This repository contains a comprehensive assessment for migrating a two-tier web application from on-premises infrastructure to AWS. The assessment applies both the AWS Well-Architected Framework (WAF) and AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) to ensure technical excellence and organizational readiness.
An organization is migrating a legacy two-tier web application (frontend web servers + backend database) from on-premises to AWS. The existing architecture has critical weaknesses including:
- Single points of failure
- No backup or disaster recovery strategy
- Inadequate security controls
- Limited scalability
- Manual operational processes
This assessment demonstrates the ability to:
- Identify and apply the five pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Evaluate organizational readiness using the six CAF perspectives
- Design cloud architectures aligned with AWS best practices
- Communicate architectural decisions with structured reasoning
- Balance technical requirements across multiple dimensions (security, cost, performance, reliability)
AWS/
├── README.md # Project overview and approach
├── aws_waf_caf_assessment.md # Complete assessment document with all deliverables
└── architecture_diagram.pdf # PDF file (Used a PDF file to prevent blurriness of the architecture)
Phase 1: Current State Analysis
- Identified all components of the existing two-tier architecture
- Documented 5 critical risks and weaknesses
- Established baseline for improvement
Applied systematic evaluation across five pillars:
- Operational Excellence - Automation, IaC, monitoring
- Security - Encryption, access control, threat detection
- Reliability - High availability, disaster recovery, fault tolerance
- Performance Efficiency - Scaling, caching, content delivery
- Cost Optimization - Right-sizing, reserved capacity, cost visibility
For each pillar, identified:
- Current strengths
- Areas requiring improvement
- Specific AWS services to address gaps
Evaluated organizational readiness across six perspectives:
- Business - ROI, stakeholder alignment, success metrics
- People - Skills gaps, training needs, change management
- Governance - Policies, compliance, risk management
- Platform - Technical architecture, migration strategy
- Security - Security baseline, controls, incident response
- Operations - Monitoring, automation, support model
Each perspective includes 150-200 word analysis with specific actions required.
Designed improved AWS architecture featuring:
- Multi-AZ deployment for high availability
- Auto Scaling for elasticity and cost optimization
- Managed services (RDS, ALB) for operational excellence
- Layered security controls (WAF, Security Groups, encryption)
- Comprehensive monitoring and automation
| Layer | AWS Service | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Edge | CloudFront + WAF | Global content delivery, DDoS protection |
| Load Balancing | Application Load Balancer | Traffic distribution, SSL termination |
| Compute | EC2 Auto Scaling Groups | Elastic web tier across multiple AZs |
| Database | RDS Multi-AZ | Managed database with automated failover |
| Caching | ElastiCache | In-memory caching for performance |
| Security | IAM, KMS, GuardDuty | Identity, encryption, threat detection |
| Operations | CloudWatch, Systems Manager | Monitoring, automation, patch management |
| Deployment | CloudFormation, CodePipeline | IaC, CI/CD automation |
High Availability: Multi-AZ deployment eliminates single points of failure
Security in Depth: Multiple layers of security controls
Automation First: IaC and CI/CD for consistency and speed
Managed Services: Leverage AWS-managed services to reduce operational burden
Cost Optimization: Auto Scaling and Reserved Instances balance cost and performance
Observability: Comprehensive monitoring, logging, and alerting
Comprehensive evaluation of all five pillars with:
- Current state observations
- Improvement recommendations
- Specific AWS services mapped to each pillar
Detailed assessment of organizational readiness across six perspectives:
- Business alignment and ROI
- People skills and change management
- Governance and compliance
- Platform architecture and migration strategy
- Security posture and controls
- Operations and support model
- Detailed textual description of proposed architecture
- Mermaid diagram showing all components and relationships
- Explicit mapping to WAF pillars
- Component summary table
150-word reflection on key learnings including:
- Value of systematic framework application
- Balance between technical and organizational factors
- Importance of managed services
- Integration of WAF and CAF for holistic transformation
The architecture diagram is provided in .png format for easy visualization.
The combination of WAF and CAF provides comprehensive coverage:
- WAF ensures technical architecture excellence
- CAF ensures organizational readiness and capability
- Together, they create sustainable cloud transformation
Cloud architecture requires balancing competing priorities:
- Security vs. convenience
- Cost vs. performance
- Automation vs. control
- Speed vs. stability
AWS-managed services (RDS, ALB, CloudFront) provide:
- Reduced operational burden
- Built-in high availability
- Automated patching and maintenance
- Faster time to value
Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD are not optional:
- Ensure consistency across environments
- Enable rapid, reliable deployments
- Reduce human error
- Support disaster recovery
- Set up AWS Organization and accounts
- Deploy landing zone (VPC, subnets, security groups)
- Establish IAM roles and policies
- Enable CloudTrail, Config, GuardDuty
- Deploy RDS Multi-AZ database
- Migrate database using AWS DMS
- Set up EC2 Auto Scaling Groups
- Configure Application Load Balancer
- Deploy application to EC2 instances
- Configure CloudFront and WAF
- Implement ElastiCache
- Conduct testing and validation
- Implement CloudWatch dashboards and alarms
- Set up automated backups
- Deploy CI/CD pipeline
- Conduct disaster recovery testing
- Optimize costs and right-size resources