Exploring Amazon Web Services (AWS)

What is IAM? IAM (Identity and Access Management) is a component of AWS which manages Users, Groups, Policies, and Roles to control access permissions to your various services within your AWS environment. Here is where you can create User accounts, add them to groups that have attached permissions to control access or create policies or roles that you can attach to trusted entities to give them access to services within your environment.   For more details on IAM checkout this link:  AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) In this article I will demonstrate how to create an administrator account that you can use to launch services in AWS.  In my previous post I mentioned that it is advised that you do not use your Master or Root account to perform these functions but instead use a separate Administrator account for the purpose of launching services.  The Master account should be used to manage Budgets, setup CloudWatch monitoring and consolidate child account...

When working on IAM for the first time, in my opinion, it is best that you start off at creating your initial IAM Groups before creating user accounts.  This will give you an overview of how you would allocate permissions depending on the job function of users you will be creating next. IAM Groups are similar to Microsoft AD Groups in such a way that it has attached permissions that provide any user added to the group access to perform certain functions on a given resource or resources.  However IAM Groups can only be used to manage permissions for AWS resources. This article shows you how to create IAM Groups. Steps to follow: Login to the AWS console using your Root account. Click Services and then Click " IAM " On the left hand side click " Groups " Click the " Create New Group " button Type the name of the group you wish to create then click the " Next Step " button. Choose the level of permission from the list of Policie...

When considering AWS cloud adoption you have to be clear as to what are the strengths and benefits that AWS has to offer.  And when architecting your infrastructure, you have to build on these strengths and benefits in order to effectively maximize your cost savings and infrastructure improvements. Here I will discuss some of the major strengths and benefits of AWS. Disposable Compute - With traditional Data Centers compute resources aren't easily disposed of after it has already served its purpose.  They would normally be re-purposed or re-allocated to other projects or services other than what they were intended for when purchased.  The requirements for these may vary thus putting you at risk of being over or under capacity.  With AWS you can spin up compute resources as needed and tear them down after use.  No need to hold on to resources that you no longer need.   Flexible Capacity - Your AWS cloud infrastructure has the capability to scale ...

Now that you have already created your free tier account, the next thing to do is to make sure you do not unintentionally incur charges as you play around the AWS environment.  Most of the services that you can try out are free however may have limitations.  Check out this link to see a list of the free services under the free tier account: AWS Free Tier details The best way to monitor your spending on AWS is to setup Billing Alerts.  In this post I will show you how you could set it up initially so that you will receive an email warning whenever your estimated charges go over a specified amount.  This will help you manage cost or avoid it totally. Here are the Steps: Login to your AWS account On the upper right corner click the drop down arrow right beside your account name, then click "My Billing Dashboard"  Scroll down to the Alerts and Notifications section.  On the second line where it says "Monitor your estimated charges." click on the high...

Creating an AWS account isn't all that difficult.  This should be your 2nd step in your AWS journey.  The first being a clear familiarization of the various AWS services and their functions.  If you are not at all familiar with any of them, I would suggest you check out my previous posts which briefly discusses the various core services available in AWS then come back here to create your AWS account. When creating an AWS account you will need the following: A registered email address.   A credit card note: don't worry about fees.  creating the free tier account is totally free.  and there is a list of services that you will have free access to within their respective usage parameters.  Just be aware of these parameters as you can be charged if you go over the usage limit for the free tier account.   Now that you have the requirements available, lets begin creating your account.   First click this:  AWS Free Tier and then...