Introduction
Cloud computing offers incredible flexibility and scalability, but managing a multi-account AWS environment can quickly become complex. This is where AWS Control Tower comes in. This powerful service helps you establish and govern a secure and compliant foundation for your AWS workloads — a crucial step known as setting up a “Landing Zone.”
This blog will provide a user-friendly guide to understanding AWS Control Tower and walking you through the process of setting up a secure landing zone.
What is AWS Control Tower?
Imagine Control Tower as a skilled architect and construction crew for your AWS environment. It automates the building and management of a secure and compliant foundation, ensuring your AWS workloads operate efficiently and securely.
Here’s a breakdown:
- Automated Setup: Control Tower automates the deployment of core AWS security and operational best practices. This includes setting up accounts, configuring networks, and implementing security controls.
- Centralized Governance: It provides a central point of control for managing and governing your entire AWS environment, making it easier to enforce policies and maintain consistency.
- Simplified Compliance: Control Tower helps you meet industry standards and regulations (like PCI DSS, ISO 27001) by enforcing security best practices and automating compliance checks.
- Enhanced Security: It incorporates built-in security guardrails that prevent common misconfigurations and help you maintain a high level of security.
What is an AWS Landing Zone?
Think of your AWS Landing Zone as the secure and well-architected foundation for your entire AWS environment. It’s where you deploy and operate your applications and services. A well-defined landing zone includes:
- Account Structure: A well-organized structure for your AWS accounts, separating development, test, and production environments for better security and control.
- Network Configuration: A secure and scalable network architecture (using Virtual Private Clouds — VPCs) to isolate and protect your workloads.
- Identity and Access Management (IAM): Robust IAM policies and roles to control access to AWS resources and ensure only authorized users can perform specific actions.
- Security Best Practices: Implementation of key security measures like encryption, logging, and intrusion detection.
Setting Up Your AWS Landing Zone with Control Tower: A Step-by-Step Guide
Log into your AWS account which you want to use as Management account with Administrator or Root access and open AWS Control Tower console
Step 1: Review pricing and select Region
I have chosen North Virginia as my home region
I have selected Singapore as my additional region for governance. You can choose your regions based on your environment and requirements
Below setting allows you to prevent users from launching resources in other regions to meet company’s compliance and regulatory requirements. I have not enabled it.
Step 2: Configure Organizational units(OU’s)
I have created an additional OU named ‘Applications’
Step 3: Configure shared accounts
I opted to create new accounts as Audit and Log archive accounts instead of using existing accounts
Step 4: Additional configurations
I opted for self managed access since I already had an existing IAM Identity Center setup
Step 5: Review
Four IAM roles are created in the process of setting up a Landing zone by Control Tower
It takes around 60 minutes for Landing Zone creation
Once Landing Zone is created, below dashboard will be available
In Organization tab of Control Tower, you can check the baseline state and create/register new OU’s and enroll new accounts
Account factory: Create new accounts
Centrally enable and manage Controls:
Key Benefits of Using Control Tower for Landing Zone Setup:
- Increased Security: Enhances your security posture by enforcing security best practices and preventing common misconfigurations.
- Improved Compliance: Helps you meet industry regulations and maintain compliance standards.
- Enhanced Efficiency: Automates many manual tasks, saving you time and resources.
- Simplified Management: Provides a centralized platform for managing and governing your AWS environment.
- Reduced Risk: Minimizes the risk of security breaches and data loss.
Conclusion
AWS Control Tower is a powerful tool that simplifies the process of building and managing a secure and compliant AWS environment. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can establish a robust foundation for your AWS workloads and accelerate your cloud journey.
I hope this user-friendly guide has provided you with a clear understanding of AWS Control Tower and the process of setting up a secure landing zone.
Top comments (1)
"Control Tower has definitely become the standard for scaling multi-account environments, but the 'day two' operations are where the real work begins. For those who have already deployed their landing zones, how are you handling the evolution of your SCP and Config rule sets? Are you using the Landing Zone Accelerator (LZA) for advanced customization, or are you keeping it lean with standard Control Tower guardrails and augmenting with custom automation? I’m curious to hear how you’re managing the balance between 'opinionated' guardrails and unique compliance needs."