Amazon Web Services, better known as AWS, is a cloud computing platform offering a wide array of services, including computing, storage, and content delivery. AWS allows organisations to build, deploy, and manage their applications and services in the cloud, providing scalability, reliability, and security. However, to get the most out of AWS, it is important to optimise your architecture. In this blog, we will provide some hints and tips on how to optimise your AWS architecture.
Introduction to AWS Architecture Optimisation
AWS is a popular cloud computing platform that provides a wide range of services and tools for building, deploying, and managing applications and infrastructure. With its vast array of services and capabilities, it can be challenging to optimise your AWS architecture for maximum performance and efficiency.
However, by following a few best practices and implementing the right strategies, you can ensure that your AWS architecture is optimised and running smoothly. In this blog, we’ll provide some hints and tips on how to optimise your AWS architecture, covering topics such as resource management, security, and cost optimisation.
Resource Management
One key aspect of optimising your AWS architecture is effective resource management. By properly managing your resources, you can ensure that your infrastructure is running efficiently and effectively. Here are a few tips for resource management:
Use Auto Scaling
Auto Scaling is a service that automatically adjusts the number of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances in your architecture based on demand. This can help to ensure that your organisation has the right amount of resources available to meet the needs of your applications, while also minimising costs by only using the resources you need.
Use Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) or Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
ECS and EKS are container orchestration services that allow you to deploy and manage containerised applications on AWS. By using these services, you can optimise the resource utilisation of your applications, as well as scale them up or down as needed. Proper planning and scoping is always recommended to ensure that your applications run smoothly.
Use Amazon DynamoDB
DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service that can help you optimise the performance and scalability of your applications. By using DynamoDB, you can easily store, retrieve, and query data at any scale, without the need to worry about infrastructure management.
Use Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)
Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) is a fully managed database service offered by AWS. It makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. RDS supports popular database engines like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Amazon Aurora, together with a variety of database options and features. With RDS, you can offload the administrative tasks of managing a database to AWS, which can save you both time and resources. RDS also offers high availability and automatic scaling, so you can focus on building your application instead of worrying about the underlying infrastructure. If SQL is required, then RDS is the go-for option.
Security
Security is an important consideration when optimising your AWS architecture. By implementing the right security measures, you can ensure that your infrastructure is protected against threats and vulnerabilities. Here are a few tips for improving the security of your AWS architecture:
Use Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
VPC is a service that allows you to create a virtual network in the cloud, where you can launch AWS resources in a virtual private subnet. By using VPC, you can control the inbound and outbound traffic to your resources, and you can also implement security measures such as network access control lists (ACLs) and security groups. Where possible, you should also place your resources in private subnets which do not have direct access from/to the Internet.
Use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
IAM is a service that enables you to manage user access to your AWS resources. By using IAM, you can create and manage users and groups, and you can also define and enforce policies for controlling access to your resources.
Use Amazon GuardDuty
GuardDuty is a threat detection service that uses machine learning and other technologies to identify and alert you to potential threats to your AWS infrastructure. By using GuardDuty, you can improve the security of your architecture by detecting and responding to threats in real-time.
In general the security issues in AWS are commonly the result of poor identity and access management, administrators not understanding the shared-responsibility model, AMIs made public and improper data encryption.
Cost Optimisation
Optimising the cost of your AWS architecture is an important consideration, as it can help to ensure that you are only paying for the resources you actually need. Here are a few tips for cost optimisation:
Expenditure and usage awareness
One way to optimise the cost of your AWS architecture is to use Amazon CloudWatch to monitor your resource usage and identify areas where you may be overprovisioning. By identifying and addressing overprovisioning, you can reduce your costs without sacrificing performance.
Cost-effective resources
Another tip for cost optimisation is to use Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances, which allow you to reserve capacity for EC2 instances in exchange for a lower hourly rate. This can be a cost-effective option if you have a predictable workload and can commit to using a certain number of instances over a one- or three-year term.
You can also use AWS Trusted Advisor to identify cost optimisation opportunities within your architecture. Trusted Advisor is a service that provides best practice recommendations for optimising your resources and reducing costs.
Optimise over time
Finally, consider using AWS Cost Explorer to track and analyse your AWS costs over time. With Cost Explorer, you can identify trends in your resource usage and costs, and you can use this information to make informed decisions about how to optimise your architecture.
Our methodology and values
Over the years, 56Bit has developed the ‘architect and design’ service offering, which helps businesses design, run and maintain future-proof AWS architectures. 56Bit’s methodologies ensure that platforms provide: security, resilience, cost-efficiency, high-availability, performance and data durability.
A WAFR product was created by the team at 56Bit – It carries out a thorough review of all the AWS architecture aspects discussed in this article. On successful completion of the review phase, the appropriate fixes and upgrades will be rolled-out by 56Bit as an extension of your in-house resources. Our WAFR essentially is a review and fix iteration of the existing AWS architecture of organisations.
Optimising your Amazon Web Services (AWS) architecture is essential for maintaining the performance and efficiency of your cloud infrastructure. Get in touch with us today, to set an exploratory meeting.
