Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Understanding the Need for Centralized Management
- Architectural Framework of a Distributed Serverless Solution
- Step-by-Step Solution Implementation
- Ongoing Management and Considerations
- Conclusion
- FAQ
Introduction
Imagine operating a vast multinational enterprise, each of your subsidiary entities harnessing the power of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to drive innovation and efficiency. Managing compliance, cost allocation, and resource security across such a network can be daunting. This complexity necessitates a strategic approach to streamline processes while ensuring adherence to compliance and security standards. In this blog post, we delve into the nuanced process of managing Private Marketplace across multiple AWS organizations, elucidating a centralized yet distributed serverless solution that offers control and observability.
This solution provides a structured method of centralizing administrative efforts, which is particularly valuable for organizations needing to regulate software procurement, ensure compliance, and monitor expenditures accurately.
By the conclusion of this article, you will have a robust understanding of how to effectively manage AWS Private Marketplace experiences across varied organizations from a central account, ensuring compliance and synchronization while maintaining operational efficiency.
Understanding the Need for Centralized Management
Managing AWS resources through a multi-account strategy yields numerous benefits, such as enhanced security, regulatory compliance, and precise cost tracking. However, the complexity of maintaining uniform policies and ensuring consistent experiences across various entities within an organization can be cumbersome. Here, the AWS Private Marketplace enters the scene, providing a digital catalog of third-party software, services, and data, all accessible in one platform.
For organizations with multiple AWS environments, the ability to synchronize these experiences centrally is imperative. This not only aids in maintaining compliance and governance but also simplifies the procurement processes and ensures consistency across different units of the organization.
Architectural Framework of a Distributed Serverless Solution
This article outlines a serverless distributed solution to manage AWS Private Marketplace across multiple organizations. This solution is built on a foundation of two core components that operate to ensure synchronized experiences across all member organizations.
Component Overview
- Management Component: Deployed in the central management organization, this monitors the experiences and triggers synchronization events.
- Member Component: Deployed across member organizations, ensuring the implementation of updates as triggered by the management component.
Through these components, the administrative efforts are centralized within a single organization, providing uniformity and governance across all entities.
Centralized vs. Independent Management Scenarios
This solution caters to two primary scenarios:
- Centralized Management: All member organizations are governed from a central management experience.
- Independent Management: Allows creation of multiple management experiences, permitting segmented control over different member organizations.
Step-by-Step Solution Implementation
Step 1: Enable Private Marketplace in Each Organization
To initiate, Private Marketplace must be enabled within each AWS organization. It is recommended to steer clear of utilizing the primary management account for security best practices. Instead, utilize a designated administrative account within each organization for this activation and subsequent component deployment.
Step 2: Configure Member Experiences
Create individual experiences within each member organization, ensuring they align with the management experience within the central organization. These experiences must be live to facilitate synchronization. It is crucial to associate these experiences with the AWS Organizations' root node to extend governance comprehensively.
Step 3: Establish the Management Experience
Develop a custom experience within the central management organization. This experience will serve as the blueprint for all member experiences, guaranteeing that products and services adhere to predetermined policies and standards.
Step 4: Deploy the Management Component
Install the management component in the chosen account within the central management organization. This deployment will yield output parameters crucial for configuring the member component.
Step 5: Deploy the Member Component
Using the output parameters from the previous step, deploy the member component across each organization. This process ensures that updates from the management experience are distributed and implemented within all member organizations.
Step 6: Validate Synchronization
To ensure the solution is operational, you can manually trigger synchronization events. Start by adding a product to the management experience and observing the updates across member organizations. Initial synchronizations may take longer, with subsequent updates processing quicker as only deltas are considered.
Ongoing Management and Considerations
Repeating for Multiple Experiences
If your organizational structure necessitates multiple management experiences, repeat the outlined steps for each new scenario. Ensure that enabling Private Marketplace is a one-time activity for each organization.
Ensuring Proper Cleanup
Should you need to disable the solution, begin by deleting the resources in the member organizations followed by the management organization. This ensures prevention of unnecessary charges while maintaining control over resource configurations.
Conclusion
Employing a serverless distributed system for managing AWS Private Marketplace across multiple organizations offers a prudent approach to maintaining consistency, governance, and compliance. The outlined solution not only aligns policy implementation across varied entities but also simplifies administrative overhead, reducing the complexity associated with distributed management.
Organizations operating in highly regulated industries will particularly benefit from this systemic approach, achieving regulatory compliance while efficiently managing software procurement.
FAQ
Q: Why should I avoid using the management account for deployment? A: Utilizing a non-management account for deployments enhances security by minimizing the risk exposure of critical accounts.
Q: Can this solution handle a high number of products within an experience? A: Yes, while initial synchronizations of many products might take longer, subsequent updates are processed faster as they only include deltas.
Q: How often are synchronizations triggered? A: Synchronizations are triggered automatically every hour, but they can also be manually initiated for immediate updates.
Q: What happens if I need to manage additional member organizations later? A: You can simply deploy the necessary components in the new organizations and integrate them into the existing synchronization framework.
Q: Is it possible to synchronize only specific member experiences? A: Yes, by specifying the experience IDs within the MEMBER_EXPERIENCE_IDS environment variable, you can restrict synchronization to selected experiences.
Through meticulous adherence to these steps and considerations, your organization can achieve a robust, streamlined management system that stands resilient against the growing complexity of modern, multi-entity AWS environments.
