Implement and Manage Governance Policies Explained

Key Concepts

• Governance Policies: Rules and guidelines that ensure consistent and compliant resource management.
• AWS Organizations: Centralized management of multiple AWS accounts.
• Service Control Policies (SCPs): Policies that centrally control the maximum available permissions for member accounts.
• Tag Policies: Policies that enforce consistent tagging across resources.
• AWS Config: Service for monitoring and recording resource configurations.

Detailed Explanation

Governance Policies

Governance policies are rules and guidelines that ensure consistent and compliant resource management across an organization. These policies help in maintaining control, visibility, and compliance with internal and external standards.

AWS Organizations

AWS Organizations allows you to centrally manage and govern multiple AWS accounts. It provides features like consolidated billing, account grouping, and policy-based management. This helps in maintaining consistent governance across all accounts.

Service Control Policies (SCPs)

Service Control Policies (SCPs) are a type of policy that centrally control the maximum available permissions for member accounts in an AWS Organization. SCPs help in enforcing governance by restricting the actions that can be performed by IAM users and roles in member accounts.

Tag Policies

Tag policies are a type of policy that enforce consistent tagging across resources. Tags are used to categorize and track resources, and tag policies ensure that resources are tagged in a consistent manner. This helps in cost allocation, automation, and compliance.

AWS Config

AWS Config is a service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. It continuously monitors and records resource configurations and changes, helping you to ensure governance and compliance with internal policies and external regulations.

Examples and Analogies

Example: AWS Organizations

Here is an example of creating an organization in AWS Organizations:

aws organizations create-organization --feature-set ALL
    

Example: Service Control Policy (SCP)

Here is an example of an SCP that restricts the use of certain AWS services:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:RunInstances",
                "ec2:CreateVolume"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}
    

Example: Tag Policy

Here is an example of a tag policy that enforces consistent tagging:

{
    "tags": {
        "CostCenter": {
            "tag_key": {
                "@@assign": "CostCenter"
            },
            "tag_value": {
                "@@assign": [
                    "100",
                    "200",
                    "300"
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}
    

Example: AWS Config Rule

Here is an example of an AWS Config rule to ensure EC2 instances are tagged with a specific key-value pair:

{
    "ConfigRuleName": "ec2-instance-tag-compliance",
    "Description": "Checks whether EC2 instances are tagged with a specific key-value pair.",
    "Scope": {
        "ComplianceResourceTypes": [
            "AWS::EC2::Instance"
        ]
    },
    "Source": {
        "Owner": "AWS",
        "SourceIdentifier": "REQUIRED_TAGS"
    },
    "InputParameters": {
        "tag1Key": "Environment",
        "tag1Value": "Production"
    }
}
    

Analogy: Governance Policies as Corporate Policies

Think of governance policies as corporate policies that ensure consistency and compliance across an organization. Just as corporate policies define rules for employee behavior and operations, governance policies define rules for resource management and security. AWS Organizations is like a corporate management system that oversees multiple departments, ensuring they all follow the same policies. Service Control Policies (SCPs) are like corporate policies that restrict certain actions, such as unauthorized spending. Tag policies are like corporate policies that enforce consistent naming conventions for projects. AWS Config is like an internal audit system that continuously checks if all departments are following the corporate policies.