WAF++ Cloud Architecture
Done Intentionally
WAF++ is an open-source framework for designing cloud architectures securely, intentionally, and vendor-neutral. MaCh2.Cloud uses and contributes to WAF++ as the structural backbone of every architecture engagement.
What is WAF++?
WAF++ structures cloud architecture decisions across seven pillars — from Security to Sovereignty. It provides a vendor-neutral assessment framework built for multi-cloud reality, regulatory compliance, and the operational risks that matter most: misconfiguration, lock-in, and lack of transparency. 69% of data breaches involve misconfiguration. WAF++ is built to close that gap.
How We Use WAF++
We apply WAF++ as the assessment framework for every architecture engagement. It gives our clients a clear, auditable lens for evaluating their platform across seven dimensions — not against a single cloud provider's opinionated guidelines. Open-source, community-driven, and built for how production systems actually work.
The Seven Pillars
Security
Controls, threat modeling, policy-as-code, and secure defaults — architecture that treats security as a first-class concern, not an afterthought.
Cost Optimization
FinOps, cost transparency, budget guardrails, and right-sizing — cloud spend aligned with business value, not unchecked growth.
Performance Efficiency
Performance as a product: scalability, latency management, and architectural efficiency across workload types.
Reliability
Resilience, HA/DR, error budgets, and robust operating models — designed for failure from the start, not patched after the incident.
Operational Excellence
Runbooks, incident response, standards, and automation — operations that scale without scaling headcount.
Sustainability
Efficient resource consumption and sustainable platform decisions — architecture that considers environmental footprint alongside business outcomes.
Sovereign
Data sovereignty, compliance, vendor neutrality, and exit strategies — your platform should never be held hostage by a provider.
WAFPass
WAFPass is the official CLI for the WAF++ Framework — an automated compliance checker that validates your Terraform infrastructure against the seven pillars: security, cost, performance, reliability, operations, sustainability, and sovereignty.
PASS – Platform · Architecture · Strategy · Standards
WAFPass applies four PASS perspectives as automated checks against your infrastructure — making compliance decisions traceable, repeatable, and auditable across any cloud.
Validates baseline platform controls — tagging strategies, resource configuration, and account-level guardrails — automatically.
Enforces governance and cost policies as code — so strategic decisions hold over time and across teams.
Checks network topology, data residency, and sovereignty requirements against provider-neutral WAF++ controls.
Applies zero-trust and security controls directly to Terraform — with clear PASS, FAIL, and SKIP outcomes for every check.
wafpass check ./infrastructure/ --pillar sovereign --severity critical