Day 4: Cloud Architecture terminologies
AWS Cloud Practitioner with Neel patel
Solution Architect
A Solution Architect is a role in a technical organization responsible for designing solutions that integrate multiple systems. This involves extensive research, documentation, and experimentation to architect the most efficient and scalable technology solutions.
Cloud Architect
A Cloud Architect is a type of solution architect who focuses on designing technology solutions using cloud services. They need to be well-versed in cloud-specific concepts to meet the business requirements effectively. Below are key terms a cloud architect must understand and incorporate into their architecture:
Availability
The ability to ensure that a service remains accessible, often referred to as Highly Available (HA).
Scalability
The ability to grow rapidly or without interruption to meet increasing demand.
Elasticity
The ability to automatically shrink or grow to accommodate varying levels of demand.
Fault Tolerance
The ability to prevent failure and ensure continuous operation.
Disaster Recovery
The ability to recover from failures, ensuring that services remain Highly Durable (DR).
Key Factors for Cloud Solution Architecture
When architecting cloud solutions, two primary factors must be considered:
1. Security
Security is paramount in cloud solutions to protect data and services from potential threats.
2. Cost
A well-designed cloud architecture must also be cost-effective, aligning with the business's financial constraints and objectives.
Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) outlines how a business will continue to operate during an unplanned service disruption. It focuses on two critical metrics:
Recovery Point Objective (RPO): The maximum acceptable amount of data loss after an unplanned data-loss incident, expressed as a duration of time.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The maximum acceptable amount of downtime a business can tolerate without incurring a significant financial loss.
Disaster Recovery Options (RTO/RPO)
Different disaster recovery strategies offer varying RTO and RPO values, based on the business's needs:
Backup & Restore (Hours)
Back up your data and restore it on new infrastructure after an event.
Use Case: Lower-priority services
Cost: Low
RTO/RPO: Hours
Actions: Restore data and deploy resources after the event.
Pilot Light (10 Minutes)
Data is replicated to another region with minimal services running.
Use Case: Less stringent RTO & RPO requirements
Cost: Higher than Backup & Restore
RTO/RPO: 10 minutes
Actions: Start and scale core services after the event.
Warm Standby (Minutes)
A scaled-down copy of your infrastructure is running, ready to scale up when needed.
Use Case: Business-critical services
Cost: Higher than Pilot Light
RTO/RPO: Minutes
Actions: Scale resources after the event.
Multi-Site Active (Real-Time)
A fully scaled-up copy of your infrastructure is running in another region, ready to take over instantly.
Use Case: Mission-critical services
Cost: Highest among all disaster recovery options
RTO/RPO: Zero downtime, net-zero data loss
Actions: Zero downtime and loss, mission-critical services run without interruption.
AWS Application Programming Interface (API)
An API (Application Programming Interface) is software that allows two applications or services to communicate with each other. The most common type of API involves HTTP/S requests.
AWS API
AWS APIs use HTTP to interact with cloud services. Although users can send HTTPS requests directly to AWS APIs, it's easier to use various developer tools, such as Postman, to interact with them.
Developer Tools
Developer tools simplify the process of interacting with AWS APIs, allowing for seamless integration and efficient management of cloud services without manually sending HTTP requests.
