Managing Multi-Account AWS Environments: A Comparison of AWS Organizations, Control Tower, and AWS Config

Introduction:

As organizations continue to scale their presence on Amazon Web Services (AWS), effective management of multiple AWS accounts becomes crucial. AWS provides several services to streamline this process, including AWS Organizations, AWS Control Tower, and AWS Config. In this article, we will explore each of these services, highlighting their features and differences, and offering insights into when to use each to best suit your organizational needs.

1. AWS Organizations:

AWS Organizations is a foundational service that enables you to consolidate multiple AWS accounts into an organization that you create and centrally manage. Key features of AWS Organizations include:

• Consolidated Billing: AWS Organizations allows you to consolidate billing across all linked accounts, providing a single payment method for all AWS services used across the organization.

• Organizational Units (OUs): You can organize accounts into OUs to reflect your organization's hierarchy, making it easier to apply policies and permissions at various levels.

• Service Control Policies (SCPs): AWS Organizations allows the creation of SCPs to set fine-grained permissions, controlling which AWS services and actions are allowed or denied across your accounts.

2. AWS Control Tower:

AWS Control Tower builds upon AWS Organizations to simplify the process of setting up and governing a secure, multi-account AWS environment. It is particularly useful for organizations looking to establish a well-architected baseline. Key features of AWS Control Tower include:

• Account Vending: Control Tower automates the process of creating new accounts, ensuring they adhere to best practices and organizational policies from the start.

• Guardrails: Control Tower implements guardrails, which are pre-configured policies that help enforce security and compliance standards across all accounts within the organization.

• Landing Zone: AWS Control Tower provides a Landing Zone, which is a set of best practices blueprints for setting up an environment using AWS Organizations, making it easier to get started with a secure, multi-account architecture.

3. AWS Config:

AWS Config, on the other hand, focuses on monitoring and assessing the configurations of AWS resources within an account. Key features of AWS Config include:

• Configuration History: AWS Config maintains a detailed history of configuration changes, allowing you to understand how and when your resources were modified.

• Config Rules: You can define and enforce rules to check the configuration of your AWS resources against desired settings. AWS Config can automatically remediate non-compliant resources.

• Resource Relationships: AWS Config provides insights into the relationships between resources, helping you understand dependencies and potential impact of changes.

Comparison:

• Scope of Management:

  • AWS Organizations: Primarily focused on organizational and billing aspects.
  • AWS Control Tower: Extends AWS Organizations, automating the setup of multi-account environments.
  • AWS Config: Concentrates on monitoring and managing configurations within individual accounts.

• Automation and Governance:

  • AWS Organizations and Control Tower provide automated features for setting up and governing multi-account environments.
  • AWS Config focuses on monitoring and assessing configurations but lacks the automated environment setup capabilities of Organizations and Control Tower.

• Granularity of Control:

  • AWS Organizations and Control Tower offer granular control through OUs and guardrails, respectively.
  • AWS Config provides detailed insights into resource configurations but does not offer the same level of policy enforcement.

• Change Monitoring:

  • AWS Organizations and Control Tower focus on the initial setup and ongoing governance.
  • AWS Config specializes in monitoring changes to resource configurations.

Conclusion:

AWS Organizations, AWS Control Tower, and AWS Config serve distinct purposes in managing multi-account AWS environments. Organizations and Control Tower are well-suited for organizations seeking automated setup and governance, while AWS Config is essential for monitoring and assessing resource configurations. Combining these services can provide a comprehensive solution, addressing both the initial setup and ongoing management of secure, scalable, and well-architected AWS environments. The choice between them depends on your organization's specific needs and priorities in managing its AWS infrastructure.