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10Taking your infrastructure to the cloud brings significant benefits - the most important being access to a mature ecosystem that ensures security, high availability, and uptime, along with freedom from the hassles of maintaining on-premises hardware. While these advantages make the cloud an attractive proposition, instances of bill shock running into millions of dollars remain a major cause for apprehension.
That’s why we at CloudKeeper bring you the series "Ask the Cloud Expert," where we cover all aspects of cloud infrastructure - from the most common queries to niche issues that typically arise only in the later stages of cloud adoption.
And today, it's: Ask the Cloud Expert: A Deep Dive into AWS WAR.
Today’s featured expert: Aditya Ajay
Aditya Ajay is a seasoned AWS Well-Architected Review (WAR) specialist at CloudKeeper, with hands-on experience in conducting 500+ reviews. He helps organizations optimize and future-proof their AWS infrastructure by aligning it with the latest best practices. For new deployments, Aditya helps in designing scalable, secure, and cost-efficient architectures that set businesses up for long-term cloud success.
Why Does AWS WAR Matter?
The fundamental performance issues in organizations’ software — whether it's a B2B SaaS product or a consumer-facing app — are often a result of an incorrectly configured AWS infrastructure. As companies scale and continue provisioning services on top of this flawed setup, they end up with an inefficient infrastructure, both in terms of performance and cost.
That’s where the AWS Well-Architected Review (WAR) comes into play. AWS WAR, based on the Well-Architected Framework, is an expert-led audit of an organization’s infrastructure aligned to AWS best practices. It helps teams create a highly efficient and robust AWS cloud infrastructure.
Question 1) We’ve all read the official documentation and definitions of the AWS Well-Architected Review. Can you simplify the Well-Architected Review for us?
The AWS Well-Architected Review is a thorough analysis conducted by an expert team of cloud experts of the organization's AWS infrastructure, with the AWS Well-Architected Framework as its foundation. Think of it as the architectural blueprint created by seasoned AWS specialists. The specialists at AWS work with many customers daily, helping them with architectural trade-offs as their designs evolve.
While the AWS Well-Architected Framework states the best practices, AWS Well-Architected Review(AWS WAR) is a systematic process of assessing your existing AWS infrastructure against those best practices. The primary objective of the review is to identify gaps in the infrastructure, including financial cost optimization, missed opportunities, security loopholes, and ways to enhance the infrastructure’s resilience against usage fluctuations.
All in all, it can be said that a Well-Architected Review is a holistic checkup of your AWS cloud infrastructure.
Question 2) What are the foundational pillars and key components of the AWS Well-Architected Framework?
Sure, I’ll walk you through each of the six foundational pillars, which act as key components of the AWS Well-Architected Framework:
- Operational Excellence: Focuses on efficient processes and automation to improve performance and reduce manual effort.
- Security: Ensures data protection, identity management, and strict access controls.
- Reliability: Enhances fault tolerance and enables quick recovery from failures.
- Performance Efficiency: Helps in selecting and configuring the right resources for optimal performance.
- Cost Optimization: Identifies and eliminates unnecessary expenses to reduce wasteful cloud spending.
- Sustainability: Encourages practices that reduce the environmental impact of your cloud usage.
These six pillars form the foundation of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. While the review is tailored to each client’s specific workloads and needs, the evaluation is always rooted in these core principles.
Question 3) Can you walk us through the process of how you conduct an AWS Well-Architected Review?
To perform a comprehensive & customized AWS Well-Architected Review, our team has broken down the entire process into six phases:
Phase 1: Initial Assessment
To gain a deep understanding of the client’s existing AWS infrastructure and organizational practices, we conduct active discussions with key stakeholders. This helps us gather valuable context before diving into architectural analysis. Each AWS WAR done by us is tailored to the organization's maturity, objectives, and capabilities.
Phase 2: Workload Identification
Our AWS-certified experts identify the software and services currently in use. This enables us to provide tailored recommendations — whether around AWS services, instance types, discount programs, or architectural strategies.
Phase 3: Automated Architectural Review
To save valuable bandwidth for your engineering team, we leverage automated assessment process that uses advanced scripting to thoroughly evaluate your cloud infrastructure.
This provides us with detailed infrastructure insights, eliminating the need for lengthy questionnaires and constant reliance on engineering input.
Phase 4: Identification of Problem Areas and Opportunities
Armed with both stakeholder input and automated insights, we identify critical issues, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement. These findings form the core of our optimization efforts.
Phase 5: Development of a Personalized Roadmap
At CloudKeeper, we understand that a “one-size-fits-all” approach doesn't work in cloud infrastructure. Based on our assessment, we develop a customized, actionable roadmap aligned to your specific business needs and technical goals.
Phase 6: End-to-End Implementation Support
An excellent plan is only valuable if it’s executed properly. We assist with the complete setup, integration, and implementation of recommended changes to ensure your cloud infrastructure is fully optimized.
Unlike the competition, CloudKeeper doesn’t stop at just conducting an audit — we partner with clients to transform their AWS infrastructure. No other cloud cost optimization or Well-Architected Review company offers the level of assistance and guidance we provide in simplifying AWS cloud infrastructure. Here’s how we go beyond:
- Actionable Plans: Clear recommendations for the short, medium, and long term — with a 30-day Assess, 60-day Review, and 60–90 day Implement cycle.
- Proactive Consultations: Ongoing collaboration with clients to assist not just with review outcomes, but also the implementation and evolution of their roadmap.
- Tailored Guidance: We reject cookie-cutter solutions. Every recommendation is customized to the client’s unique workloads and goals.
- Modernization Support: We suggest newer, more cost-effective AWS services where appropriate, replacing legacy tools or services as needed.
- Human-Assisted Anomaly Detection: To prevent notification fatigue and missed alerts, we offer human-assisted cost anomaly detection in case of sudden cost spikes or overruns.
Question 4) Before proceeding with the AWS Well-Architected Review, what prerequisites do you expect the client to have in place?
While we pride ourselves on handling the majority of the review process, we typically require just three simple preparations from clients to ensure a smooth and effective Well-Architected Review:
- A limited read-only IAM role for comprehensive infrastructure analysis
- Availability of key stakeholders for a brief kickoff meeting and final review session
- Any existing architecture documentation or compliance requirements (if available)
- Our automated systems and expert team handle everything else — from workload analysis to dependency mapping — even if resources aren't perfectly tagged or documented.
Question 5) Is the AWS Well-Architected Framework a rigid, standardized process, or can it be adapted based on business needs?
Traditional AWS Well-Architected Reviews can sometimes feel rigid, filled with lengthy questionnaires, broad suggestions, and unclear action steps. This one-size-fits-all approach might leave you with more confusion than clarity, using up valuable time and resources, and often missing the mark on your company’s unique objectives and maturity level.
CloudKeeper takes a different & smarter approach. Our AWS Well-Architected Reviews are specifically tailored to your organization’s current capabilities and cloud maturity stage.
Here’s what sets our process apart:
- In-depth & automated architectural review: We combine deep technical analysis with automation to thoroughly evaluate your AWS environment.
- Custom recommendations: Every suggestion is built around your specific cloud setup and business needs—no generic answers.
Structured, actionable roadmap: We deliver clear short-term, medium-term, and long-term strategies so you know exactly what to do next.
With CloudKeeper, you get a review that truly aligns with your goals and delivers practical value, not just a checklist. No other AWS WAR partner offers this level of individualized attention and real value.
Learn in detail about our customized & smarter approach to AWS Well-Architected Review.
Question 6) In what scenarios within an organization’s operations would you strongly recommend conducting a comprehensive Well-Architected Review of their entire AWS setup?
Three critical moments demand an AWS Well-Architected Review:
- Pre-IPO: uncover hidden security and compliance gaps that could delay or derail a public listing.
- Post-Migration: Avoid cost explosions and performance bottlenecks when transitioning infrastructure (one company found 35% savings in unused resources post-move).
- New Product Launch: Prevent scalability failures by stress-testing the architecture before traffic surges.
Each scenario risks major financial or operational blowback without proactive optimization.
Question 7) What infrastructure security concerns are typically addressed by an AWS Well-Architected Review?
An AWS Well-Architected Review identifies and suggests strategies to rectify security flaws, such as open S3 buckets, unencrypted databases, etc., in your infrastructure.
These may relate to Identity and Access Management—for instance, restricting access based on roles, limiting privileges for specific business units or individuals, and enabling traceability for all provisioned resources and data movement.
The review also emphasizes the automation of critical security checks, significantly reducing the chances of data leaks that could lead to multi-million-dollar losses and serious compliance issues.
As a result, one of the key outcomes of an AWS WAR is a stronger alignment with security best practices and improved readiness for compliance adherence.
Question 8) Is the Well-Architected Review strictly an audit, or is it more consultative?
Fundamentally, the AWS Well-Architected Review is more of a conversation than an audit — a point even AWS itself emphasizes. Calling it strictly an audit would only be accurate if the process involved merely analyzing your infrastructure against the Well-Architected Framework and stopping at offering suggestions, leaving the implementation entirely up to the organization.
At CloudKeeper, we make the AWS Well-Architected Framework work for SaaS providers, ISVs, and enterprises by extensively customizing it and involving stakeholders throughout the process. The review includes a comprehensive analysis tailored to specific workload requirements and organizational expectations, followed by hands-on assistance in implementing the recommendations.
When a review deeply involves stakeholder inputs, customizes its findings, and supports actual implementation, it goes well beyond a typical audit. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to label such a review as merely an audit.
Question 9) Can you share an instance where CloudKeeper’s Well-Architected Review had a significant impact on a client’s cloud infrastructure, whether in terms of security, cost optimization, or performance?
On the security front, we’ve assisted several customers in adopting Amazon CloudFront and AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF), significantly strengthening their security posture and reducing exposure to external threats.
From a cost perspective, a notable example is our work with Prodigal. Within the first week of engagement, we conducted a comprehensive review of their infrastructure and helped resolve several operational issues.
These fixes not only stabilized their setup but also led to substantial cost savings, bringing their monthly AWS bill down from $60K to under $45K.
Additionally, we eliminated frequent downtimes by re-architecting their Airflow workloads, improving fault tolerance, and overall uptime.
These are just a few of the many real-world problems we’ve solved for our clients. This is also why a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach to the AWS Well-Architected Review doesn’t work—every workload brings its own set of unique challenges.
Question 10) What should organizations and clients know before getting started with an AWS Well-Architected Review? Will it have any impact on their normal workflow?
While we try to minimize the impact on your workflow through various measures, such as automated architectural review instead of lengthy questionnaires, we must acknowledge that the AWS Well-Architected Review is, at its core, a consultation-driven exercise.
This means there will be multiple interactions with your team, whether it's engineers or a designated point of contact, which may take some time away from their regular responsibilities. However, we make every effort to keep this involvement minimal and as efficient as possible.
- Minimal disruption: When well-managed, a Well-Architected Review shouldn’t disrupt your normal business operations. Most of the process is consultative—interviews, documentation sharing, and review sessions—often scheduled to suit your team’s availability.
- Time commitment: You can expect a few meetings and some preparation from your technical staff, but day-to-day work continues as usual.
- Improvements, not interruptions: The goal is to surface actionable opportunities for improvement, not slow you down. Any suggested changes happen after the review and can be planned according to your priorities and timelines.
Question 11) How to Pick the Right AWS Well-Architected Review Partner?
Here are more of the questions for which you’d want a "yes" from your AWS WAR partner:
- Do they take the time to understand the current state & company specifics(needs, challenges, desired outcomes, maturity level)?
- Is their process simple, efficient, and streamlined?
- Are their recommendations customized to your needs?
- Do they provide a clear action plan on how to improve your infra?
- Will they guide you on the implementation of the action plan?
- Are they certified AWS Well-Architected Partners and have enough experience?
Does CloudKeeper tick all the boxes? See for yourself!
Question 12) CloudKeeper Offers Free AWS Well-Architected Reviews. Is There a Catch?
A free WAR? You might wonder why. At CloudKeeper, our years of experience in optimizing AWS infrastructure have shown that our expert-led audits—backed by detailed, actionable recommendations—not only deliver tangible results but also build trust.
That’s why many clients choose us as their long-term partner for optimizing costs and improving the performance of their AWS infrastructure. Thus, helping them extract “more cloud per dollar spent.”
CloudKeeper - A Certified AWS WAR Partner
An AWS Premier Partner, with 15+ years of cloud expertise, CloudKeeper stands out as one of the most experienced AWS Well-Architected Partners. CloudKeeper was ranked in the top 5 AWS Well-Architected Partners globally in the challenge conducted by AWS. Till now, we have successfully completed 500+ customized AWS Well-Architected Reviews.
Claim your FREE AWS Well-Architected Review with CloudKeeper today!
