Cloud Architecture Patterns
Master proven cloud architecture patterns — from microservices to event-driven architecture, serverless, and multi-cloud strategies.
Architecture Decision Framework
Cloud architecture is about making trade-offs — there's no perfect architecture, only the right one for your constraints. The AWS Well-Architected Framework provides 6 pillars: Operational Excellence (automate everything, learn from failures), Security (defense in depth, least privilege), Reliability (recover from failures, scale horizontally), Performance Efficiency (right resource for the job), Cost Optimization (pay only for what you use), and Sustainability (minimize environmental impact). Before choosing an architecture, answer: What's your expected scale (1K vs 1M users)? What's your team size and expertise? What are your latency requirements? What's your budget? How important is availability (99.9% vs 99.99%)? The answers drive whether you need microservices or a monolith, serverless or containers, single-region or multi-region.
Key Architecture Patterns
- Monolith-First: Start with a well-structured monolith — extract microservices only when you have a proven need. Most startups shouldn't start with microservices
- Microservices: Independent services communicating via APIs — deploy, scale, and develop independently. Adds complexity: distributed tracing, service mesh, eventual consistency
- Event-Driven: Services communicate through events (Kafka, SQS, EventBridge) — loose coupling, built-in audit trail, natural scalability. Best for asynchronous workflows
- Serverless: Functions (Lambda, Cloud Functions) triggered by events — zero server management, pay-per-invocation, auto-scales to zero. Best for variable/unpredictable workloads
- CQRS: Command Query Responsibility Segregation — separate read and write models. Optimized read replicas for queries, event-sourced writes for commands
- Strangler Fig: Gradually migrate from monolith to microservices — route specific routes to new services while the old system remains. Zero big-bang migration risk
- Multi-Region Active-Active: Deploy across multiple regions for high availability and low latency — users hit the nearest region. Complex but achieves 99.99%+ availability