Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Importance of a Multi-Account Strategy
- Understanding AWS Private Marketplaces
- Solution Overview: Distributed Serverless Synchronization
- Detailed Solution Walkthrough
- Cleanup Procedures
- Conclusion
- FAQs
Introduction
Have you ever wondered how large organizations manage software procurement across multiple subdivisions while ensuring compliance and simplicity? As businesses expand, maintaining control over software purchases and usage becomes increasingly complex, particularly for multinational conglomerates, consortia, and governmental entities. This article provides an in-depth guide on managing Private Marketplaces within Amazon Web Services (AWS), streamlining this task through a serverless distributed solution. By the end of this post, you’ll understand how to centralize the management of Private Marketplace experiences across several AWS organizations.
Importance of a Multi-Account Strategy
A multi-account strategy is not only a recommended practice by AWS but also an essential framework for addressing security, compliance, cost management, and operational efficiency. By isolating resources into different accounts, organizations can reduce the scope of security incidents, tailor compliance frameworks, and accurately track and allocate operational costs.
Security and Compliance
Isolating resources across multiple accounts helps organizations meet specific regulatory and compliance needs by defining precise boundaries and isolating sensitive data. This structure reduces exposure to security incidents and aids in tracking and managing security breaches efficiently.
Cost Management
Tracking and managing operational costs become more straightforward by separating resources into distinct accounts. Each unit or department can be billed separately, which simplifies budgeting and financial auditing.
Operational Efficiency
Having multiple accounts simplifies the management and deployment of resources, providing an additional layer of scalability and control.
Understanding AWS Private Marketplaces
AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog of third-party software, services, and data, making it simple to find, buy, deploy, and manage solutions from trusted vendors. Building on AWS Marketplace, Private Marketplace allows administrators to curate a tailored catalog of approved software products that comply with organizational policies.
Key Features
- Centralized Management: Administrators can govern which products are available to various units, ensuring compliance with corporate policies.
- Compliance: Helps ensure that procured software adheres to organizational standards.
- Visibility: Offers insights into software usage across the organization.
Unique Challenges
While Private Marketplace offers numerous benefits, managing it across multiple AWS organizations introduces complexity, particularly when synchronizing multiple catalogs and ensuring continual compliance.
Solution Overview: Distributed Serverless Synchronization
Enter the distributed serverless solution—a robust way to keep Private Marketplace experiences synchronized across numerous AWS organizations from a central management account.
Key Components
- Management Component: Deploy this in your central management organization. It monitors and triggers synchronization activities.
- Member Component: Deploy this in each member organization, ensuring the synchronization of experiences.
An hourly synchronization mechanism ensures that each member organization mirrors the management organization's curated experiences. The process includes updating and logging synchronization timestamps for observability.
Implementation Scenarios
- Centralized Control: Manage all member organizations from a single central management organization.
- Independent Management: Enable independent management experiences for different members, if necessary.
Detailed Solution Walkthrough
The following steps guide you through the setup and management of your Private Marketplace across multiple AWS organizations.
Step 1: Enable Private Marketplace
Firstly, activate Private Marketplace in each organization. Best practices advise against using the management account to manage configurations. Instead, designate a separate account within each organization for Private Marketplace delegated administration.
Step 2: Configure Member Experiences
In each member organization, create experiences that will be synchronized with the central management organization. Associate these experiences with your AWS Organizations root node to ensure comprehensive governance.
Step 3: Configure Management Experience
Create a corresponding management experience in the central management organization. This setup will manage the member experiences, ensuring consistent product availability.
Step 4: Deploy Management Component
Deploy the management component within the designated managing account. Once complete, this provides output values essential for deploying the member component.
Step 5: Deploy Member Component
Using the output from Step 4, deploy the member component across your member organizations. This deployment ensures that the member organizations’ experiences remain synchronized with the central management experience.
Step 6: Validation
To verify the proper functioning of your solution, add a product to the management experience. Trigger synchronization manually if required. Afterward, checking AWS Marketplace within a member organization should display the newly added product.
Cleanup Procedures
To deactivate the solution, delete the created resources within each member organization, followed by the central management organization. Archiving Private Marketplace experiences will also restore full product availability in each account.
Conclusion
This distributed, serverless solution transforms how organizations manage their Private Marketplaces across multiple AWS environments, ensuring streamlined, centralized control and compliance. By leveraging AWS delegated administrator functionality, the solution also guarantees that member organizations can only procure approved products. This setup not only simplifies software procurement but also ensures visibility and governance, particularly beneficial for highly regulated industries.
FAQs
Q1: Can I manage multiple member organizations with different experiences?
Yes, the solution allows for the configuration of multiple management experiences, enabling independent control over various member organizations.
Q2: How often does synchronization occur?
Synchronization is triggered every hour, but manual synchronization can be executed as needed.
Q3: Is the use of a management account mandatory?
While the management account is crucial to the centralized management framework, it is best practice to handle all delegated administration responsibilities via designated non-management accounts for security reasons.
Q4: Can I extend this setup to additional AWS organizations in the future?
Absolutely. Follow Steps 4 and 5 to onboard new member organizations under the existing management structure.
Q5: What happens to unsubscribed products in member organizations?
Only live and approved products are synchronized. Previously subscribed products remain unaffected unless explicitly removed.
By following this comprehensive guide, you’re well-equipped to leverage AWS Private Marketplace for effective software procurement management across your organization.
Ready to streamline your AWS operations? Implement this solution today, and ensure that your Private Marketplace remains synchronized, compliant, and efficient.
