Overview of Identity and Access Management (IAM), Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

1. AWS Overview
IAM, VPC and EC2

2. Identity and Access Management
(IAM)
Helps you securely control access to your AWS
resources

3. IAM Users and Groups

4. Use a multi-factor authentication (MFA) device for
the root account

5. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all
accounts with console access

6. Enable the password-policy in IAM

7. Only assign API access keys where required and
rotate them - regularly

8. Leverage IAM Roles for EC2
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
...
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"ec2:CreateSnapshot",
"ec2:DeleteSnapshot",
"ec2:CreateTags"
],
"Resource": [
"*"
]
}
]
}

9. Only associate IAM policies to IAM groups or roles
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": {
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": "s3:ListBucket",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-top-secret-bucket.softchoice.com"
}
}

10. Ensure CloudTrail is enabled for all regions

11. Ensure AWS Config is enabled for all regions

12. Free service and you can access IAM via the AWS
Management Console, AWS CLI, SDKs, and the API

13. Virtual Private Cloud
(VPC)
Allows you to launch AWS resources into a virtual
network you define

14. Know your Limits

15. Connect your VPC to the Internet with an Internet
Gateway (IGW)

16. Connect your VPC to your corporate network with a
Virtual Private Gateway and a Customer Gateway

17. Leverage NAT Gateways

18. DNS and DHCP

19. VPC Endpoints

20. VPC Peering

21. Secure your AWS resources with Security Groups

22. Control traffic between subnets with Network ACLs

23. Elastic Compute Cloud
(EC2)

24. Know your Limits

25. Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

26. Elastic Block Storage (EBS)
Storage for your EC2 Instances

27. Reserved Instances
(No Upfront, Partial Upfront, and Full Upfront)

28. Spot Instances (and Fleets)
Bid on spare EC2 capacity