Governance Explained

Key Concepts

• Governance: The framework and processes for ensuring compliance, security, and operational efficiency across an organization.
• AWS Organizations: A service that enables centralized management of multiple AWS accounts.
• Service Control Policies (SCPs): Policies that centrally control the maximum available permissions for member accounts in an AWS Organization.
• AWS Config: A service that assesses, audits, and evaluates the configurations of AWS resources.
• AWS CloudTrail: A service that logs and monitors account activity across your AWS infrastructure.

Detailed Explanation

Governance

Governance refers to the framework and processes that ensure compliance with internal policies, industry standards, and regulatory requirements. It involves setting up controls, monitoring, and auditing to maintain security, reliability, and efficiency across an organization's AWS environment.

AWS Organizations

AWS Organizations allows you to create groups of AWS accounts and apply policies across them. This centralized management helps in maintaining consistent governance and security practices across multiple accounts. AWS Organizations also provides features like consolidated billing and account management.

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. They ensure that accounts do not exceed the defined permissions.

AWS Config

AWS Config provides a detailed view of the configuration of AWS resources in your account. It continuously monitors and records configuration changes and can evaluate these configurations against desired states. AWS Config helps in ensuring that resources comply with established policies and best practices, thereby supporting governance efforts.

AWS CloudTrail

AWS CloudTrail logs and monitors account activity across your AWS infrastructure. It captures detailed records of actions taken by users, roles, or AWS services. CloudTrail helps in governance by providing visibility into who did what, when, and where, enabling auditing and compliance checks.

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: AWS Config Rule

Here is an example of an AWS Config rule to ensure that 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"
    }
}
    

Example: AWS CloudTrail

Here is an example of creating a CloudTrail trail to log all API calls in your AWS account:

aws cloudtrail create-trail --name my-trail --s3-bucket-name my-bucket
    

Analogy: Governance as Corporate Governance

Think of governance in AWS as corporate governance in a company. Just as corporate governance ensures that a company operates according to legal and regulatory standards, AWS governance ensures that your cloud environment operates securely and efficiently. AWS Organizations is like the board of directors that sets policies and oversees operations. Service Control Policies (SCPs) are like the bylaws that define what actions are permissible. AWS Config is like the internal audit team that checks if everything is in order. AWS CloudTrail is like the corporate secretary who keeps detailed records of all actions taken.