Author: Wayne Hayes

4 AWS Best Practices For Improving Performance

The AWS Well-Architected Framework allows you to implement designs consistently and examine architectures that can grow and change with your business. The framework is built on five pillars. Each pillar has best practices recommended by AWS to help you create an efficient and successful workload.

The Performance Efficiency Pillar
The Performance Efficiency pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework focuses on using resources efficiently to support your cloud-based system and uphold that efficiency level as demand changes.

4 Best Practices
Within the Performance Efficiency pillar, there are four best practices to guide you in your system development.

1. Selection
It’s important to select the best performing architecture for your cloud-based systems. A well-architected workload incorporates various solutions because their differing features can enhance the system’s performance efficiency. A crucial part of the selection process is choosing the best resources.

Compute resources for AWS come in three forms: instances, functions, and containers. When making choices about your compute resources, you’ll need to use your knowledge of workload and cost requirements. Since resource selections in the cloud are flexible, you can experiment with your selections.

Storage is another key selection you’ll make as part of your AWS performance efficiency. Choose between object, block, and file storage in the cloud depending on your system requirements.

With AWS, you’ll also choose your database. Different kinds of cloud databases remedy issues present in your workload. Once you identify the specific problems in your workload, you can select the database that base addresses them.

A network is shared between all aspects of your workload, meaning its impact is significant. To select the best network for your system, identify bandwidth, jitter, throughput, and latency requirements.

2. Review
Best practices for performance efficiency include careful evaluation of the technologies and your workload components to ensure they’re as up-to-date as possible.

AWS innovation is continual and is driven forward by consumer demands. New features that can improve performance and architecture are released regularly, so it’s important to review your system frequently for possible areas of improvement.

3. Monitoring
After you make selections and your workload is running, it’s critical that you’re carefully monitoring the workload performance. Services like Amazon CloudWatch are available to give you actionable feedback about your system performance and the optimisation of resources.

Monitoring this data in real-time allows you to move swiftly when problems occur so you can rectify them before clients are impacted.

4. Trade-Offs
Architecting solutions require you to weigh the benefits of a solution against its implementation’s negative impacts. A trade-off can mean you’re exchanging consistency for latency to improve performance because there is a higher value in lower latency at that time.

Carefully review metrics to see how your trade-offs are affecting the workload and its performance efficiency.

Work With WOLK
WOLK is a proud leading partner of the AWS Well-Architected Framework and can provide a thorough review of your cloud-based systems. We are certified to perform a detailed appraisal and help you determine any weaknesses within your system that require immediate attention.

Identity and Access Management: Permissions and Identification

AWS Well-Architected Framework is a system used to identify the at-risk areas in your company’s infrastructure. AWS ensures your applications are using the five pillars of operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimisation.

Why are Identity and Access Management Important?
For your cloud-based systems to operate safely, the right people must have access to the resources meant for them. Allowing users to have access, or other applications to have access, opens up the potential for security threats if the proper measures aren’t in place. Using identity management and permissions management are the two best ways to take care of human and machine security access.

Identity Management
It’s best to manage identity access in a centralised way, meaning that you use one identity provider to grant access for multiple platforms. If you need to deny access to someone (like an employee leaving the company) you can instantly revoke their ability to view sensitive information. These could include company calendars, email accounts, AWS services and more. By centralising access, it becomes easier to track and control who has permission to view and change data.

When dealing with AWS, both humans and machines require unique identities to be able to access these services. To keep track of who/what has access to which applications/information, consider grouping users who have similar security access requirements together. Thus, making it easier to manage large groups of users within an organisation because settings can be changed by group membership rather than for each individual.

Permissions Management
Permissions are essential to the second pillar of AWS Well-Architected Framework security. By creating permission boundaries and granting least privilege access, you can restrict user and administrator ability to only what is necessary.

AWS utilises attribute-based access control (ABAC) which allows you to provide access based on specific attributes called tags. Programming these tags into your management strategy ahead of time means permissions will be applied automatically as a project unfolds rather than you manually updating a policy part way through. Doing this creates an efficient way to handle multi-user and developer access while still maintaining a secure cloud-based system.

Work with WOLK
If you’re interested in improving your cloud-based security, work with WOLK. A leading partner of the AWS Well-Architected Reviews, our review process draws attention to the areas of risk in your system so you can take the necessary steps to up-level your security measures.

4 Security Solutions for Every Business

Virtually all businesses use cloud services for at least some functions. As this trend continues, it’s important to be on top of security to prevent a cyberattack or data breach.

Businesses can use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to increase the security of their cloud computing operations. Through AWS, organisations can automate security tasks that were previously controlled manually. This allows the business to focus solely on core operations.

Besides streamlining and progressing manual security, AWS is the only commercial based cloud service that’s deemed secure enough for top-secret workloads. AWS uses a five pillar framework to help build efficient systems for businesses. Security is the second conceptual pillar, and it contains key security solutions for every business.

1. Automate Security Best Practices
A measure outlined as a design principle is security automation. Automating system security can make your data more secure. It also makes scaling security easier and more cost-effective as it doesn’t require major architectural change.

Employ AWS security software to protect your systems, data, and applications. These systems can be tested and validated, ensuring you have the best practice systems in place.

2. Protect Data at All Times
Data is one of the most valuable commodities a business holds. Stolen data is not only detrimental to your business but can also lead to legal problems. Data must be protected at all times, meaning when it is in storage, during transfers, and when people access it.

Organise your data by security classification, defining classifications by sensitivity levels and use and allocate only essential human access. Storage solutions such as Amazon Glazier are extremely resilient to data loss.

AWS offers encryption services for data transfers and data at rest. Server-side encryption (SSE) is ideal to store encrypted data.

3. Implement Access Management Protocols
Access management can be implemented through basic security features like multiple-factor authentication and strong passwords. An AWS system, such as Identity and Access Management (IAM), allows only authorised employees to access certain information, resources, and programs. The AWS user can customise privilege management, increasing its security.

4. Utilise AWS Detection Systems
AWS detection systems scan and monitor linked operations to identify potential security compromises and threats. There is a wide variety of detection programs, with some more suited to specific industries. It’s essential that your company have at least a minimal level of security detection implemented.

Amazon GuardDuty is an effective security solution that detects dangerous and unauthorised activity within workloads.

Secure Your Business Using AWS
WOLK is a partner AWS Well-Architected Review Program and is certified to perform AWS reviews. Contact us today to arrange a review, allowing us to advise and assist you in securing your business and its cloud operations for the future.

The 7 Design Principles for Cloud Security Under AWS

Security, the second pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, contains seven design principles. By adhering to these guidelines, you can increase the strength of your cloud security, and protect your data.

The design principles encompass the ideas of foundation, preparation, and automation.

1. Implement a Strong Identity Foundation

A strong identity foundation is critical to maintaining safe data. Utilise the principle of least privilege by allowing each team member the minimum amount of access necessary for their work.

You should also centralise your identity management and try to reduce using static credentials.

2. Enable Traceability

It’s easier to find problems when you have a pre-existing tracing system. By monitoring your workload and applications in real-time, you’ll also receive alerts at the exact moment when something breaks through your security.

3. Apply Security at All Layers

Every layer and level of your workload and applications should be secure. Just because it’s an internal system doesn’t mean it’s safe.

4. Automate Security Best Practices

Automation lessens the likelihood of human error. Automated security sweeps can be set to run at regular intervals, and will automatically alert the correct team member when there is a problem.

5. Protect Data at Transit and Rest

Your data should always be secure, even when it’s within your systems. Use a classification system that all team members understand, to determine what level of security your data needs.

Based on its classification, data should be secured using encryption, tokenisation, or access control. If you’ve automated your security best practices, your security system can sort the data itself.

6. Keep People Away from Data

In addition to the principle of least privilege, you should also use tools that help to lower the need for human access to data. Human error can cause security breaches or loss of data.

7. Prepare for Security Events

Prepare your systems and teams for a future security event. Following your organisational best practices, create an incident management and investigation policy. Train all team members in your response policy by running drills.

Schedule a Well-Architected Review
To ensure your data is as secure as possible, consider working with an AWS Well-Architected Partner. WOLK can identify any outstanding high-risk items and mitigate them for you.

Once you’ve completed a Well-Architected Review, you can continue to maintain the highest level of security possible by adhering to the seven design principles of the security pillar.

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.

How AWS Can Help You Prepare For Problems

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a comprehensive cloud computing services platform that provides technologies to enable businesses to improve through its five pillars of Well-Architected Framework: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Cost Optimization.

At WOLK, we have a team of AWS experts who can help your business smoothly transition IT to the cloud. All our projects begin with a Well-Architected Review, giving clients a clear indication of what framework is best suited to their needs.

Whatever your workload, AWS can help prepare a business for potential problems through the first pillar: Operational Excellence.

The First Pillar: Operational Excellence
Within the first pillar, there are four key focuses for operational excellence: organisation, prepare, operate, evolve. Through this pillar, AWS helps businesses develop, run workloads, understand insights, and consistently improve the actions that add value to a business.

A major part of fulfilling the operational excellence pillar is preparing for problems so your team members can deal with them quickly and efficiently. By performing exercises that identify potential issues before they occur, you can mitigate them. AWS can test workloads to probe problems.

AWS does this in three steps:

1. Design
AWS helps you design your workload so you can fully understand each area’s performance. You can do this through metrics or logged data. AWS services, such as data analytics programs, can then be used to record and transfer performance information, allowing you to track progress.

2. Adopt
By designing a system that provides fast feedback, you can subsequently act quicker to prepare or prevent problems you foresee. AWS can help you create and adopt effective troubleshooting measures to reduce the impact of any problems.

AWS allows users to access their entire workload in the form of code. This makes it safe and easy to develop and adopt processes to deal with or reduce problems. For example, CloudFormation uses sandbox development to test and adopt infrastructure to give users more operational control.

3. Evaluate
Workloads and processes must be continuously evaluated to determine problematic areas. You can implement AWS to use runbooks that log routine procedures, evaluate them, and find solutions to mitigate problems.

Identify and Prepare For Problems Using AWS
WOLK is a certified provider of AWS Well-Architected Framework reviews. We can work alongside your business to help you identify and prepare for potential problems, leading to continued optimisation within your systems while avoiding unwanted roadblocks.