AWS Organizations is mentioned in the provided sources primarily as a mechanism for centralized management, security, and identity across multiple AWS accounts, enabling services like Macie, Inspector, Firewall Manager, and IAM Identity Center to function effectively in a multi-account environment. It allows for the consolidation of AWS accounts and the application of organizational policies.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the role of AWS Organizations in facilitating centralized management in a multi-account AWS environment.
- Identify AWS services that integrate with AWS Organizations for extended organizational control and scanning capabilities.
- Recognize the prerequisites and benefits of using AWS Organizations for identity federation and security posture across multiple accounts.
AWS Organizations provides a way to centrally manage and govern your environment as you grow and scale your AWS resources.
AWS Organizations allows for the enablement of services in member accounts and the setting up of delegated administrators. This facilitates managing resources and policies across an entire organizational structure from a central point, enhancing governance and operational efficiency in a multi-account setup.
Several AWS services leverage AWS Organizations to extend their capabilities across multiple accounts, simplifying management and enhancing security posture at an organizational level.
Amazon Macie
Amazon Macie can be enabled in member accounts within AWS Organizations, and a delegated administrator can be set to manage Macie across the organization. This allows for centralized sensitive data discovery and protection in S3 buckets across all accounts.
Use Cases:
- Sensitive data discovery in S3 across multiple accounts
Amazon Inspector
AWS Organizations enables Amazon Inspector to scan all AWS accounts from a single Inspector instance, providing a unified view of vulnerability assessments. Delegation of administration is an option for AWS Organizations for Inspector, allowing a central account to manage scanning across the entire organization.
Use Cases:
- Vulnerability scanning across all AWS accounts in an organization
AWS Firewall Manager
AWS Firewall Manager can enforce standard WAF (Web Application Firewall) rule sets across an entire AWS Organization, centralizing firewall management and ensuring consistent security policies are applied.
Use Cases:
- Centralized WAF rule enforcement across an organization
AWS IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS Single Sign-On)
IAM Identity Center requires an AWS Organization to be set up. It facilitates enterprise-scale identity federation and multi-login for multiple accounts within an AWS Organization, allowing users to log in once to access various AWS accounts.
keywords:
SSO, Single Sign-On, enterprise-scale identity federation, multi-login for multiple accounts, AWS Organization
Use Cases:
- Centralized SSO for multiple AWS accounts
- Dynamic user onboarding
- Identity-driven access
AWS CloudTrail
When creating a new trail, CloudTrail offers an option to apply the trail to all accounts in an organization. This configuration enables the capture of activity from all current and future AWS regions within that organization, providing a comprehensive audit trail.
Use Cases:
- Centralized logging of management events across an organization
IAM Access Analyzer (Zone of Trust Context)
IAM Access Analyzer operates with the concept of a 'zone of trust.' This zone encompasses IAM users, roles, and services within your AWS account or organization. Access granted to principals outside this defined zone of trust (e.g., external AWS accounts, anonymous internet users) is flagged as potential security risks.
Use Cases:
- Identifying external access risks within an AWS account or an organization's trusted zone
Exam Tips
- For scenarios involving one login for multiple AWS accounts within an AWS Organization, dynamic user onboarding, or identity-driven access, IAM Identity Center with AWS Organizations is the recommended solution. (source_page: 2)
- Be aware that AWS Organizations is a prerequisite for AWS IAM Identity Center to function for multi-account access. (source_page: 2)
Key Takeaways
- AWS Organizations is a foundational service for multi-account management, enabling centralized security and governance across member accounts. (source_page: 2)
- Key AWS services like Macie, Inspector, Firewall Manager, IAM Identity Center, and CloudTrail integrate with AWS Organizations to simplify management and extend their capabilities across a multi-account environment. (source_page: 2)