Cloud Architecture Patterns#
Cloud-agnostic architecture patterns and strategies that transfer across providers. This path teaches the principles behind well-designed cloud systems — not the vendor-specific services that implement them. Use it alongside the AWS, Terraform, and System Design paths to connect theory to practice.
Prerequisites#
This path assumes familiarity with:
- System Design fundamentals (scalability, load balancing, caching) — covered in the System Design path
- Networking basics (IP, DNS, HTTP, TCP) — covered in the Networking path
- Microservice patterns (saga, service mesh, API gateway) — covered in System Design: Microservices
- Reliability patterns (circuit breaker, retry, bulkhead) — covered in System Design: Reliability & Resilience
- AWS Well-Architected Framework — covered in AWS: Well-Architected
- FinOps and AWS cost management — covered in AWS: Cost Management
Sections#
| # | Section | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloud Computing Fundamentals | Service models (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS/FaaS), shared responsibility, cloud-native principles, 12-factor app, cloud vs on-prem decisions |
| 2 | Multi-Account & Organisation Strategy | Account structure, OUs, SCPs, landing zones, Control Tower, Azure Landing Zones, GCP org structure, account vending, identity federation |
| 3 | Networking Architecture | VPC design, hub-and-spoke, transit gateway, PrivateLink, VPC peering, Direct Connect/ExpressRoute, DNS architecture, hybrid connectivity |
| 4 | Compute Patterns | VM vs containers vs serverless, auto-scaling patterns, spot/preemptible strategies, right-sizing methodology, GPU/ML compute |
| 5 | Data Architecture Patterns | Polyglot persistence, data gravity, data mesh, data sovereignty, storage tiering, backup/archive, cross-region replication |
| 6 | Cloud Migration Strategies | 6 Rs, migration wave planning, database migration, cutover strategies, strangler fig, legacy modernisation |
| 7 | Serverless Architecture | Event-driven serverless, cold starts, function composition, step functions/workflows, serverless databases, anti-patterns |
| 8 | Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Patterns | When multi-cloud fits, abstraction layers, cross-cloud service mesh, data sync, vendor lock-in analysis, cloud-agnostic IaC |
| 9 | Security Architecture | Zero-trust, identity-based perimeter, encryption patterns, secrets management, compliance automation, security as code |
| 10 | Cost Architecture | Cost-aware design, architecture trade-offs, reserved capacity, spot patterns, cost allocation, FinOps team structure, unit economics |
What You’ll Be Able To Do#
- Design cloud systems using transferable patterns that work on any provider
- Structure multi-account organisations with proper isolation and governance
- Make informed compute, data, and networking decisions based on workload characteristics
- Plan and execute cloud migrations with minimal downtime
- Evaluate multi-cloud strategies critically and avoid unnecessary complexity
- Build cost-aware architectures from day one