Assessment

Assess infrastructure health, compliance, and optimization.

Run Well-Architected assessments across any connected cloud. Screenshots show AWS, but the workflow is provider-agnostic.

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The Problem

Well-Architected assessments are valuable but expensive to run. AWS’s own Well-Architected Tool asks hundreds of questions via a manual questionnaire — filling it out accurately requires an engineer who knows the environment deeply, takes 2–4 days, and produces a point-in-time report that’s stale the moment your infrastructure changes.

Third-party assessments from cloud consultants cost $15,000–$50,000 and happen once or twice a year. The result: most teams either skip assessments entirely or run them only when an audit requires it — meaning architectural risks compound undetected for months.

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How Existing Tools Compare

Tool	What It Does	What’s Missing
AWS Well-Architected Tool	Manual questionnaire for 6 pillars	Completely manual — requires engineer time to fill out; no automated discovery of actual infrastructure state
AWS Trusted Advisor	Automated checks against ~50 best practices	Limited scope, no framework mapping, no multi-cloud, no AI analysis
Cloud consultants	Expert-led assessments	Expensive ($15K–50K), infrequent, findings go stale before remediation completes
Security CSPM tools	Security pillar only	Cover one pillar (security), not cost, performance, reliability, or operational excellence

CloudThinker Assessment automates what normally takes days of manual work — reading your actual infrastructure configuration and mapping it against Well-Architected pillars automatically.

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What Makes This Different

• Automated, not questionnaire-based: agents read your actual infrastructure configuration — no manual Q&A required
• All 6 pillars: Cost Optimization, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Operational Excellence, and Sustainability in one run
• Runs on your discovered resources: scoped to the exact resources you care about — production only, specific services, specific regions
• Actionable findings: every finding includes effort, risk, dollar savings estimate, and step-by-step remediation — not just “this is a gap”
• Repeatable: run monthly or after major infrastructure changes — not once a year

Assessments are available on the Advanced plan.

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Prerequisites

• A cloud connection with the permissions your agents need to assess resources.
• Resources already discovered in CloudThinker; assessments only evaluate discovered resources.
• Optional: tag or resource filters ready if you want to scope the run.

Assessments are limited to discovered resources. CloudKeepers automations still operate across any resources you permit in your cloud connection.

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Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Create an Assessment

1. Open Assessment and start a run

   Go to Assessment and click Create Assessment.

   
2. Name your assessment

   Enter a clear name and optional description, then choose Create.

   
3. Find your draft

   Your new assessment appears in the list with status Pending. Click Run assessment to configure it.

   

Step 2: Configure the Assessment

1. Select Well-Architected pillars

   Pick the pillars to evaluate (e.g., Cost Optimization, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Operational Excellence, Sustainability).

   
2. Select resources to assess

   Choose the discovered resources you want to include. You can scope to categories or specific resources. Only discovered resources are assessable.

   
3. Review and start

   Confirm pillars and selected resources, then click Start Assessment.

   

Step 3: Review Results and Take Action

1. View analytics and findings

   After the run, review analytics for findings by pillar, potential savings, and scope.

   
2. Drill into recommendations

   Expand recommendations by resource to see effort, risk, and remediation details you can action.

   
3. Open recommendation details

   Click a recommendation to view impact analysis, savings, and implementation guidelines.

   
4. Take action

   Choose how to proceed: run Impact Analytics, generate guidelines, ask a custom prompt, or implement directly. Click Start to launch the action.

   

Recommendations are drafted by default—save them to make them appear on the Plan page.

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What’s Next

Plan

Save assessment findings to Plan to track implementation and ROI

CloudKeepers

Set up daily guardrails to maintain the standards your assessment identified

Resources

Discover additional resources to include in your next assessment run

Cost Optimization

Deep-dive into cost findings from the Cost Optimization pillar