Does AWS have a complexity problem?

At AWS re:Invent 2024, Amazon Web Services addressed a critical concern for enterprises using modern cloud technology: managing the growing complexity of cloud environments at scale. Enterprises are confronted by the challenges of evolving systems, managing large-scale architectures, and optimizing operations. Cloud complexity is now a key obstacle to innovation and efficiency.

As defined by AWS, the complexity problem lies in the operational chaos often created by interconnected systems, unpredictable workloads, and the sheer scale of cloud deployments. To tackle this challenge, AWS CTO Werner Vogels introduced the concept of “simplexity” (cute name), a six-step framework aimed at breaking down and managing cloud complexity. Vogels hopes simplexity will ensure systems stay scalable and adaptable.

Here is Vogels’ six-step approach to simplexity:

Make flexibility a requirement: Design systems from the outset to adapt and evolve as technologies, workloads, and requirements change over time.

Break complexity into pieces: Dividing large, complex systems into smaller, more manageable, and loosely coupled components will make them easier to understand, maintain, and scale.

Align organization to architecture: Organizational structures should mirror system architectures. This will encourage ownership and responsibility and empower teams to solve problems independently.

Use a cell-based architecture design: Cells are isolated, self-contained units that manage workloads. They are small enough to test but large enough to handle the necessary scale. Cells help contain failures and isolate problems.

Design predictable systems: This helps reduce the impact of uncertainty and ensure consistency in operations and performance.

Automate everything that doesn’t require high degrees of judgment: The goal is to minimize human intervention in routine or error-prone tasks while focusing human efforts on decision-making and innovation.

Simplexity is about hiding complexity behind intelligent design and automation while delivering simplicity and reliability to the user. Where have you heard that idea before? From me, for one.

For the past five years, I’ve focused on the rising issue of cloud complexity. As a result, I received some grief from the large cloud providers and consulting organizations. Typically, they complained about the term complexity because it portrays cloud computing in a negative light. I don’t believe that ignoring a problem makes it go away, but many of my peers in the cloud computing space seem to take that approach.

Although most of my focus is on managing cloud complexity in multicloud deployments, Vogels focuses on the complexity within a single cloud domain: an AWS cloud. The solution patterns are the same: automation, abstraction, decomposition, architecture, artificial intelligence, finding common layers, etc. Indeed, if you compare my course to what Vogels says about “simplexity,” you’ll find many similarities.

Is ‘simplexity’ the right approach?

Vogels’ approach is an architecture-forward method that does not insist on throwing more technologies at the problem. I like that. We should be normalizing the technologies in use and, in some cases, looking for third-party solutions such as common directory services, database virtualization, etc.

The obvious elephant in the room is that most enterprise cloud deployments are heterogeneous, meaning they use multiple cloud providers. Vogels’ vision does not include multiple provider deployments, which is unsurprising. Are you solving the problems that most enterprises face if you do not consider multicloud deployments? A single cloud deployment is not the norm, complex or not.

The principles of the AWS approach are helpful, but they do not tailor solutions to the specific demands of multicloud. Multicloud environments require organizations to integrate and manage diverse platforms, APIs, tools, and security models from different providers, adding layers of operational complexity. Multicloud deployments come with unique challenges such as ensuring data portability between clouds, maintaining unified compliance frameworks, and optimizing workloads distributed across providers.

Although AWS offers features that may help extend some control over multicloud setups, its primary focus remains on optimizing cloud-native services and ecosystems rather than providing a unified solution for managing workloads across multiple cloud providers. I’m not picking on AWS—none of the cloud providers address operational complexity around multicloud deployments. Obviously, they would rather you use only their clouds.

AWS and other cloud providers have made some strides in addressing multicloud issues, but they are mostly silent about providing actual solutions. Enterprises seeking comprehensive multicloud strategies must look to broader tools, processes, and governance models capable of handling the intricacies of managing multiple cloud platforms. There is a significant gap in the AWS framework’s ability to address the realities of modern enterprise cloud strategies.

AWS could be more helpful

AWS designed its framework (at least, as explained thus far) to manage complexity within the AWS ecosystem. It falls short for most enterprises because modern enterprises increasingly operate across multiple cloud providers, private cloud, and on-premises systems. These multicloud setups arise from the need for redundancy, cost optimization, regulatory compliance, or access to specialized services beyond what any single provider offers.

The principles of AWS frameworks—decomposing services, aligning teams to architecture, and automating processes—are valuable but inherently ignore the operational realities of integrating multiple cloud ecosystems.

Enterprises in multicloud environments face unique challenges, such as managing interoperability, unifying security frameworks, ensuring data portability, and maintaining governance across fragmented systems. Additionally, multicloud operations require vendor-neutral management, centralized governance, and a unified compliance framework.

Approaches such as simplexity neglect the distributed, heterogeneous nature of multicloud setups by focusing solely on cloud-native optimization. Most enterprises today require broader strategies and tools that go beyond the scope of a single cloud provider. I look forward to another iteration of simplexity and more clarity from AWS in how their customers should deal with multicloud deployments. That solution would be much more helpful.