AWS Well-Architected Framework

Architecture review against the criteria AWS uses on itself

The Well-Architected Framework is a question set AWS distilled from thousands of real systems. HiTechCloud is a Well-Architected Partner — we run that review on your system and return a prioritised list of risks.

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HiTechCloud's role
AWS Well-Architected Partner
Review scope
The six pillars of the Well-Architected Framework
Deliverables
A risk report and a prioritised remediation plan
Duration
Usually 1–2 weeks per workload
Overview

One question set, six perspectives, nowhere to soften the answer

The Well-Architected Framework is not a scoring tool to display. It is a list of specific questions — how does your system recover from losing an availability zone, how often is access reviewed, which department carries which cost — that your engineers must answer with evidence, not intentions.

The output is not a score. It is a list of risks, graded by AWS as high risk and medium risk, each with a recommended fix.

We run this review for systems on AWS, and apply the same criteria to systems on HiTechCloud infrastructure or hybrid — because most questions about reliability, security and operations do not depend on where the servers sit.

When to review

Signs the architecture is accumulating risk nobody has looked at

The system runs, but nobody dares touch it

The architecture was built by several people at different times with no documentation, so every change feels risky.

The cloud bill climbs every month with no explanation

Costs rise month over month without mapping to any workload, and nobody knows what can be switched off.

Recovery has never been rehearsed

Backups exist, but no restore has ever been tested, so nobody knows how long it takes or how much data is lost.

A traffic surge or an audit is coming

Ahead of peak season, a funding round or a partner assessment, you need an independent review rather than reassurance.

Six pillars

What gets reviewed

Each pillar is a set of questions, answered together with your engineers in face-to-face sessions.

  1. 01

    Operational excellence

    What process governs deployment, monitoring and change; how incidents are detected, recorded and learned from.

  2. 02

    Security

    Identity and access management, encryption at rest and in transit, logging, intrusion detection and an incident response process.

  3. 03

    Reliability

    Fault tolerance at each layer, backup and restore testing, resource limits, and how the system behaves when a component dies.

  4. 04

    Performance

    Choosing resource types that suit the workload, caching strategy, and how the system scales under a sudden spike.

  5. 05

    Cost optimization

    Idle resources, over-provisioning, the right purchase model, and whether costs can be attributed per product or team.

  6. 06

    Sustainability

    Resource use per unit of work, and the architectural changes that reduce it.

System architecture blueprint
Deliverables

A document specific enough to assign work from

The review report goes past observations. Each risk comes with the consequence of ignoring it, how to fix it and the effort involved.

  • High and medium risks, listed by pillar.
  • A recommended fix for each item, with priority and effort estimate.
  • An estimate of what each change costs — and what it saves.
  • A phased plan the in-house team can carry out themselves.
Process

How a review is run

  1. 01

    Choosing the workload

    Setting the review scope — usually one system or one product, not the whole estate at once.

  2. 02

    Q&A session

    Working directly with your engineers to answer each pillar's questions against the actual system configuration.

  3. 03

    Reporting

    Consolidating risks, grading severity and building a prioritised remediation plan.

  4. 04

    Remediation and re-review

    You fix it yourselves or hand it back to HiTechCloud. Once done, the review is rerun to confirm the risks are closed.

When a review is worth running

When a review is worth the most

Before scaling up

  • Preparing for peak season or a major campaign.
  • You are about to add a market or a product on the same system.
  • User numbers are growing faster than planned.

After an incident

  • You have just had an outage and need to know what else is exposed.
  • Recovery took longer than is acceptable.
  • The root cause was never clearly identified.

When costs run over plan

  • Infrastructure bills are rising faster than user numbers.
  • Costs cannot be attributed to a product or department.
  • You need numbers to decide whether to stay or move platform.

Ahead of a compliance audit

  • Preparing evidence for an internal or third-party audit.
  • You need evidence of access control and backups.
  • Major clients ask you to prove operational capability.
FAQ

FAQ

How is this different from an ordinary architecture consultation?

A Well-Architected Review follows a standard question set built and maintained by AWS, so its scope does not depend on one consultant's experience. Results are recorded in the AWS tool and can be compared between reviews.

Our system is not on AWS — can it still be reviewed?

Yes. Most questions on operations, security, reliability and cost apply to any infrastructure. For non-AWS systems we use the same criteria but do not record results in the AWS tool.

What do we need to prepare?

We need the current architecture diagram, read access to configuration and monitoring data, and someone who knows the system in the sessions. No new documents need writing beforehand.

After the review, must we hire HiTechCloud to fix things?

No. The report is detailed enough for your own engineers to act on. You only hand back the parts you want help with.

Review the architecture before the system forces you to

Get in touch to book a Well-Architected Review for your most critical system and receive a prioritised risk list.

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