Landing Zones, Secure Workloads & Cloud-Native at Enterprise Scale
Amazon Web Services (AWS) gives you the building blocks to run anything—from web apps to AI training to global data platforms.
SolveForce designs AWS environments that are secure by default, governed, cost-efficient, and ops-ready: multi-account landing zones, network & identity guardrails, automation (IaC/DevOps), and day-2 operations wired to evidence.
Where this fits in our system:
☁️ Cloud → Cloud • 🔗 On-ramps → Direct Connect • 🌍 Delivery → CDN
🔒 Security → Cybersecurity • 📊 SIEM/SOAR → SIEM / SOAR
🧱 IaC/DevOps → Infrastructure as Code • DevOps / CI-CD
💰 Cost → FinOps • 🔑 Keys → Key Management / HSM • Encryption
🎯 Outcomes (Why SolveForce on AWS)
- Secure landing zone — multi-account, identity-first, least-privilege with guardrails.
- Deterministic network & access — private on-ramps, segmented VPCs, policy-as-code. → Direct Connect
- Automated builds — everything as code (accounts, VPCs, IAM, pipelines). → Infrastructure as Code
- Day-2 ready — monitoring, SIEM/SOAR hooks, DR runbooks, test-restore evidence. → SIEM / SOAR • DRaaS
- Cost control — tagging, budgets/alerts, rightsizing, commitment planning. → FinOps
🧭 AWS Scope (What we build & run)
- Accounts & Organizations — multi-account strategy (prod/non-prod/shared services), SCPs, guardrails.
- Networking — VPC designs (subnets, routing, NAT/IGW/EIGW), Transit Gateway, private service endpoints, Direct Connect hubs. → Direct Connect
- Identity — AWS SSO/Identity Center federation with your IdP; short-lived roles; least privilege. → IAM / SSO / MFA
- Compute — EC2 Auto Scaling, ECS/Fargate, EKS (Kubernetes), Lambda (serverless). → Kubernetes • Serverless
- Data — RDS/Aurora, DynamoDB, S3 lake, Glue, Redshift/EMR/lakehouse patterns. → Data Warehouse / Lakes • ETL / ELT
- AI/ML — GPU fleets for training/inference, SageMaker pipelines, vector DB integrations. → Bare Metal & GPU Compute • Vector Databases & RAG
- Security & keys — KMS/CloudHSM, Secrets Manager, WAF/Bot, GuardDuty/Detective, Config, Audit Manager. → Key Management / HSM • WAF / Bot Management
- Backup & DR — EBS/EFS/RDS snapshots, cross-region copies, S3 Object Lock, runbooks & drills. → Cloud Backup • DRaaS
🧱 Landing Zone (Secure by Default)
- Organizations & accounts — prod / non-prod / shared services / security / audit; SCPs to restrict risky APIs.
- Identity & access — federate SSO/MFA, role-based access (least privilege), session limits; admin identities separate. → IAM / SSO / MFA
- Network guardrails — baseline VPC templates, Transit Gateway hubs, dedicated inspection VPCs, private endpoints to core services.
- Logging & evidence — org-wide CloudTrail, Config, flow logs, GuardDuty → centralized log archive → SIEM. → SIEM / SOAR
- Encryption & keys — KMS CMKs per account/region, key aliases, rotation, CloudHSM where required; envelope encryption patterns. → Encryption • Key Management / HSM
🔗 Connectivity & Delivery (Fast paths, private by default)
- Private on-ramps — Direct Connect into hub colos; dual ports/sites; BGP policy & LAG for resilience. → Direct Connect
- Edge — CDN for acceleration/offload; WAF/Bot at POP; origin cloaking + mTLS back to AWS. → CDN • WAF / Bot Management • Encryption
- Hybrid WAN — SD-WAN to hubs with per-app SLO steering; Anycast for global entry points. → SD-WAN • BGP Management
☁️ Compute Patterns (Pick the right engine)
- EC2 Auto Scaling — stateful/stateless servers, launch templates, warm pools for low churn.
- ECS/Fargate — containerized apps without cluster ops; per-service IAM, task-level security.
- EKS (Kubernetes) — cluster-as-code, managed node groups, CNI choices, service mesh (mTLS, policy). → Kubernetes
- Lambda (Serverless) — event-driven, pay-per-ms; Step Functions for workflows; API Gateway for front doors. → Serverless
- GPU clusters — p4/p5 families, managed spot fleets, NCCL-aware networking for training. → Bare Metal & GPU Compute
🗄️ Data & Analytics (Warehouse/Lake/Lakehouse)
- S3 + Lake Formats — Parquet/ORC + Iceberg/Delta/Hudi tables; lifecycle policies; Object Lock for immutability.
- Ingest — Kinesis/MSK (Kafka), DMS/CDC, Glue jobs; dbt & SQL ELT. → ETL / ELT
- Serve — Redshift/Spectrum, Athena, EMR/Databricks SQL Warehouse; semantic layer + BI. → Data Warehouse / Lakes
- AI/RAG — publish curated tables to vector indexes; guarded retrieval with citations. → AI Knowledge Standardization • Vector Databases & RAG
🔒 Security Controls (Concrete, enforceable)
- Account factory & guardrails — create accounts via pipeline; SCPs for deny-by-default high-risk actions.
- Network segmentation — per-tier VPCs, security groups (least privilege), NACL boundaries; inspection VPC for north-south.
- Identity — SSO/MFA, role session TTLs, permission boundaries, access analyzer; JIT elevation via PAM. → PAM
- Secrets & keys — Secrets Manager / Parameter Store; KMS/HSM for CMK/KEK/DEK hierarchy; dual-control for key ops. → Key Management / HSM
- Boundary & bots — WAF managed + positive models; Bot management for stuffing/carding/scrape control. → WAF / Bot Management
- Detection & IR — GuardDuty/Detective -> SIEM/SOAR; SOAR playbooks for block/isolate/revoke/snapshot. → SIEM / SOAR
💾 Backup, DR & Immutability
- Backups — EBS/EFS/RDS snapshots, S3 versioning + Object Lock (Governance/Compliance). → Cloud Backup
- Cross-region — snapshot copy & replication; DNS & infrastructure failover runbooks.
- DRaaS — pilot-light/warm standby/full hot; RPO/RTO SLAs documented & tested with artifacts. → DRaaS
- Evidence — restore screenshots, checksums, time-to-first-byte; exports to SIEM for audits. → SIEM / SOAR
💰 FinOps (Predictable cost, no surprises)
- Tagging & allocation — account/OUs + tag policies; dashboards by BU/product/env.
- Commit planning — Savings Plans/Reserved Instances hygiene; Spot where safe.
- Rightsizing & scheduling — idle stops, scale-to-zero serverless patterns.
- Storage lifecycle — S3 Standard → IA → Glacier tiers with retrieval time SLAs.
- Egress awareness — CDN offload, granular restores, private endpoints. → CDN • Cloud Backup
- Governance — budgets, alerts, anomaly detection, change reviews. → FinOps
🛠️ Automation & Ops (Everything as Code)
- IaC — Terraform/CloudFormation/CDK; reusable modules; pipelines for plan/apply with approvals. → Infrastructure as Code
- CI/CD — CodePipeline/GitHub/GitLab; Canary/Blue-Green; artifacts signed (JWKS/PKI) & verified. → DevOps / CI-CD • PKI
- Observability — CloudWatch/Lambda Telemetry/OpenTelemetry → central analytics; SLO dashboards.
- Security analytics — CloudTrail/Config/GuardDuty/ALB/WAF/S3 access logs → SIEM; SOAR playbooks for auto-contain. → SIEM / SOAR
📐 SLO Guardrails (Experience & safety you can measure)
| SLO / KPI | Target (Recommended) |
|---|---|
| Direct Connect attach (p95) | ≤ 2–5 ms to region border (metro) |
| ALB/CloudFront added latency (p95) | ≤ 5–20 ms at edge |
| EC2 scale-out to healthy (p95) | ≤ 2–5 min (AMI warm pool helps) |
| EKS node join (p95) | ≤ 3–6 min |
| Backup success (rolling 30d) | ≥ 99% |
| Test-restore cadence | Monthly tier-1; Quarterly others |
| Policy deploy → live (p95) | ≤ 60–120 s (WAF/IAM/SCP with rings) |
| Evidence completeness | 100% (changes, restores, incidents) |
SLO breaches open tickets and trigger SOAR actions (rollback, relax rule, promote capacity). → SIEM / SOAR
🧪 Reference Patterns (By outcome)
A) Internet-facing web/API
- CloudFront + WAF/Bot → ALB → ECS/EKS; origin mTLS; token/JWT with JWKS; DDoS playbooks. → WAF / Bot Management • DDoS Protection
B) Data platform / AI
- S3 + Iceberg tables, Glue/DBT, Redshift/Athena; GPU training fleet; vector DB; guarded RAG. → Data Warehouse / Lakes • Vector Databases & RAG
C) Regulated workloads (HIPAA/PCI)
- CMK/HSM custody; Object Lock; ZTNA for admin; SASE egress; immutable logs to SIEM; evidence packs. → Key Management / HSM • ZTNA • SASE
D) Hybrid enterprise
- Dual-site Direct Connect; Transit Gateway hub-and-spoke; SD-WAN integration; Anycast front doors; shared services account.
📜 Compliance Mapping (Examples)
- PCI DSS — encryption, segmenting CDE, logging, WAF evidence.
- HIPAA — ePHI safeguards, audit controls, key custody.
- ISO 27001 — operations security, access control, incident evidence.
- NIST 800-53/171 — AC/AU/SC families; cloud-specific controls via Config/GuardDuty.
- CMMC — identity, segmentation, audit, incident response maturity.
All mapped to AWS services + SolveForce runbooks; artifacts stream to SIEM with WORM options. → SIEM / SOAR
🛠️ Implementation Blueprint (No-surprise rollout)
- Assess & plan — workloads, data classes, RPO/RTO, compliance targets.
- Design landing zone — accounts/OUs, guardrails/SCPs, identity federation, logging. → IAM / SSO / MFA
- Network — VPCs, Transit Gateway, endpoints, Direct Connect hubs; DNS strategy. → Direct Connect
- Security & keys — KMS/HSM, Secrets Manager, baseline WAF/Bot; SIEM/SOAR wiring. → Key Management / HSM • WAF / Bot Management • SIEM / SOAR
- IaC/CI-CD — modules, pipelines, controls; change & approval flows. → Infrastructure as Code • DevOps / CI-CD
- Backup/DR — snapshots, cross-region copy, Object Lock, DR drills & evidence. → Cloud Backup • DRaaS
- Observability/FinOps — SLO dashboards; budgets/alerts; commitment plan. → FinOps
- Operate & tune — weekly posture & cost reviews; quarterly DR tests; publish RCAs & improvements.
✅ Pre-Engagement Checklist
- 🧭 Workload inventory (risk tiers, data classes, owners).
- 🔐 Compliance goals (PCI/HIPAA/ISO/NIST/CMMC) & evidence format.
- 🌐 Network plan (on-ramps, DNS, VPC topology).
- 🔑 Key/secret posture (KMS/HSM, rotation, vault).
- 🛡️ Security stack (WAF/Bot, GuardDuty, Config, SIEM/SOAR).
- 🧱 IaC/CI-CD standards; change approvals.
- 💾 Backup/DR policies; test-restore schedule.
- 💰 Budget guardrails; tagging taxonomy; cost alerts.
🔄 Where AWS Fits (Recursive View)
1) Grammar — traffic & control ride Connectivity & Networks & Data Centers.
2) Syntax — AWS resources compose in Cloud patterns (serverless, containers, lakehouse).
3) Semantics — Cybersecurity preserves truth; KMS/HSM prove key custody.
4) Pragmatics — SolveForce AI predicts capacity, cost, and risk, and auto-tunes policies.
5) Foundation — consistent terms via Primacy of Language.
6) Map — indexed across the SolveForce Codex & Knowledge Hub.
📞 Build & Run AWS with Security, Speed & Evidence
Related pages:
Cloud • Direct Connect • CDN • WAF / Bot Management • Cloud Backup • DRaaS • Kubernetes • Serverless • Bare Metal & GPU Compute • FinOps • Cloud IAM / MFA • Secrets Management • Infrastructure as Code • DevOps / CI-CD • Encryption • Key Management / HSM • SIEM / SOAR • Cybersecurity • Knowledge Hub