Learning Objectives: • Learn about the benefits and features of Amazon Cloud Directory • Understand the advantages of using Cloud Directory over traditional directory solutions, such as Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) and other LDAP-based directories • Discover how to efficiently organize hierarchies of data across multiple dimensions • Get tips on how to create and extend Cloud Directory schemas • Find out how to search your directory using strongly consistent and eventually consistent search APIs. Learn how Amazon Cloud Directory enables you to build flexible cloud-native directories for organizing hierarchies of data along multiple dimensions. Using Cloud Directory, you can easily build organizational charts, device registries, course catalogs, and network configurations with multiple hierarchies. For example, you can build an organizational chart with one hierarchy based on reporting structure, a second hierarchy based on physical location, and a third based on cost center. Amazon Cloud Directory automatically scales to hundreds of millions of objects and provides an extensible schema that can be shared with multiple applications. As a fully-managed service, Cloud Directory eliminates time-consuming and expensive administrative tasks, such as scaling infrastructure and managing servers. You simply define the schema, create a directory, and then populate your directory by making calls to the Cloud Directory API.

1. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Quint Van Deman
April 27th, 2017
Deep Dive on
Amazon Cloud Directory

2. Behind every successful application there is
great data

3. Hierarchical vs. Graph vs. Relational
Hierarchical:
• Tree based
• Parents and children
• Ex.: Org charts
Graph:
• Network based
• Connections
• Ex.: Social network
Relational:
• Rows and columns
• Relationships
• Ex.: Online banking

4. Real World Example – Organizational Chart
Acme
Eng
Dev Test
JimSallyTim
Global
SFOLHR

5. Real World Example – Organizational Chart
Acme
Eng
Dev Test
JimSallyTim
Global
SFOLHR

6. Real World Example – Organizational Chart
Acme
Eng
Dev Test
JimSallyTim
Global
SFOLHR

7. What challenges are they facing?
Traditional solutions
don’t support multiple
hierarchies
Inefficient workarounds
to search for parent
and child objects
Inflexible schemas that
can’t be shared across
applications easily
Complex
infrastructure that is
expensive to scale

8. Introducing Amazon Cloud Directory
Fully-managed, cloud-native directory
Organize
hierarchies of
data across
multiple
dimensions
Scale
automatically on
managed
infrastructure
Adapt to changing
data requirements
Search your
directory for
objects and
relationships

9. When should you consider Cloud Directory?
• Is my data hierarchical?
• Do I want to enforce a data structure?
• Does my application perform more reads than writes?
• Do I need my data store to scale horizontally?
If YES then Cloud Directory is a good fit

10. Use Cases for Cloud Directory
Organizational
Charts
Fleet Management
Systems
Learning
Management
Systems

11. AWS Organizations
What has AWS built using Cloud Directory?
Amazon Cognito

12. Selecting an AWS Directory Service
AWS Managed AD Amazon Cognito Amazon Cloud Directory
• Actual Microsoft
Active Directory for
AWS workloads.
• OS authentication,
group policies, LDAP
accessible.
• Sign-up and sign-in
for web and mobile
apps.
• Federated access to
AWS services.
• Specialized store for
hierarchical data.
• Building block
service for
developers.

13. Technical Deep Dive

14. Key Features
Efficiently organize
hierarchies of data
across multiple
dimensions
Scale automatically
on managed
infrastructure
Search your
directory for objects
and relationships
Easily adapt to
changing data
requirements
Simplify policy
management
Integrate with AWS
CloudTrail and
tagging

15. How do I get started?
Create
Schema
Publish
Schema
Create
Directory
Read/Write
Data

16. Basic Definitions
Facet A {
Attribute 1
Attribute 2
Attribute N
}
Facet B {
Attribute 1
Attribute 2
Attribute N
}
Schema {
}
Node
Leaf
Node
Leaf
Node
Policy
Policy
Directory
Link

17. Schemas
AWS provides the following sample schemas:
• Person
• Organization
• Device
Create your own:
• Adapting sample
• From scratch

18. Example – Device schema
AWS Managed "Device"
Schema
Details
"Device" Facet Data_Type Length Mandatory Description
device_id String 1024 N Alpha-numeric unque device id
name String 1024 N Friendly name for device
description String 1024 N Description for device
X.509_certificates String 1024 N X.509 Certificate
device_version String 1024 N Device version
device_os_type String 1024 N Operating System on device
device_os_version String 1024 N Operating System version number on device
serial_number String 1024 N Serial number of device
device_status String 1024 N Status for device (such as active, not_active, suspended, shutdown, off)

19. Schema Lifecycle
Development – During this phase you create and work on your
schema.
Published – When you are done developing the schema you publish it.
A schema that has been published can NOT be modified.
Applied – When you create a directory you specify which published
schema to use.
Development Published Applied
CreateSchema() PublishSchema() CreateDirectory()

20. Multi-Dimensional Directories
• Represent multiple hierarchies within the same directory.
• Allows for fast and efficient tree traversal along multiple
dimensions.
• ListObjectChildren API retrieves all child objects.
• ListObjectParentPaths API retrieves all parent paths for
a given object across multiple hierarchies.
• Add new dimensions over time by applying new
schemas to your directory, or adding new facets to
existing schemas.

21. Cloud Directory I/O
• Cloud Directory supports both strongly consistent and
eventually consistent read API calls.
• Strongly consistent read API calls are designed for
scenarios when timing accuracy matters.
• Eventually consistent read API calls offer cost-savings.
• Optimized for read heavy use cases.

22. Cloud Directory Policies
• Policies are a specialized type of object that are
attached to other nodes via policy links.
• LookupPolicy API action walks up the tree and returns
all the policy objects.
• Not interpreted by Cloud Directory.
• Polices are interpret by application themselves using
business logic.

23. Pricing
• Pay only for what you use. No minimum fee. Free tier.
• Two dimensions: storage and access.
N. Virginia pricing example (varies by region):
• Storage: $0.25 per GB
• Access:
• Eventually Consistent Read: $0.0040 per 10,000 API calls
• Strongly Consistent Read: $0.0043 per 1,000 API calls
• Write: $0.0043 per 1,000 API calls

24. Regional Availability
Currently available in:
• US East: N. Virginia & Ohio
• US West: Oregon
• EU: Ireland
• Asia Pacific: Sydney & Singapore
Reference: regional service availability

25. Trying Cloud Directory
Blog with code samples - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/how-
to-create-an-organizational-chart-with-separate-hierarchies-by-using-
amazon-cloud-directory/
Other Resources:
• Jeff Barr blog - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-cloud-directory-a-cloud-native-
directory-for-hierarchical-data/
• Parent path API blog - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/how-to-create-an-organizational-
chart-with-separate-hierarchies-by-using-amazon-cloud-directory/
• CD Product Page - https://aws.amazon.com/cloud-directory/
• Developer Guide - http://docs.aws.amazon.com/directoryservice/latest/admin-
guide/directory_amazon_cd.html
• API Reference - http://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazoncds/latest/APIReference/welcome.html
• Pricing - https://aws.amazon.com/cloud-directory/pricing/

26. Questions?