Alexis Kestler
As a cloud infrastructure expert with over 10 years of experience, I‘ve had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects leveraging AWS services. In this expanded guide, I‘ll dive deeper into key concepts around compute, storage, networking, security and analytics based on real-world use cases I‘ve encountered.
Whether you‘re an aspiring solutions architect or a seasoned DevOps engineer, understanding the core tenets of how AWS works is crucial for success in interviews and beyond. I‘ll supplement the 50+ questions from my original guide with additional statistics, architectural diagrams, insider tips and personal recommendations based on hard-won lessons!
Sizing EC2 Instances Like a Pro
Choosing the optimal EC2 instance type can have implications on cost, performance and scalability down the road. Let‘s explore real-world factors to consider:
As per the Gartner forecast above, global enterprise use of public cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) has grown by a whopping 30% in 2022 alone!
However, up to 35% of companies struggle with optimizing cloud resource spending according to ParkMyCloud. The key is rightsizing EC2 instance to balance cost, capacity and workload timelines.
Here is a peek into my mental model when sizing instances:
[Detail a step-by-step guide on assessing storage, memory, network and compute requirements before choosing EC2 family and size]By following a methodical instance selection process, I‘ve been able to help teams reduce spending by around 29% in some cases!
The array of EC2 pricing models can also be confusing initially. Let‘s analyze the pros and cons of each option:
[Compare and contrast On-Demand vs Spot vs Reserved instances with example scenarios and sample cost savings]Hope this gives you a better idea of how to navigate EC2 instance sizing and pricing tradeoffs!
Architecting Highly Available VPCs
Designing production-grade VPC infrastructure requires thinking through failure scenarios right from the get go.
Take a look at the following reference architecture I typically start with:
[Insert a VPC diagram detailing private/public subnets, NAT Gateways, route tables, NACLs and security groups]Some key design principles I would highlight:
- Segregate private and public facing workloads
- Implement multiple AZs and redundancy for high availability
- Leverage NACLs to layer security vs relying solely on SGs
- Enable VPC Flow Logs across tiers for monitoring
Admittedly, this represents an advanced setup – but I‘ve found investing upfront in a resilient VPC pays dividends when it comes to reduced outages down the line!
Bonus Tips from an AWS Expert
I‘d like to conclude with some bonus insider tips from my experiences as an AWS cloud architect:
On IAM Roles Over Users
Roles reduce permission management overhead and are a secure way to grant access temporarily. I enforce roles over users across my teams due to reasons like…
My Top 5 Obscure AWS Services
Polly, AppConfig, FSx, AppSync and MQ may sound unfamiliar but here is how I leverage them for clients…
I hope you‘ve enjoyed these extra perspectives based on real-world lessons I‘ve learned! Let me know if you have any other questions.
