operational excellence, bolster security measures, establish reliable solutions, and optimize performance efficiencies.
The AWS Well-Architected Framework provides a consistent approach to evaluate architectures and implement best practices on workloads against six pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Sustainability.
Further, the AWS Well-Architected Tool empowers businesses to assess their workloads against these pillars and aids in identifying potential risks and areas for improvement. To automate certain findings, the tool seamlessly integrates with AWS Trusted Advisor and AWS Service Catalog AppRegistry to provide essential information to address AWS Well-Architected review questions.
Comprinno is an AWS Specialization Partner and member of the AWS Well-Architected Partner Program that’s dedicated to helping organizations establish robust architectural practices. With extensive experience conducting thorough Well-Architected reviews and guiding clients through the remediation of high-risk issues, Comprinno brings a wealth of expertise to the table.
Equipped with a diverse portfolio of AWS Competencies, including Security and Resilience Consulting, Comprinno understands the challenges faced by customers and provides strategic guidance to help surmount any obstacles encountered in their cloud journey.
In this post, we’ll highlight Tevico, Comprinno’s software as a service (SaaS) product and cloud management tool. Through integration with the AWS Well-Architected Tool, Tevico extends its capability by helping customers identify risks through automation and providing insights to make it easier to remediate high-risk issues.
Identifying High-Risk Issues
Customers often find themselves unaware of significant security threats due to insufficient security controls or guardrails. Alternatively, they may have an infrastructure that lacks required resilience for a business and pose a risk of downtime for their critical applications.
The AWS Well-Architected Framework helps identify potential threats and challenges by introducing best practices across the six pillars.
One of Comprinno’s customers is a FinTech firm that had to adhere to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, and the Well-Architected review revealed that two out of 10 Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes lacked encryption. Additionally, certain databases had publicly accessible endpoints. To address these issues, the databases were relocated to a private subnet and encryption was applied to all EBS volumes.
Another instance involved an open-source static code analysis product, where both the application and database were deployed in a single AWS Availability Zone (AZ). A high-risk issue, identified through questions in the framework’s Reliability pillar, was addressed by Comprinno. The remediation involved configuring a multi-AZ architecture, significantly improving the reliability of the customer’s systems.
There have been other examples where, through a meticulous Well-Architected review, Comprinno identified and fortified security gaps, implementing robust measures such as encryption protocols and access controls. This mitigates potential risks and bolsters the overall security posture of organizations.
Introducing Tevico
Tevico is designed to revolutionize the process of conducting Well-Architected reviews, as it automatically identifies certain findings and offers guidance through a knowledge repository, elevating the overall customer experience during the review process.
With five key capabilities—Context Setting, Visual Collaboration, Risk Assessments, Faster Remediation, and Deeper Insights—Tevico plays a crucial role in enhancing the customer experience to a higher level during both the review of findings and their remediation.
Figure 1 – Tevico’s Well-Architected Framework review capabilities.
Context Setting: Understanding and Achieving Business Goals
Prior to taking up a comprehensive Well-Architected review, it becomes imperative for solution architects leading the evaluation to understand the intricacies of both the product under consideration and the broader industry segment it falls under. This entails gaining an understanding of various facets, including traffic patterns, mission-critical elements, compliance prerequisites, and future growth projections.
This understanding sets the foundation for a thorough Well-Architected review and equips architects with the insights needed to align the solution with the unique dynamics of the industry, ensuring optimal performance, security, and scalability.
In its workflow, Tevico incorporates a preliminary stage where it encourages capturing the product context before initiating the Well-Architected review. The Product Market Synergy and Technology Stack ensures holistic gathering of information related to business and technology requirements, as well as the roadmap.
Figure 2 – Context Setting of workloads to review.
Visual Collaboration: Hub for Collaborative Reviews
Another pivotal aspect involves a stage within the workflow dedicated to crafting infrastructure and application diagrams. Well-Architected review participants can use popular diagramming tools to easily create, share, and collaborate on the architecture diagrams. This feature eliminates the need to switch between diagramming and tools while assisting you in checking off the necessary steps of your review process.
Figure 3 – Collaboration for solution architects.
The inclusion of a multi-user collaboration feature significantly enhances the productivity of Well-Architected review meetings. This feature allows for the simultaneous input of observations from various team members and provides visibility into who is contributing dynamically, creating a real-time and interactive environment.
Further, the collaborative nature extends to the ability to add comments as needed. This inclusive approach ensures insights and feedback from all involved parties are integrated into the review process, fostering a more comprehensive and collectively informed evaluation.
Customers may occasionally have inquiries unrelated to a Well-Architected review or seek advice on best practices. In some cases, they may want priority questions to be addressed before in a comprehensive review exercise. Tevico provides a platform to record and store customer queries and answers, complete with reference links. If the customer has any queries, they can submit them in Tevico, and the designated solution architect will address them.
Risk Assessments: Crafting Comprehensive and Accurate Defenses
Tevico automatically records observations within the workload of the designated region, and during the Well-Architected review completion, these observations contribute to a comprehensive risk assessment.
Each observation includes corresponding recommendations and an embedded reference link to the AWS remediation document can be seamlessly integrated. This interconnected structure of observation, recommendation, and reference link within Tevico facilitates advanced auto-discovery, enhancing the overall risk assessment process and speeding up the review process.
Figure 4 – Capabilities for risk assessments.
Fast and Efficient Remediation: Swift Solutions for Peak Efficiency
Tevico incorporates an integrated planner designed to simplify the resolution of issues or gaps identified during the Well-Architected review. This planner empowers you to create a personalized remediation plan aligned with the specific recommendations and best practices outlined in the Well-Architected Framework. Utilizing the planner, you can monitor the progress of your remediation efforts, and ensuring the timely and effective completion of all recommended actions.
Key features of the built-in planner include the ability to:
- View and prioritize recommendations based on their impact and level of effort.
- Assign tasks to team members, establishing deadlines for completion.
- Track the status of each task and monitor the overall progress of remediation efforts.
- Collaborate with your team and stakeholders through integrated communication and collaboration tools.
Overall, the built-in planner makes it easy to address issues or gaps identified during review and ensure your cloud architecture is secure, reliable, efficient, and cost-effective.
Deeper Insights: Informed Decisions with Knowledge Base
Tevico incorporates an extensive knowledge base comprising in-depth explanations and instructional videos. This repository serves as a valuable resource, providing an enriched understanding of the design principles related to the Well-Architected review. The availability of this knowledge base ensures users can refer to and reinforce their comprehension of specific review questions.
This solution has an interactive and collaborative approach to elevate and enrich the overall user engagement throughout the Well-Architected process. The dynamic and interactive dimension to the traditionally analytical and evaluative nature of reviews has made them efficient, enjoyable, and people-centric.
Tevico Workflow and Capabilities
Tevico’s workflow consists of three stages: workload creation, Well-Architected review, and remediation of issues. These stages are further drilled down into multiple steps.
The workload creation phase involves capturing the product market synergy, defining the technology stack, specifying workloads to be reviewed, outlining exact requirements such as compliance considerations, and articulating the purpose behind conducting the review.
The review phase encompasses identifying deviations from best practices, devising improvement plans, and providing assistance in project planning for fixing the issues identified during the Well-Architected review.
Finally, the remediation phase involves addressing and resolving the issues identified in the review phase with assigned owners and project plans.
Figure 5 – Tevico capabilities.
Occasionally, customers prefer addressing specific pillars or prioritized areas rather than engaging in a comprehensive Well-Architected review session. To cater to this, Tevico introduces Blueprints, which are tailored sets of questions and choices carefully extracted from the existing review lens.
The collection of blueprints is continuously expanding. Offering customers the choice to pick their blueprint provides flexibility, avoiding the potential overwhelm of extended hours spent on a comprehensive WAFR.
Conclusion
Tevico’s innovative features enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of an AWS Well-Architected review. From facilitating multi-user collaboration during remote reviews to establishing an interconnected framework of observations, recommendations, and reference links, Tevico streamlines the entire process, making it both efficient and enjoyable.
The tool’s extensive knowledge base, enriched with explanatory content and instructive videos, further empowers users to comprehend and apply design principles at their convenience. With Tevico, conducting a thorough and insightful Well-Architected review transforms from a mere task into a streamlined, collaborative, and engaging journey toward optimal architecture.
Get started today with Tevico on AWS Marketplace.
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Comprinno Technologies – AWS Partner Spotlight
Comprinno is an AWS Specialization Partner that’s dedicated to helping organizations establish robust architectural practices. With extensive experience conducting thorough AWS Well-Architected reviews and guiding clients through the remediation of high-risk issues, Comprinno brings a wealth of expertise to the table.