Cloud architectures are under enormous pressure today: rising regulatory requirements, growing demand for multi-cloud flexibility, and the desire to stay independent from any single provider. While AWS, Azure, and GCP each offer their own Well-Architected Frameworks, a neutral, European-led approach has been missing — until now. That is exactly where WAF++ steps in.
Why WAF++?
WAF++ is a community-driven, cloud-agnostic framework aimed at architects, engineers, and organisations building modern cloud architectures without binding themselves to a single vendor. The seven pillars of the framework cover all the relevant areas — from security and operational excellence through to compliance and sovereignty.
As an open project, WAF++ stands for transparency, neutrality, and a strong community that develops building blocks, patterns, and reference architectures together.
The Seven Pillars at a Glance
- Security — Vendor-independent security principles
- Cost Optimization — Transparent and traceable cost models
- Performance Efficiency — Cross-cloud scalability
- Reliability — Resilience through patterns, not services
- Operational Excellence — Unified operational processes across all clouds
- Sustainability — Measurable efficiency and ecological responsibility
- Compliance, Governance & Data Sovereignty — The European focus
Each pillar is backed by best practices, building blocks, and concrete evaluation criteria.
What Makes WAF++ Different?
While existing frameworks are heavily tailored to their respective cloud providers, WAF++ focuses on what architects actually need: Independent principles, neutral architecture patterns, and a traceable evaluation baseline.
WAF++ is not a vendor’s marketing tool — it is a tool of the community, for the community.
What Comes Next?
The roadmap for version 1.0 is clear: a solid technical foundation, first reference architectures, a public maturity model, and a structured certification path for architects. With growing participation from the cloud native community, a genuine European counterpart to proprietary WAF offerings is taking shape — step by step.
If you are interested in multi-cloud, sovereignty, or modern architecture principles, now is the perfect time to get involved with WAF++. Start a discussion, open an issue — or bring your own idea to the table!
WAF++ is open, vendor-neutral, and evolves with every new voice that joins.
