AWS Solutions Architect Associate – Domain 2: Design Resilient Architectures

Vocabulary flashcards covering key AWS concepts, services, and strategies for designing resilient architectures in the Solutions Architect Associate exam’s Domain 2.

Scaling

The capability of a system to handle increasing or decreasing load by adding or removing resources.

Elasticity

Automatic adjustment of cloud resources up or down to match demand, enabling pay-for-what-you-use efficiency.

Vertical Scaling (Scale Up)

Increasing the power (CPU, RAM, throughput) of a single server or instance.

Horizontal Scaling (Scale Out)

Adding more servers or instances to a resource pool for greater capacity and resilience.

AWS Auto Scaling

The overarching service that configures automatic scaling for multiple AWS resources (EC2, ECS, DynamoDB, Aurora, etc.).

EC2 Auto Scaling

Service that automatically adds or removes EC2 instances in response to demand within an Auto Scaling Group.

Launch Configuration

Legacy template that defines EC2 instance settings for an Auto Scaling Group.

Launch Template

Modern replacement for launch configurations supporting versioning and advanced options.

Auto Scaling Group (ASG)

Logical grouping that maintains a minimum, maximum, and desired number of EC2 instances.

Target Tracking Scaling

ASG policy that keeps a metric (e.g., average CPU 40 %) close to a target value automatically.

Step Scaling

ASG policy that adds or removes capacity in steps based on how far a metric breaches a threshold.

Simple Scaling

Legacy ASG policy that triggers a single scaling action and waits for a cooldown before another one.

Scheduled Scaling

ASG policy that scales resources at specific times for predictable traffic patterns.

Virtualization (EC2)

Running virtual servers in the cloud where you manage OS, runtime, and application code.

Container

Package containing application code and dependencies for consistent deployment across environments.

Amazon ECS

AWS-managed container orchestrator for running Docker containers at scale.

Amazon EKS

Managed Kubernetes service for running containerized workloads using open-source Kubernetes.

Serverless Computing

Execution model where you run code without provisioning servers; scaling and availability are handled by AWS.

AWS Lambda

Serverless compute service that runs code in response to events and charges per invocation and duration.

AWS Fargate

Serverless compute engine for containers that eliminates the need to manage EC2 instances for ECS/EKS tasks.

AWS Serverless Definition

No servers to manage, automatic scaling by consumption unit, pay-for-value billing, and built-in high availability.

Amazon API Gateway

Managed service to create, publish, secure, and monitor APIs that front backend services like Lambda.

AWS Transfer Family

Fully managed SFTP/FTPS/FTP service that scales automatically and removes server management.

Decoupling

Design practice where components operate independently without direct knowledge of each other.

Synchronous Decoupling

Real-time interaction where a load balancer separates clients from specific backend servers.

Asynchronous Decoupling

Interaction via a queue or bus where producer and consumer operate independently in time.

Amazon SQS

Fully managed message queue for decoupling microservices and smoothing traffic spikes.

Amazon SNS

Pub/Sub messaging service that fans out messages from a topic to many subscribers.

Amazon EventBridge

Serverless event bus for routing events from AWS, SaaS, or custom apps using rule-based filtering.

RDS Multi-AZ

High-availability deployment that creates a synchronous standby replica in a different AZ for automatic failover.

RDS Read Replica

Asynchronous copy of an RDS database used to offload read traffic and improve performance.

Amazon RDS Proxy

Managed proxy pooling database connections, improving scalability, failover speed, and security.

Amazon DynamoDB

Fully managed NoSQL key-value and document database delivering millisecond performance at any scale.

Amazon ElastiCache

Managed in-memory caching service (Redis or Memcached) to accelerate application performance.

DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)

Fully managed, in-memory cache that boosts DynamoDB read performance from ms to µs.

Amazon CloudFront

Content Delivery Network that caches content at edge locations to reduce latency and add DDoS protection.

Amazon Route 53

Highly available DNS service with routing policies for traffic management and DR failover.

AWS Global Accelerator

Service that directs traffic over AWS’s global network using static IPs for improved availability and performance.

High Availability (HA)

System design focused on minimizing downtime and recovering quickly from failures.

Fault Tolerance (FT)

Ability of a system to continue operating without interruption despite component failures.

Disaster Recovery (DR)

Processes and strategies to restore IT operations after a catastrophic event.

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

Maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time before a disaster.

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

Maximum acceptable duration for restoring service after a disaster.

Backup & Restore DR Strategy

Cost-efficient strategy relying on regular backups and manual restoration; highest RTO/RPO.

Pilot Light DR Strategy

Active/passive model where minimal core infrastructure runs in DR region, scaled up during disaster.

Warm Standby DR Strategy

Scaled-down but fully functional environment always running in DR region, scaled up when needed.

Multi-Site Active/Active

Full-scale production environments in multiple regions serving traffic simultaneously with near-zero RTO/RPO.

AWS Global Infrastructure

Collection of isolated regions and multiple AZs enabling high availability and disaster resilience.

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Service that distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets in multiple AZs automatically.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Practice of provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable templates for repeatability and DR.

AWS CloudFormation

Primary IaC service that defines and deploys AWS resources from templates.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

PaaS that automates deployment, scaling, and monitoring of web applications.

Amazon CloudWatch

Central monitoring service providing metrics, logs, alarms, and automated actions.

AWS X-Ray

Distributed tracing service that helps debug and analyze performance in microservices architectures.

Amazon Comprehend

NLP service that extracts insights from text, useful for automated ticket classification.

Amazon Polly

Text-to-speech service producing natural-sounding audio for voice-enabled applications.

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS)

Service that replicates on-prem or cloud workloads to AWS for low-cost standby and quick recovery.

Cluster Placement Group

Strategy that packs EC2 instances close together in one AZ for low-latency HPC workloads.

Partition Placement Group

Placement strategy spreading EC2 instances across logical partitions to reduce correlated failures.

Spread Placement Group

Places each EC2 instance on distinct hardware to minimize simultaneous failures.

Stateless Application

App design that stores no session data on the server, allowing any instance to handle any request.

Stateful Application

Application that stores session data locally, complicating horizontal scaling.

Amazon EFS

Managed, serverless, shared file system that can be mounted by thousands of instances across AZs.

Sticky Sessions

ALB feature binding a user to a specific backend instance to maintain in-memory session state.

Amazon S3

Durable object storage often used for backups, static content, and DR data.

DynamoDB Global Tables

Multi-region, multi-master DynamoDB replication for active-active global applications.

Aurora Global Database

Cross-region Aurora setup providing sub-second replication and minute-level failover.

Amazon Aurora

Cloud-native relational database compatible with MySQL/PostgreSQL offering higher performance than standard RDS.

Placement Group

EC2 feature controlling the physical placement of instances for performance or resilience.