Free resource
AWS Architecture Review Checklist
A structured checklist for pressure-testing AWS architecture decisions before they lock in the wrong assumptions. Covers VPC design, IAM boundaries, data flow, failure modes, cost posture, and operational readiness.
What this covers
This checklist is built from real architecture reviews across 50+ production AWS projects. Use it before any design review, migration decision, or system audit.
Sections included
- VPC and Network Design -- Subnet strategy, NAT gateway placement, transit gateway decisions, cross-AZ traffic patterns
- IAM and Security Boundaries -- Least-privilege audit, role separation, service-to-service auth, secret rotation
- Data Flow and Storage -- Read/write patterns, consistency requirements, backup strategy, encryption posture
- Failure Modes -- Single points of failure, blast radius mapping, recovery time targets, dependency chains
- Cost Posture -- Spend-to-architecture mapping, reserved vs on-demand, data transfer costs, right-sizing signals
- Operational Readiness -- Monitoring coverage, alerting quality, runbook existence, deployment rollback path
How to use it
Open this alongside your architecture diagram. Work through each section for your specific setup. The goal is not to check every box -- it is to find the gaps you did not know existed.
Most teams find 3-5 things they had missed. That is normal. The value is in surfacing the risks before they surface themselves at 2am on a Saturday.
Subscribe to download the full checklist as a PDF.