AWS Operational Excellence Pillar: What’s New?

In mid-2020, AWS released an update for the Operational Excellence pillar, which improved the guidance offered concerning organisation methods and culture and creating an operating model.

The newly updated Operational Excellence pillar now has a new section entirely devoted to team members, teams, and organisation.

What is Organisational Culture?
The organisational culture of your company is how you structure your teams, including creating a clear order of superiority, plans for emergencies, and a clear path of communication.

The AWS Well-Architected Program has updated its Operational Excellence pillar to provide clearer guidance for companies on how to create an effective organisational culture.

By following the new guidelines, you can improve your bottom line.

How to Structure Your Business Using AWS
To create an optimised organisational culture, follow the steps AWS has outlined. First, you must create an explicit order of command in your organisation. It’s essential that everyone knows to whom they report and who they are in charge of.

Next, choose an operating model. There are many options available, and you may want to use different models depending on the department. To choose the best model, AWS recommends using a chart that analyses the operations and engineering of your platform or infrastructure and your applications.

Through this chart, you can determine which teams are responsible for what and if some areas require multiple teams’ attention.

Clearly defining who is responsible for certain areas improves your bottom line since it reduces the need for team members to ask for direction.

Improving Your Business With Organisational Structure
The recent additions to the operational pillar focus on improving your business through a structure that receives its guidance from the top level. Called executive sponsorship, this concept means that the executives of an organisation sets goals and evaluates the organisation’s success.

However, it also means that those in charge must advocate for and implement the use of AWS best practices. The entire company should follow these best practices, with a clear structure known to all team members.

The new changes also focus on receiving a diversity of opinions. Although the direction should always come from the top down, your business can benefit from communicating with team members of all levels. Ask them if changes could improve their reliability or productivity or if they have any complaints about the system.

Improve Your Business With WOLK
As a recognised AWS Well-Architected Framework partner, WOLK offers reviews to ensure your company is compliant with all five pillars of the Framework. If we find any discrepancies, we can provide solutions to improve your business with AWS.

Call us today on 03 8669 1414 to arrange your free initial consultation.

Detecting Security Problems Using AWS

AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon providing cloud-based computing platforms. WOLK is certified to provide AWS Well-Architected Reviews. WOLK can track your IT performance around the clock to tackle any interruptions before they impact your business. Detecting security problems is critical to the success of your business.

AWS Well-Architected framework operates on the five pillars of Operation Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Cost Optimisation. Security, the second pillar of AWS, refers to protecting your data, systems and assets. Before you architect a workload, security practices must be in place.

What does it mean to architect a workload? A workload refers to a collection of data and code that are integral to a business that will be planned, devised and scaled in a way that meets guidelines set out by Amazon. The AWS cloud executes an automated response to security issues.

Security: The Second Pillar

Within the pillar of security, seven design concepts can strengthen the security of AWS systems.

1. Implement a strong identity foundation means you should eliminate the use of long-term static credentials. Ensure there is a separation of duty when it comes to authorised personnel for interaction with AWS systems.

2. Keep people away from data suggests that you mitigate the risk for human error by reducing or eliminating manual processing of data. Use the automated tools available instead.

3. Prepare for security events by acting out simulated response situations.

4. Protect data in transit and at rest by organising it via levels of sensitivity. Use access control and encryptions for additional protection.

5. Automate security best practices to acquire a quicker response time when a security threat is detected.

6. Apply security at all layers by using multiple security controls.

7. Enable traceability by tracking changes in real-time so you can take action immediately if a security threat is detected.

Your security comprises five core components:

● Identity and access management
● Detection
● Infrastructure protection
● Data protection
● Incident response

Detecting Security Problems

Detection is critical in enabling you to identify a security threat or misbehaviour. Detective mechanisms are part of the threat identification and response effort and can include elements like analysing logs from your workload.

Performing vulnerability management is vital in detecting security problems promptly. Scan for vulnerabilities in your digital infrastructure by using a third party static code analysis tool or a third party dependency checking tool.

Validating the integrity of your software can also help in detecting security problems. To do this, you’ll want to implement mechanisms that confirm software, code and libraries that are part of the workload are from a trusted source.

Identify Your Areas of Risk

WOLK is a leading partner of the AWS Well-Architected Review Program and can provide a review that identifies high-risk items for your company. You’ll receive an AWS service credit that will cover the majority of high-risk items during the remediation stage.

Creating foundations with AWS

The third pillar of AWS’s Well-Architected Framework is Reliability. A workload or company that only works some of the time causes delays in production, problems with security, and an overall reduction in revenue.

The Reliability pillar has four best practices to help your workload run without issue all the time. The first of the best practices, Foundations, deals with creating an overall basis for your company and workloads.

What Are Foundational Requirements?
Before you can create any project-based workloads, you must first establish foundational requirements that ensure reliability. These requirements vary for each company but often include topics like internet connection, ensuring you have enough bandwidth for your data center, and maintaining a steady electricity supply.

If you use AWS services, many of these foundational requirements are already present. However, WOLK can help you ensure you have all the necessary foundational requirements for your company’s needs.

Creating Foundations for Managing Quotas
Another aspect of maintaining a reliable workload is ensuring you have achievable service quotas or limits. These quotas mean you won’t overload your workload, causing a temporary shutdown or slowdown, which could affect your business.

To create these quotas, follow AWS’s foundational best practices.
Know your limits:Your first step is to understand your service limits, any planned increases in quotas, and any limits your resources, like storage capacity, could place on your workload.
Place quotas across databases:If you work with multiple AWS services or regions, ensure you have quotas in place everywhere that work for each workload.
Create foundations with architecture:Use architecture to design a foundation that operates within your quotas and service limits.
Monitor:An essential aspect of a successful workload is consistent monitoring.
Automation:You can use automated processes to monitor and manage your service quotas, removing human error potential and ensuring you catch any problems quickly.
Plan for failures:Don’t set your foundations to the maximum limit of your service quotas. In the event of a failure, you want to ensure you can continue to deliver your products or services on time to your clients. Leave a buffer zone.

These best practices can help you ensure reliable foundations for your workloads, helping you to maintain good relationships with your clients and keeping your business profitable.

Create an Effective Foundation With AWS and WOLK
WOLK is an experienced Partner of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, and we offer reviews to companies of all types. In your free, initial consultation, we review your company practices, checking for compliance with the Framework. If we find any problem areas, we identify them and offer you solutions to ensure you comply with the Framework and help you develop a solid foundation for your company.

Contact us today to arrange your consultation.