As you prepare for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C02) exam, it’s crucial to understand the importance of implementing secure multi-account strategies. Two essential AWS services in this regard are AWS Control Tower and AWS Organizations. These tools allow you to manage and monitor your AWS environment in a structured and secure manner.
AWS Control Tower
AWS Control Tower provides an easy way to set up and govern a secure multi-account AWS environment, also known as a landing zone. It automates the process of setting up your environment using best-practice blueprints and enables ongoing policy management.
With features like Guardrails, AWS Control Tower allows for policy enforcement and rules for security, operations, and compliance. As an example, preventive guardrails prohibit certain actions like public read access to Amazon S3 buckets, while detective guardrails detect if your accounts fall out of compliance.
AWS Organizations
In contrast, AWS Organizations helps you centrally manage multiple AWS accounts. It allows you to create groups of accounts and then apply policies to them for governance. With AWS Organizations, you can consolidate billing, configure shared resources, and apply operational policies across your AWS environment.
A service control policy (SCP) in AWS Organizations determines the services and operations that can be used in the member accounts. For example, an SCP could disallow access to a specific AWS region or limit the actions allowed for a specific IAM role.
Comparison between AWS Control Tower and AWS Organizations
| AWS Control Tower | AWS Organizations | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Automates the setup and management of a secure multi-account environment | Centrally manages and governs multiple accounts |
| Key Features | Guardrails for policy management and enforcement | Service control policies for governance |
| Use Case | Setting up a new AWS environment with default best-practise configurations | Managing multiple existing accounts and applying operational policies |
Multi-account strategies have become a best practice for managing larger cloud environments, offering advantages in cost tracking, security, and resource isolation. The choice between AWS Control Tower and AWS Organizations will depend on your use case.
For example, if you’re setting up a new AWS environment and want to follow AWS’s best-practice blueprint, AWS Control Tower may be the best option. It offers a straightforward setup of a well-architected multi-account AWS environment without the need to manually create and configure accounts, organizational units, or service control policies.
On the other hand, if you’re managing many existing AWS accounts, AWS Organizations may be more suitable. It offers the ability to centrally manage policies, security, and billing across all your accounts.
Regardless of the service you choose, implementing secure multi-account strategies in AWS is critical for managing a large-scale, successful AWS infrastructure. It’s also an essential domain for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C02) exam, and understanding the features and comparison of AWS Control Tower and AWS Organizations can help you ace this section.
Practice Test
True/False: AWS Control Tower offers the easiest way to set up and govern a new, secure multi-account AWS environment.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: AWS Control Tower provides the easiest way to set up and govern a multi-account AWS environment, based on best practices established through AWS’ experience.
In AWS Organizations, what is the term used for a group of AWS accounts?
- A) Cluster
- B) Organization
- C) Unit
- D) Department
Answer: B) Organization
Explanation: In AWS Organizations, an organization is a group of AWS accounts that you can organize into a hierarchy and manage centrally.
Which AWS service helps customers with large teams to manage multiple AWS accounts?
- A) AWS Identity and Access Management
- B) AWS Control Tower
- C) AWS Organizations
- D) Both B and C
Answer: D) Both B and C
Explanation: Both AWS Control Tower and AWS Organizations offer the possibility to manage multiple AWS accounts in a secure and scalable manner.
True/False: You can apply Service Control Policies (SCPs) across all your AWS accounts using AWS Control Tower.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: AWS Control Tower gives you the ability to establish SCPs and apply them across all AWS accounts ensuring policies are uniformly enforced.
AWS Organizations utilizes which feature to control maximum permissions for all accounts in your organization?
- A) Security Control Policies
- B) Service Control Policies
- C) Access Control Policies
- D) Control Access Policies
Answer: B) Service Control Policies
Explanation: AWS Organizations uses Service Control Policies (SCPs) to determine the maximum permissions for account members of the organization.
Multiple AWS accounts can achieve consolidated billing through which AWS service?
- A) AWS Budgets
- B) AWS Cost Explorer
- C) AWS Organizations
- D) AWS Control Tower
Answer: C) AWS Organizations
Explanation: AWS Organizations allows you to consolidate billing across multiple AWS accounts, providing potential volume discounts due to aggregated usage.
True/False: AWS Control Tower includes pre-packaged blueprints that define a multi-account environment.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: AWS Control Tower comes with Blueprints that automate the set-up of a baseline environment and define a consistent multi-account AWS environment.
In AWS Organizations, initially all accounts are given full access except which account?
- A) Billing account
- B) Management account
- C) Shared account
- D) Member account
Answer: B) Management account
Explanation: In AWS Organizations, the management account has full administrative and billing access to all the member accounts but initially, all other member accounts are not given full access.
AWS Control Tower utilizes what automated software mechanism to ensure compliance with the desired state of a service?
- A) Guardrails
- B) Barriers
- C) Fences
- D) Locks
Answer: A) Guardrails
Explanation: AWS Control Tower utilizes Guardrails, automated governance rules for security, compliance and operations, ensuring AWS accounts remain within your defined compliance boundaries.
True/False: Service control policies (SCPs) are AWS IAM policies that specify the maximum permissions for an organization.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: SCPs allow you to manage permissions in your organization centrally and grant member accounts permissions to use AWS services and actions that you specify.
Interview Questions
What is the primary role of AWS Control Tower in secure multi-account strategies?
AWS Control Tower is a service that simplifies the setup and management of a secure and compliant AWS multi-account environment. It establishes a landing zone which is a pre-configured environment built according to AWS best practices.
What are some of the benefits of using AWS Organizations in implementing secure multi-account strategies?
AWS Organizations help users centrally manage and govern their environment as they grow and scale AWS resources. You can also consolidate billing across multiple AWS accounts, create and enforce policies for your AWS services, and automate AWS account creation and management.
What is the purpose of a Landing Zone in AWS Control Tower?
A landing zone is a pre-configured environment built according to AWS best practices. This environment is a multi-account architecture that contains a set of foundational elements to help users securely and smoothly scale their AWS environment.
Can AWS Organizations manage service control policies (SCPs) across multiple AWS accounts?
Yes, AWS Organizations can manage Service Control Policies (SCPs) across multiple AWS accounts to ensure compliance with company-wide policies.
What are Service Control Policies (SCPs) within the context of AWS Organizations?
SCPs are a type of organization policy that you can use to manage permissions in your organization. They offer central control over the maximum available permissions for all accounts in your organization, allowing you to ensure your accounts stay within your organization’s access control guidelines.
How do AWS Control Tower guardrails help in implementing secure multi-account strategies?
Guardrails in AWS Control Tower provide governance rules for security, operations, and compliance, which can help the organization maintain a high level of security and compliance across all its AWS accounts.
Is it possible to manage multiple accounts and resources across your organization from a single AWS account using AWS Organizations?
Yes, with AWS Organizations, you can centrally manage multiple AWS accounts and resources from a single AWS account.
How does the AWS Control Tower lifecycle events feature aid in secure multi-account strategies?
AWS Control Tower lifecycle events feature allows you to automate and customize your multi-account AWS environment beyond the initial setup. By leveraging this feature, you can automate security and compliance for ongoing account management and governance.
In AWS Control Tower, what is the Account Factory?
The Account Factory in AWS Control Tower automates the process of setting up new accounts according to organization’s standards. It configures these new accounts with best practices for security, management, and compliance.
Can AWS Organizations be used to consolidate billing across multiple AWS accounts?
Yes, AWS Organizations provides mechanisms to consolidate payment methods, enabling single payment for multiple accounts.
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