AWS Solution Architecture Cheat Sheet

  1. Compute:
    • EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): Virtual servers in the cloud for running applications
      • Use cases: Web hosting, batch processing, application hosting
    • Lambda: Serverless compute service for executing code in response to events
      • Use cases: Real-time file processing, data transformation, event-driven automation
    • ECS (Elastic Container Service): Run and manage Docker containers in the cloud
      • Use cases: Microservices architecture, containerized applications
    • EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service): Fully managed Kubernetes service for container orchestration
      • Use cases: Containerized application deployment, scaling, and management
  2. Storage:
    • S3 (Simple Storage Service): Scalable object storage for storing and retrieving data
      • Use cases: Backup and restore, static website hosting, data archiving
    • EBS (Elastic Block Store): Persistent block-level storage for EC2 instances
      • Use cases: Database storage, boot volumes, low-latency applications
    • EFS (Elastic File System): Scalable and fully managed file storage for EC2 instances
      • Use cases: Content management, media processing, file sharing
  3. Networking:
    • VPC (Virtual Private Cloud): Isolated virtual network for launching AWS resources
      • Use cases: Network isolation, secure communication, subnet routing
    • Subnets: Segments of a VPC with specific IP ranges
      • Use cases: Segmentation of resources, security zoning, availability zone placement
    • Security Groups: Stateful firewalls controlling inbound and outbound traffic
      • Use cases: Access control, network-level security
    • Load Balancers:
      • ELB (Elastic Load Balancer): Classic Load Balancer for distributing traffic
        • Use cases: Load balancing, high availability, SSL termination
      • ALB (Application Load Balancer): Layer 7 load balancer with advanced routing capabilities
        • Use cases: HTTP/HTTPS load balancing, content-based routing
      • NLB (Network Load Balancer): High-performance TCP/UDP load balancer
        • Use cases: High-throughput applications, internet-facing applications
    • Route 53: Scalable DNS web service for routing domain traffic
      • Use cases: Domain registration, DNS management, global routing
  4. Databases:
    • RDS (Relational Database Service): Managed database service for popular engines
      • Use cases: SQL-based applications, online transaction processing
    • DynamoDB: Fully managed NoSQL database service
      • Use cases: Low-latency read/write workloads, scalable applications
    • Aurora: MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database with performance and availability improvements
      • Use cases: High-performance applications, large-scale deployments
    • DocumentDB: Fully managed MongoDB-compatible document database
      • Use cases: Document-oriented applications, real-time analytics
  5. Caching and Content Delivery:
    • ElastiCache: In-memory data store/cache for high-performance applications
      • Use cases: Caching frequently accessed data, session management, reducing database load
    • CloudFront: Content Delivery Network for low-latency and high-speed content delivery
      • Use cases: Global content delivery, video streaming, web application acceleration
  6. Security and Identity:
    • IAM (Identity and Access Management): User and resource access management
      • Use cases: User authentication, role-based access control, access policies
    • KMS (Key Management Service): Manage encryption keys for AWS services
      • Use cases: Data encryption, secure key storage, compliance requirements
    • WAF (Web Application Firewall): Protect web applications from common exploits
      • Use cases: Application layer security, web traffic filtering, DDoS protection
    • Shield: DDoS protection service for AWS resources
      • Use cases: Network layer security, DDoS attack mitigation
  7. Monitoring and Logging:
    • CloudWatch: Monitoring and observability service for resources and applications
      • Use cases: Resource monitoring, custom metrics, log monitoring, alarms
    • CloudTrail: Service for logging and monitoring API activity and resource changes
      • Use cases: Audit trails, compliance, troubleshooting
    • X-Ray: Analyze and debug distributed applications with request tracing
      • Use cases: Performance monitoring, application debugging, service maps
  8. Automation and Deployment:
    • CloudFormation: Infrastructure as Code – Provision and manage AWS resources
      • Use cases: Infrastructure automation, stack provisioning, repeatable deployments
    • AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit): Define infrastructure using programming languages
      • Use cases: Infrastructure as Code, declarative application definitions, reusable constructs
  9. Analytics and Machine Learning:
    • Athena: Query service to analyze data in Amazon S3 using SQL
      • Use cases: Ad hoc querying, log analysis, data exploration
    • Redshift: Fully managed data warehousing service
      • Use cases: Data analytics, business intelligence, complex queries
    • EMR (Elastic MapReduce): Big data processing and analytics
      • Use cases: Large-scale data processing, machine learning, ETL pipelines
    • Sagemaker: Fully managed machine learning service
      • Use cases: Model training and deployment, ML experimentation, automated model building
  10. Serverless and Event-Driven:
    • Step Functions: Visualize and coordinate serverless workflows
      • Use cases: Orchestration of serverless functions, workflow automation
    • EventBridge: Event bus for integrating AWS services and SaaS applications
      • Use cases: Event-driven architecture, decoupled application components
    • SQS (Simple Queue Service): Managed message queuing service
      • Use cases: Reliable message delivery, decoupling application components
    • SNS (Simple Notification Service): Pub/sub messaging and mobile notifications
      • Use cases: Event-driven notifications, fan-out messaging