Top 100 Essential AWS Use Cases You Need to Know

Situation 1: AWS Control Tower’s multi-account strategy

1. Situation:

You want to securely manage and govern multiple AWS accounts in an organization, ensuring security and compliance across your AWS environment. The solution must handle account provisioning, security policies, compliance requirements, and data residency controls, all while providing continuous visibility into the environment.

2. Task:

• Set up a multi-account AWS environment that adheres to security and compliance best practices.
• Orchestrate AWS services like Organizations, IAM, and Service Catalog.
• Enforce data residency controls, ensuring data stays within specific regions.
• Automate the provisioning of new accounts with standardized configurations.
• Apply guardrails (security policies) across accounts and monitor compliance.
• Integrate with third-party tools to enhance governance and capabilities.
• Enable a dashboard for real-time visibility into the multi-account environment.

3. Action:

The flow of actions for setting up AWS Control Tower can be outlined as follows:

a. Landing Zone Creation:

• Deploy AWS Control Tower, which creates a landing zone — a secure, multi-account environment.
• AWS Control Tower configures services like AWS Organizations and IAM for centralized management.
• Pre-configured templates ensure best practices in security and compliance.

b. IAM Identity Center Configuration:

• After the landing zone setup, configure IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO) with a supported directory like AWS Managed Microsoft AD.
• This simplifies managing user permissions across multiple accounts.

c. Account Factory Automation:

• Use the Account Factory to automate the provisioning of new AWS accounts in the organization.
• Each account is pre-configured with settings for security, logging, and compliance according to your organization’s needs.

d. Guardrails Implementation:

• Guardrails are pre-packaged governance rules that enforce security, operational, and compliance policies across the organization.
• Types of guardrails include:
• Mandatory: Must be applied (e.g., enforcing encryption).
• Preventive: Stops non-compliant actions (e.g., blocking changes to security settings).
• Detective: Identifies and reports non-compliant resources.
• Optional: Applied based on specific needs.
• Guardrails are built using Service Control Policies (SCPs), AWS CloudFormation, and AWS Config.

e. Data Residency Controls:

• Enforce data residency controls by denying data usage outside of specific AWS regions. These controls ensure compliance with region-specific data regulations.

f. Visibility and Monitoring:

• Use the AWS Control Tower Dashboard for continuous visibility into your AWS environment, helping monitor account compliance and overall security.

g. Integration with Third-Party Tools:

• Integrate AWS Control Tower with third-party tools (e.g., for enhanced security monitoring or additional compliance checks).

h. Account Migration to Organization:

• To migrate existing accounts to the organization, send invitations from the management account to other accounts.
• Once accepted, these accounts are brought under the governance of AWS Control Tower.

4. Result:

The result is a well-architected, secure, and compliant multi-account AWS environment:

• Centralized Management: All AWS accounts are managed centrally using AWS Control Tower.
• Security and Compliance: Guardrails ensure consistent security and compliance policies are applied across the organization.
• Automated Account Creation: New accounts are automatically provisioned with predefined settings, reducing manual overhead.
• Data Residency: Data residency controls prevent data from leaving designated regions, ensuring compliance with regional regulations.
• Continuous Monitoring: The AWS Control Tower Dashboard provides real-time insights into the environment, making it easier to track compliance and performance.
• Scalable and Governed: As new accounts are added or existing ones migrated, they seamlessly integrate into the organization under governance.

As a Solution Architect, it is crucial to remember keywords such as cloud computing, enterprise architecture, analytical skills, network design, cross-functional leadership, IT governance, software design principles, and technical expertise in various programming languages and platforms.

AWS Control Tower falls under several important areas:

1. Multi-Account Management:

• AWS Control Tower simplifies multi-account governance, which is essential for large-scale deployments that require security, cost management, and compliance monitoring.

2. Security and Compliance:

• Key topics like guardrails, Service Control Policies (SCPs), and data residency controls are frequently covered in the exam.
• Understanding how to enforce policies across accounts aligns with the security section of the exam.

3. Account Provisioning:

• Knowledge of the Account Factory and automated account provisioning directly aligns with designing scalable solutions.

4. IAM and Identity Management:

• The use of IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO) for centralized user access across accounts is part of identity and access management, a major focus in the exam.

5. Cost Management:

• Understanding consolidated billing and tools like Cost Explorer can help answer questions on cost management, which is crucial for real-world AWS deployments.

6. Monitoring and Logging:

• Integration with AWS Config and CloudTrail for continuous monitoring and auditing aligns with the exam’s focus on ensuring operational excellence and security.

Enhanced Flow with Added Details:

1. Landing Zone Creation: Customize your multi-account setup, including network architecture (VPC, Transit Gateway) and centralized security controls.
2. IAM Identity Center: Establish role-based access across accounts using AWS IAM Identity Center.
3. Guardrails and SCPs: Use Service Control Policies to limit actions and enforce compliance at various levels (enterprise, specific OUs).
4. Automated Account Provisioning: Leverage Account Factory to create pre-configured, compliant accounts with standardized templates.
5. Cost Management: Implement consolidated billing and use tools like AWS Cost Explorer to monitor costs across accounts.
6. Multi-Region Resiliency: Ensure fault tolerance across regions, with security controls like AWS KMS and AWS Shield.
7. Third-Party Integration: Integrate with monitoring and incident management tools like Splunk, Datadog, and ServiceNow for enhanced capabilities.
8. Security Best Practices: Implement least privilege access, MFA, and RBAC using IAM Identity Center.
9. Workload Migration: Plan the migration of existing workloads into the Control Tower-managed accounts while maintaining security and compliance.

Exam-Specific Recommendations:

1. Understand Use Cases for Control Tower:

• Be able to identify when AWS Control Tower is the best solution versus using standalone services like AWS Organizations or custom setups with CloudFormation and AWS Config.

2. Focus on Governance:

• Governance and compliance are critical exam topics. Understand how Control Tower applies guardrails using SCPs, AWS Config, and CloudTrail.

3. Know How Control Tower Integrates with Other AWS Services:

• In practice, AWS Control Tower integrates with services like CloudFormation, Config, and Service Catalog. Be prepared to answer questions on these integrations and how they support automated governance.

Reference blog for detailed explanation :

https://medium.com/@nadeem13/well-architected-multi-account-aws-environment-with-control-tower-landing-zone-account-factory-74e8d619b7c5