Please Help - I am wrestling with 3 of the 6 Pillars in the AWS Well-Architected Framework

Question

## Summary

I tried to continue reading the whitepaper and watching the YT videos on the 6 Pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework.

I am having a difficult time separating the following Pillars from one another :

- **Operational Excellence Pillar**
- **Performance Efficiency Pillar**
- **Cost Optimization Pillar**

## Details

For some reason, my mind can’t seem to move on from the fact that Performance Efficiency and Cost Optimization should be separate from the Operational Excellence Pillar.

Shouldn’t the metrics for Operational Excellence include measuring Performance Efficiency and Cost Optimization?

For reference, I captured the following points from this [link](https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/well-architected/?wa-lens-whitepapers.sort-by=item.additionalFields.sortDate&wa-lens-whitepapers.sort-order=desc&wa-guidance-whitepapers.sort-by=item.additionalFields.sortDate&wa-guidance-whitepapers.sort-order=desc):

- **Operational Excellence Pillar:** The operational excellence pillar focuses on running and monitoring systems, and continually improving processes and procedures.
- **Cost Optimization Pillar:** Key topics include understanding spending over time and controlling fund allocation, selecting resources of the right type and quantity, and scaling to meet business needs without overspending
- **Performance Efficiency Pillar:** Key topics include selecting resource types and sizes optimized for workload requirements, monitoring performance, and maintaining efficiency as business needs evolve

## Question

My confusion comes from the last bit about continually improving processes and procedures from the Operational Excellence Pillar. It seems like the other two pillars should also be part of this continued improvement.

Additionally, I wonder if my confusion comes from an expectation that a pillar should stand on its own. If both pillars are meant to be an extension of the Operational Excellence Pillar, shouldn’t they be merged into one pillar of Operational Excellence?

I've been stuck on this since yesterday. Please help me find a good answer to this problem.

Riku_Kobayashi · Accepted Answer

Hello.

I believe that these pillars are not independent of each other and need to be considered in parallel.  
While the operational excellence pillar provides a foundation for continuous improvement across all areas, including performance and cost, the strategies and focus areas specific to performance and cost are distinct enough to warrant their own pillars.  
For example, when selecting an instance type, you need to consider operational aspects (how to manage it), performance aspects (whether it has sufficient performance), and cost aspects (whether it is cost-effective for your needs).  
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/oe-design-principles.html

Also, when designing workloads, make tradeoffs between pillars based on business context.  
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/definitions.html  
> When architecting workloads, you make trade-offs between pillars based on your business context. These business decisions can drive your engineering priorities. You might optimize to improve sustainability impact and reduce cost at the expense of reliability in development environments, or, for mission-critical solutions, you might optimize reliability with increased costs and sustainability impact. In ecommerce solutions, performance can affect revenue and customer propensity to buy. Security and operational excellence are generally not traded-off against the other pillars.

Please Help - I am wrestling with 3 of the 6 Pillars in the AWS Well-Architected Framework

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