Well-Architected Tool and Review Process
Run an AWS Well-Architected Tool review against a live workload, interpret the risk findings, and prioritise the improvement plan.
What Is the Well-Architected Tool?
The AWS Well-Architected Tool is a free service in the AWS Management Console that helps you review your workloads against AWS best practices. You answer a series of questions about your architecture across the six pillars, and the tool generates a risk report identifying High Risks (HRIs) and Medium Risks (MRIs) with specific improvement recommendations. Think of it as a structured conversation between you and the Well-Architected Framework — the questions guide you to think critically about every aspect of your architecture.
# Well-Architected Tool: available in AWS Console
# Navigate to: AWS Console > Well-Architected Tool
# Review components:
# - Workload: your application or system
# - Milestone: snapshot of review at a point in time
# - Lens: set of questions (default: Well-Architected)
# - Risk: High Risk Item (HRI) or Medium Risk Item (MRI)
# Custom lenses also available for specific domains
# (SaaS, Serverless, Data Analytics, etc.)Defining a Workload
The first step in using the Well-Architected Tool is defining a workload — a collection of interrelated AWS resources and code that make up your application or service. Be specific: a workload might be your order processing microservice, not your entire company's AWS account. Define the environment (Production, Pre-Production, Development), the AWS regions used, and the industry for relevant compliance context. Well-defined workload boundaries make the review questions more relevant and actionable.
# Well-Architected Tool API: create workload
aws wellarchitected create-workload \
--workload-name 'OrderProcessingService' \
--description 'Handles e-commerce order processing' \
--environment PRODUCTION \
--aws-regions us-east-1 eu-west-1 \
--review-owner 'platform-team@example.com' \
--industry-type 'RETAIL' \
--industry 'E-Commerce'All lessons in this course
- Operational Excellence and Security Pillars
- Reliability and Performance Efficiency Pillars
- Cost Optimisation and Sustainability Pillars
- Well-Architected Tool and Review Process