Announcing updates to the AWS Well-Architected Framework guidance

We are excited to announce the availability of enhanced and expanded guidance for the AWS Well-Architected Framework with the following six pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Sustainability

This release includes new best practices and improved prescriptive implementation guidance for the existing best practices. This includes enhanced recommendations and steps on reusable architecture patterns focused on specific business outcomes.

A brief history

The Well-Architected Framework is a collection of best practices that allow customers to evaluate and improve the design, implementation, and operations of their workloads in the cloud.

Figure 1. 2024 AWS Well-Architected guidance timeline

In 2012, we published the first version of the Framework. In 2015, we released the AWS Well-Architected Framework whitepaper. We added the Operational Excellence pillar in 2016. We released the pillar-specific whitepapers and AWS Well-Architected Lenses in 2017. The following year, the AWS Well-Architected Tool was launched.

In 2020, we released the new version of the Well-Architected Framework guidance, more lenses, and an API integration with the AWS Well-Architected Tool. We added the sixth pillar, Sustainability in 2021. In 2022, dedicated pages were introduced for each consolidated best practices across all six pillars, with several best practices updated with improved prescriptive guidance. By December 2023, we improved more than 75% of the Framework’s best practices. As of November 2024, we’ve refreshed 100% of the Framework’s best practices at least once since October 2022.

What’s new

The Well-Architected Framework supports customers as they mature in their cloud journey by providing guidance to help achieve more operable, secure, sustainable, scalable, and resilient environment and workload solutions.

The content updates and prescriptive guidance improvements in this release provide more complete coverage across AWS, helping customers make informed decisions when developing implementation plans. We added or expanded on guidance for the following services in this update: Amazon API Gateway, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon CodeGuru, Amazon Cognito, Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, Amazon Macie, Amazon Q Business, Amazon Q Developers, Amazon Redshift, Amazon S3, AWS Certificate Manager, AWS CloudFormation, AWS CloudTrail, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline, AWS Config, AWS Control Tower, AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool, AWS Glue, AWS Health, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), AWS Key Management Service (KMS), AWS OpenSearch, AWS Organizations, AWS Resource Access Manager, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Security Hub, AWS Step Functions, AWS Systems Manager, AWS Trusted Advisor, AWS Verified Access, and AWS WAF.

Pillar updates

Operational Excellence

In the Operational Excellence Pillar, we updated five best practices across four questions. This includes OPS02, OPS05, OPS09, and OPS10. The updates in this release include improved prescriptive guidance on multiple AWS services. OPS02-BP02 updates leverage Amazon Q Business for improving workforce collaboration and productivity. OPS05-BP08 updates demonstrate AWS Organizations and AWS Control Tower capabilities that enable updates to a multi-environment setup while meeting governance and policy requirements. OPS09-BP01 and OPS09-BP02 have updated guidance and resources for developing operational key performance indicators (KPIs). OPS10-BP02 has been updated with information on AWS Health, including its planned lifecycle events feature, for integrating into an incident management workflow.

Security

In the Security Pillar, we updated 43 best practices across nine questions. This includes SEC02, SEC03, SEC04, SEC06, SEC07, SEC08, SEC09, SEC10, and SEC11. All best practices in SEC03 (Permissions management) were revised, with updates to guidance on Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC), AWS IAM Access Analyzer, and emergency access processes. SEC02 (Identity management) also saw updates to all six of its best practices, including refinements to guidance on identity federation and secrets management. SEC07 through SEC11 received updates to guidance on data protection, incident response, and application security. Key updates include replacing the security information and event management SIEM solution on AWS OpenSearch recommendation with AWS CloudTrail Lake in SEC04 (Detection), expanded guidance on AWS S3 Object Lock and AWS S3 Glacier Vault Lock in SEC08 (Protecting data at rest), and the addition of recommendations for Mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS) and private certificates in SEC09 (Protecting data in transit). Overall, these changes reflect AWS’s commitment to providing up-to-date, comprehensive security guidance in line with evolving best practices and new service capabilities.

Reliability

In the Reliability Pillar, we updated 14 best practices across nine questions. This includes REL01, REL02, REL04, REL06, REL07, REL08, REL10, REL12, and REL13. We expanded and clarified our guidance throughout the Pillar and added detailed implementation steps to each best practice that did not previously have them. We refreshed our multi-location deployment guidance by merging REL10-BP02 into REL10-BP01, while improving the prescriptive guidance of this best practice with a new title of Deploy the workload to multiple locations. We updated our idempotent operations guidance in REL04-BP04 to provide detailed technical guidance for builders who wish to provide idempotent APIs and updated the title to Make mutating operations idempotent. We merged functional testing guidance by migrating the content previously published under REL12-BP03 to REL08-BP02 (Integrate functional testing as part of your deployment) and expanded our guidance on testing in CI/CD pipelines. We refreshed REL07-BP01 to emphasize infrastructure as code (IaC) as a cornerstone of automated resource management and scaling. We improved our guidance in REL06-BP02 on how to use system and application logs to improve workload observability. We also refreshed our links to relevant resources including documents, videos, and presentations.

Performance Efficiency

In the Performance Efficiency Pillar, we updated the resources of PERF03-BP04 with the latest services.

Sustainability

In the Sustainability Pillar, we updated 10 best practices across six questions. This includes SUS01, SUS03, SUS04, SUS05, and SUS06. Best practices SUS01-BP01, SUS03-BP02, SUS03-BP05, SUS04-BP03, SUS04-BP05, SUS04-BP06, SUS04-BP07, SUS04-BP08, SUS05-BP04, and SUS06-BP02 now offer improved prescriptive guidance. Additionally, we added a new best practice, SUS06-BP01 Communicate and cascade your sustainability goals, which highlights the critical role of the central IT team in cascading sustainability goals and objectives across the broader organization. By strategically leveraging the cloud, implementing resource-efficient practices, and employing sustainability-focused tools and analytics, IT teams can play a pivotal role in driving meaningful reductions in the organization’s environmental impact.

Conclusion

This release includes updates and improvements to the Framework guidance totaling 78 best practices. As of this release, we’ve updated 100% of the existing Framework best practices at least once since October 2022. With this release, we have refreshed 100% of all the pillars of the Framework including the Reliability Pillar, with 14 of its best practice updated for the first time since major Framework improvements started in 2022.

Updates in this release will be incorporated into the AWS Well-Architected Tool in future releases, which you can use to review your workloads, address important design considerations, and help you follow the AWS Well-Architected Framework guidance.

The content will be available in 11 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

Ready to get started? Review the updated AWS Well-Architected Framework Pillar best practices and pillar-specific whitepapers.

Have questions about some of the new best practices or most recent updates? Join our growing community on AWS re:Post.