Configure Application Access to AWS Services with Kubernetes

Modern cloud-native applications often need to use AWS services like S3, DynamoDB, or SQS. The challenge is giving applications secure, controlled access without embedding static credentials into code or configuration. Kubernetes provides two powerful approaches to handle this:

Using service accounts for shared AWS services

Provisioning dedicated AWS services via Kubernetes custom resources

Let’s break these down.

Why Not Use Static Credentials?

Traditionally, developers used AWS access keys stored in environment variables or config files. While this works, it creates serious risks:

Security issues – hardcoded keys can leak through repositories, logs, or misconfigurations.

Operational overhead – rotating credentials is manual and error-prone.

Scalability problems – every application would need its own key management process.

To solve this, Kubernetes integrates directly with AWS identity and access management in a much cleaner way.

1. Accessing Shared AWS Services with Kubernetes Service Accounts

In Kubernetes, a service account is the identity that pods use when interacting with the cluster. On Amazon EKS (and other integrations), service accounts can also be linked to AWS IAM roles.

This means:

An application pod uses a Kubernetes service account.

That service account is mapped to an AWS IAM role.

The IAM role defines what AWS services the application can access (for example, S3 read-only).

Applications receive temporary, automatically rotated credentials, eliminating the need for static secrets.

This is the recommended way to give multiple applications controlled access to shared AWS services securely.

1. Provisioning Dedicated AWS Services with Kubernetes Custom Resources

Sometimes, an application needs its own dedicated AWS service instance — for example, a database table or a message queue created specifically for that workload.

This can be achieved using Kubernetes custom resources provided by the AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK) project.

Here’s how it works conceptually:

Kubernetes is extended with custom resource definitions (CRDs) for AWS services.

Developers can request an AWS resource (like an S3 bucket, DynamoDB table, or RDS instance) by creating a Kubernetes object.

The controller automatically provisions the AWS service and manages its lifecycle.

This approach aligns infrastructure provisioning with the same GitOps and declarative workflows used for applications — keeping operations consistent and reducing handoffs between developers and infrastructure teams.

Benefits of These Approaches

Stronger security: no hardcoded credentials, automatic rotation, least-privilege access.

Operational simplicity: manage AWS permissions and resources natively from Kubernetes.

Scalability: shared services can be reused, and dedicated services can be provisioned on demand.

Developer productivity: teams can focus on building apps while Kubernetes handles AWS integration.

Final Thoughts

Configuring application access to AWS services through Kubernetes service accounts and custom resources provides a secure, scalable, and cloud-native way of managing application dependencies.

Use service accounts + IAM roles for secure access to shared AWS services.

Use custom resources when applications require dedicated AWS services.

This not only reduces security risks but also brings infrastructure management closer to the application development lifecycle — a big step toward efficient DevOps and cloud-native operations.

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