What tool helps review applications and workloads against architectural best practices?

The AWS Well-Architected Framework is the correct choice as it is designed specifically to help users assess and improve their cloud architectures based on best practices. This framework provides a structured approach to evaluate workloads and applications, focusing on five essential pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Cost Optimization. It offers guidelines and metrics to help users identify areas of improvement and optimize their cloud architecture, making it easier to align with AWS’s best practices.

Using the Well-Architected Framework, architects can conduct a Well-Architected Review to ensure that their applications are built securely, perform efficiently, and are resilient against failures. This tool is invaluable for organizations looking to enhance their cloud strategies and governance by ensuring that their designs adhere to recognized standards and principles.

Other options, while important in different contexts, do not serve the same purpose as the Well-Architected Framework. AWS Resource Access Manager focuses on managing resource sharing, AWS Firewall Manager is aimed at enforcing firewall policies across accounts, and AWS Directory Service assists with managing directory services in the cloud, none of which provide a comprehensive framework for reviewing architectural best practices.