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8 Useful AWS Security Tips for 2022

8 Efficient & Useful AWS Security Tips for 2022

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers numerous built-in security features for organizations, making it a popular and one of the best Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platforms. However, sophisticated and proper configuration of any cloud environment and AWS cybersecurity settings is important. Through end-to-end cloud security monitoring as well as rapid incident response and mitigation efforts, organizations can avoid financially-draining cloud data breaches.

Here are 8 effective security tips for your AWS environment:

1. Create strong passwords

Make sure everyone in your organization with access to Amazon Web Services uses unique, strong passwords for cloud security monitoring. Use lengthy passwords with special characters, numbers, and alphabets in upper and lower case. For added security, mandate everyone to change their passwords on a monthly or quarterly basis. This will prevent hackers from gaining access to your AWS access for long.

2. Always use multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) while setting up AWS in your organization, or when adding new users, is important. MFA is about adding more than 1 login factor to get access to your account. For example, after entering your password, AWS might send a number code to your smartphone. You need to verify that you have that smartphone and enter the code to get access to your account. Always make sure you set up MFA for the Root users as well as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) users.

3. Keep testing for vulnerabilities

The next important AWS security tip is to conduct regular vulnerability tests in your cloud setting. It is critical to analyze your security environment and infrastructure to look for and analyze vulnerabilities that exist already. After listing and analyzing, the vulnerabilities need to be prioritized.

Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) is a highly effective way to identify vulnerabilities in a cloud environment so that they can be fixed. Vulnerability Assessment helps you discover vulnerabilities in your system and Penetration Testing involves conducting authorized cyberattacks on a system to test the severity of a vulnerability.

4. Manage & Limit access & permissions

This is one of the most crucial AWS security tips that’ll put you in control of who gets access to which features in your cloud environment. AWS gives you ways to enhance security by limiting access and permissions to certain individuals in the organization. You can give access to the AWS features to people who need them. You can also define the tasks that they can perform on AWS and even the level of access you want to give to every employee.

5. Use data encryption

Data encryption is the process of translating data from plaintext to ciphertext (encrypted). Data encryption is a great way of protecting your data from getting in the wrong hands. It helps protect your data from hackers (even if they do manage to get access to your account). Encryption enables the creation of keys that are required to read the data you’re sharing. This AWS tip will help enhance cloud security as it will help you protect critical data, whether financial or otherwise.

6. Regularly backup data to AWS

Backups to the cloud must be done frequently and regularly in any organization. If you don’t carry out timely backups, there’s a chance of you losing your data in an unforeseen event, like accidental deletion of data or data corruption. AWS Backup helps you centralize as well as simplify the process. Moreover, the AWS backup process can also be 100% automated.

7. Add proper contact information

Make sure that the contact information you share with AWS is correct and accurate, including the email address. It’s because if AWS finds any concerning issues in your AWS environment, they might update you regarding the same on the contact information you’ve provided. So, it is also paramount to regularly keep checking the email (and other points of contact you’ve provided) for any emails regarding security.

8. Build layers of threat protection

One of the best practices in AWS in terms of the security of your infrastructure is integrating layered security. Prioritize using a good mix of Amazon VPS, firewall rules, security groups, and network access control lists in the cloud for creating a well-structured and layered network security selection.

GoDgtl offers disruptive AWS Cloud Consulting & Migrations, Cloud Cost Optimization, and Cloud Managed Services. Learn more about our Cloud Computing and Managed Services here.
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8 Most-Effective & Useful Services by AWS for Startups

8 Most-Effective & Useful Services by AWS for Startups

One of the most comprehensive and widely adopted cloud platforms, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers over 200 services to businesses across the globe. If you have a startup and you’re planning to use cloud services, deciding which services would be the best for your business can get quite overwhelming.

To help you in your decision-making process, we’ve compiled a list of the 8 most effective and useful AWS services for startups.

1. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud 2 (EC2)

Amazon EC2, or Elastic Compute Cloud 2, is a startup-essential service that allows you to get virtual computers on rent for running your computer applications. It is a foundational service by Amazon on which many of the AWS services are operated. Amazon EC2 allows you to create virtual machines as well as other server management services, such as port, storage, and security. If you plan on scaling up or down, the interface is pretty straightforward and allows you to do so as per your needs.

2. Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)

Another useful AWS cloud service for startups is Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). It is a cloud object storage suitable for startups and offers scalability, high security, top-notch performance, and data availability. With Amazon S3’s triple-redundant storage, your startup’s data is held safely in 3 different and secure physical locations. Moreover, its FedRAMP and HITECH/HIPAA integrations keep your data and information from being compromised. Despite the presence of these critical integrations and high-security measures, there is no compromise when it comes to speed.

3. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPS)

If you’re looking for an AWS cloud computing service that gives you access to a virtual private cloud, you must explore Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). Amazon VPC’s commercial cloud computing service provisions /logically isolated parts of the AWS cloud.

4. Amazon CloudFront

CloudFront by Amazon is a content delivery network (CDN). The CDN is operated by Amazon Web Services and provides a worldwide-distributed network of proxy servers that cache bulky media, like web videos. Amazon CloudFront helps boost your website/app’s speed by effectively managing your content. The AWS service offers secure and fast API, app, and data delivery so that static website files can be displayed to users from data centers across the world. CloudFront is beneficial for startups because it is offered on a “pay-as-you-go” model and no upfront fee is charged.

5. AWS Lambda

Lambda by AWS is another useful tool for startups that is responsible for running code in response to events. It is an efficient computing service that manages computing resources needed by any code automatically. This serverless, event-driven computing software is also available as a pay-as-you-go service, meaning you only pay for the computing time you use. If your startup is overwhelmingly loaded with requests that your current infrastructure isn’t able to handle, Lambda will help take care of those requests.

6. Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS)

A great way to remind your userbase of using your services is through notifications and emails. It is especially helpful if you have a startup and you have an app that your customer base can use. Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) is an easy-to-use service for sending notifications to your customers. SNS suppers text messaging across 200 countries, email notifications, and mobile push notifications to Android, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Baidu devices.

SNS aims at making communicating with your customers easier by providing many-to-many endpoint-messaging-as-a-service. Moreover, it enables your startup to send SQS and HTML notifications on any platform, be it Android, iOS, or web. SNS can be integrated with any app that’s operating on NodeJS, PHP, etc.

7. AWS Fargate

Fargate by Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most useful and best AWS services for startups. Fargate, a serverless technology, allows you to run and operate containerized applications that do not require you to manage any servers. Using this AWS technology will eliminate the need for you to choose server types, optimize cluster packing, or make decisions on when to scale clusters. It is a pay-as-you-go service that enables you to focus on building groundbreaking applications without having to worry about servers.

8. Amazon Elasticache

With people’s attention span and patience with load time going down, optimizing your website/app speed is crucial. AWS Elasticache is Amazon’s free data caching service that, instead of depending on slower disk-based databases, enhances web app performance by retrieving data from the managed in-memory cache.

Using AWS Elasticache reduce latency significantly for web apps with heavy-to-read workloads. This AWS service is especially popular in startups that are focused on developing Gaming, Healthcare, IoT, and Advertising Technology applications.

There are many other services by Amazon Web Services that startups leverage to level up. If you plan on integrating AWS into your business operations, GoDgtl offers top-notch AWS managed services. We are an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner and can help you figure out your cloud requirements.

Check out our free plan for startups here.
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AWS Cloud Security Case Studies

Case Study | Security and Migration Solution for Property Adviser

Property Adviser is a leading real estate platform that offers an exhaustive range of properties through its self-service, user-friendly, and customized portal. They aim at assisting the 4B’s of real estate (Builders, Brokers, Buyers, and Bankers). Property Adviser was facing multiple challenges while conducting promotional and marketing activities.

The Challenge

Property Adviser was facing multiple challenges while conducting promotional and marketing activities.

Due to the massive database of users and subsequently increasing user activity, their innovative real estate portal crashed frequently. Moreover, the platform didn’t have any scalability features provisioned on-premises. The application was having security breaches making it vulnerable to potential risks.

The application used by Property Adviser was outdated, and it faced multiple issues in terms of new app upgrades and releases. At the same time, Property Adviser was following traditional engineering for versioning.

The Solution

  • After analyzing and conducting in-depth research, GoDgtl by Prutech provided Property Adviser with security and migration service by implementing the lift and shift approach and a robust security solution. Moreover, GoDgtl successfully performed live migration of their platform to AWS and later, provided additional scalability features on the cloud to the client.
  • GoDgtl also delivered Managed DevOps services to Property Adviser to enhance their AWS environment. Managed DevOps services help in the successful deployments through effective mechanisms enabling agility and higher speed. Our solution architects ensured a security first approach through a cost-effective solution.
  • By utilizing AWS tools and services such as Amazon Security Hub, Guard Duty, AWS Shield & AWS Config, the cloud environment is now better organized and secure for Property Adviser customers.

Results & Benefits

After successfully implementing the AWS services the following enhancements were experienced by the customer:

  • Migration: GoDgtl successfully migrated the on-premises data of the client to AWS cloud through Lift and Shift service. We offered Cloud assessment services to inventory all existing applications that are optimized for cloud and provide reliable support for the workloads. With the expertise support from GoDgtl’s team Property Adviser was able to migrate to AWS cloud with minimal downtime and zero data loss.
  • Scalability: Property Adviser achieved scalability through the effective implementation of auto scaling and load balancing services. The renewed architecture helped ease the process of stabilizing the infrastructure and scope for continuous enhancement.
  • Stronger Security Posture: GoDgtl created a stronger security posture for protecting sensitive data and for eliminating potential threats. GoDgtl’s security policies helped the client operate more securely and benefit from the scale and performance of the cloud. AWS best practices were implemented to eliminate direct access to the application ensuring overall security.
  • Cost Optimization: Property Adviser achieved overall security and scalability and reduced up to 30% of its cloud infrastructure costs by implementing GoDgtl’s effective cloud services. The company’s IT organization gained agility and responsiveness to deliver better service and leverage new technologies as they develop. Cost reduction and reduced latency
  • GoDgtl successfully integrated the above-mentioned solutions and features into the real estate portal of Property Adviser. We automated CI/CD Pipelines and added scalability to the platform. The first production market went live in just one month after the first tests were conducted on the AWS platform.

About GoDgtl

GoDgtl by PruTech is an Advanced Consulting Partner of AWS. Through our innovative and customized cloud services, we help our customers to design, architect, build, migrate, and manage their workloads and applications on cloud, accelerating their journey to the cloud. We offer cost-effective and secure cloud solutions through the effective implementation of the latest cloud technologies and processes that are highly scalable and compatible with changing market demands.

Our cloud managed services are offered through a holistic approach to the cloud

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4 Steps to Strategize Cloud Adoption

4 Steps to Strategize Cloud Adoption_ AWS

It has become imperative for businesses to be on cloud. They must be creative with their IT transformation strategy in formulating agile business processes such as customer resource management (CRM) systems, storage systems, complex process automation, and for yielding social media and mobile technologies. Companies have this at their core that this practice will help them to adapt to rapidly changing customer demands and business environments faster than the traditional deployments will do.

Let’s see the steps to strategize cloud adoption:

Step one: Assess

You should assess the cloud deployment hurdles, opportunities, threats, and success rates data present in the market to easily realize the business proposition, IT feasibility, and USP factors for your organization to deploy your applications in cloud.

An assessment should include testing and reporting the success stories, risks, and roadblocks involved in cloud adoption. Next, you should scrutinize cloud vendors for partnerships to help you on your digital transformation journey.

This step will give you the right guidance for understanding the pros and cons and is vital for an efficient cloud migration.

Step two: Plan

Businesses must formulate a tailor-made cloud strategy. You Should plan to yield an old setup with software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS) formulation, as well as test suitable deployment models and more to set up a suitable road map and cloud process.

Step three: Adopt

The planning and adoption phases are closely stitched together as they have multiple steps that are intertwined. While testing the collateral during formulation, it is important to assess available cloud computing and adoption strategies (NIST Guidelines, OpenStack adaptability, and portability standards, as well as methodologies for migrating applications).

Step four: Optimize

Optimizing your company’s processes and software licenses will help you understand the advantages of state-of-the-art efficiency for increased value to the company and the customer.

  • Carry on “lessons learned sessions” after each cloud deployment session and filter your processes further.
  • Come up with required skill road maps and assemble skilled resources ahead of a deployment

So, in summary, assess the value of cloud for your business; strategize a simple deployment plan first, and slowly migrate to planning for ERPs, adapt to learning and strategic options, and lastly, filter out your assessments, deployment methods, and processes, and continuously refine your strategy.

Need help in migrating to AWS? Contact us today to work with a team of AWS-certified professionals and an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner in India.