AWS Organization Strategy

Purpose

This skill captures organizational AWS multi-account strategy, OU structure, landing zone patterns, and workload placement rules. Customize this skill to reflect your organization's specific AWS structure.

When to Use

•Planning new workloads or accounts
•Understanding account relationships
•Applying organizational policies
•Navigating multi-account operations
•Bootstrapping new accounts

When NOT to Use

•Single-account deployments (simplified patterns apply)
•Cross-organization federation (separate considerations)

Organization Patterns

This skill supports multiple organizational patterns. Configure based on your setup:

Pattern 1: Single Account

code

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│            Single Account           │
│  ┌─────┐ ┌─────┐ ┌─────┐ ┌─────┐   │
│  │ Dev │ │ Stg │ │ Prd │ │ Sec │   │
│  │ VPC │ │ VPC │ │ VPC │ │ VPC │   │
│  └─────┘ └─────┘ └─────┘ └─────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

When to use: Small teams, limited workloads, getting started

Pattern 2: Multi-Account Basic

code

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  AWS Organizations                   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                      │
│  ┌──────────┐                                       │
│  │Management│  (Billing, Organizations)              │
│  └──────────┘                                       │
│                                                      │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐          │
│  │ Security │  │   Dev    │  │   Prod   │          │
│  │ Account  │  │ Account  │  │ Account  │          │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘          │
│                                                      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

When to use: Growing teams, need workload isolation

Pattern 3: Multi-Account with OUs

code

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                       AWS Organizations                           │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                        Management Account                         │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                   │
│  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐  │
│  │   Security OU   │  │ Infrastructure  │  │  Workloads OU   │  │
│  │                 │  │      OU         │  │                 │  │
│  │  ┌───────────┐  │  │  ┌───────────┐  │  │ ┌─────────────┐ │  │
│  │  │  Audit    │  │  │  │  Shared   │  │  │ │ Non-Prod OU │ │  │
│  │  │  Account  │  │  │  │  Services │  │  │ │ ┌─────────┐ │ │  │
│  │  └───────────┘  │  │  │  Account  │  │  │ │ │  Dev    │ │ │  │
│  │  ┌───────────┐  │  │  └───────────┘  │  │ │ └─────────┘ │ │  │
│  │  │Log Archive│  │  │  ┌───────────┐  │  │ │ ┌─────────┐ │ │  │
│  │  │  Account  │  │  │  │  Network  │  │  │ │ │ Staging │ │ │  │
│  │  └───────────┘  │  │  │   Hub     │  │  │ │ └─────────┘ │ │  │
│  │                 │  │  └───────────┘  │  │ └─────────────┘ │  │
│  │                 │  │                 │  │ ┌─────────────┐ │  │
│  │                 │  │                 │  │ │  Prod OU    │ │  │
│  │                 │  │                 │  │ │ ┌─────────┐ │ │  │
│  │                 │  │                 │  │ │ │  Prod   │ │ │  │
│  │                 │  │                 │  │ │ └─────────┘ │ │  │
│  │                 │  │                 │  │ └─────────────┘ │  │
│  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────────┘  └─────────────────┘  │
│                                                                   │
│  ┌─────────────────┐                                             │
│  │   Sandbox OU    │                                             │
│  │  ┌───────────┐  │                                             │
│  │  │  Sandbox  │  │                                             │
│  │  │ Accounts  │  │                                             │
│  │  └───────────┘  │                                             │
│  └─────────────────┘                                             │
│                                                                   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

When to use: Enterprise, compliance requirements, team isolation

Pattern 4: Control Tower Landing Zone

code

Extends Pattern 3 with:
- Automated account provisioning
- Guardrails (preventive and detective)
- Account Factory
- Centralized logging and audit

Account Types

Management Account

Purpose: AWS Organizations management, consolidated billing

Contains:

•Organizations service
•Billing and cost management
•SSO/Identity Center
•SCPs

Rules:

•No workloads
•Minimal direct access
•Break-glass only

Security/Audit Account

Purpose: Centralized security tooling and audit

Contains:

•GuardDuty delegated admin
•Security Hub aggregation
•CloudTrail organization trail
•AWS Config aggregator

Rules:

•Security team access only
•Read-only to other accounts
•Alert destination

Log Archive Account

Purpose: Immutable log storage

Contains:

•S3 buckets for CloudTrail
•S3 buckets for VPC Flow Logs
•S3 buckets for application logs
•Glacier for long-term retention

Rules:

•Write-only from other accounts
•No delete permissions
•Compliance retention policies

Shared Services Account

Purpose: Shared infrastructure services

Contains:

•Transit Gateway
•Shared VPCs (optional)
•Directory services
•Shared container registries
•Shared artifact repositories

Rules:

•Infrastructure team managed
•Shared resources only
•No application workloads

Workload Accounts

Purpose: Application workloads

Types:

•Development accounts
•Staging accounts
•Production accounts

Rules:

•Environment-specific permissions
•Team ownership
•Workload isolation

Sandbox Accounts

Purpose: Experimentation and learning

Contains:

•Experimental workloads
•Proof of concepts
•Training environments

Rules:

•Time-limited or budget-limited
•No production data
•May be periodically cleaned

OU Policies

Service Control Policies (SCPs)

json

// Example: Deny leaving organization
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "DenyLeaveOrganization",
      "Effect": "Deny",
      "Action": "organizations:LeaveOrganization",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

// Example: Require IMDSv2 for EC2
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "RequireIMDSv2",
      "Effect": "Deny",
      "Action": "ec2:RunInstances",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:instance/*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringNotEquals": {
          "ec2:MetadataHttpTokens": "required"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

// Example: Restrict regions
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "DenyOtherRegions",
      "Effect": "Deny",
      "NotAction": [
        "iam:*",
        "organizations:*",
        "support:*"
      ],
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringNotEquals": {
          "aws:RequestedRegion": [
            "us-east-1",
            "us-west-2",
            "eu-west-1"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Workload Placement

Decision Matrix

Workload Type	Account Type	OU
Production app	Prod workload	Production OU
Pre-prod testing	Staging workload	Non-Production OU
Development	Dev workload	Non-Production OU
Security tools	Security	Security OU
Shared networking	Shared services	Infrastructure OU
Experiments	Sandbox	Sandbox OU

Placement Questions

markdown

1. What environment? → Determines OU
2. What team owns it? → May determine specific account
3. What compliance needs? → May require dedicated account
4. What network connectivity? → Determines VPC placement
5. What data classification? → Determines security controls

Network Architecture

Hub-and-Spoke with Transit Gateway

code

                    ┌─────────────────┐
                    │ Transit Gateway │
                    │  (Shared Svcs)  │
                    └────────┬────────┘
                             │
         ┌───────────────────┼───────────────────┐
         │                   │                   │
    ┌────┴────┐        ┌────┴────┐        ┌────┴────┐
    │ Dev VPC │        │ Stg VPC │        │ Prd VPC │
    │ Account │        │ Account │        │ Account │
    └─────────┘        └─────────┘        └─────────┘

VPC Sharing

code

Shared VPC Account
├── Shared-Prod-VPC
│   ├── Private-Subnet-App-A (shared to Account A)
│   ├── Private-Subnet-App-B (shared to Account B)
│   └── Private-Subnet-Shared (shared to all)
└── Shared-Dev-VPC
    └── ...

CIDR Allocation

Example Allocation

markdown

## CIDR Allocation Plan

### Primary Region (us-east-1)
| Environment | CIDR | Notes |
|-------------|------|-------|
| Production | 10.0.0.0/16 | 65,536 IPs |
| Staging | 10.10.0.0/16 | 65,536 IPs |
| Development | 10.20.0.0/16 | 65,536 IPs |
| Shared Services | 10.100.0.0/16 | 65,536 IPs |
| Sandbox | 10.200.0.0/16 | 65,536 IPs |

### Secondary Region (us-west-2)
| Environment | CIDR | Notes |
|-------------|------|-------|
| Production DR | 10.1.0.0/16 | DR site |

### Reserved
| Range | Purpose |
|-------|---------|
| 10.50.0.0/16 - 10.99.0.0/16 | Future expansion |
| 172.16.0.0/12 | On-premises |

Account Provisioning

Account Request Checklist

markdown

## New Account Request

### Basic Information
- [ ] Account name (following naming convention)
- [ ] Environment type (dev/staging/prod/sandbox)
- [ ] Owner team
- [ ] Cost center

### Technical Requirements
- [ ] Required regions
- [ ] Network connectivity needs
- [ ] Compliance requirements
- [ ] Data classification

### Access Requirements
- [ ] Team roles needed
- [ ] Service roles needed
- [ ] Break-glass access plan

### Budget
- [ ] Monthly budget estimate
- [ ] Budget alerts configuration

Account Bootstrap Steps

markdown

1. Create account via Organizations/Account Factory
2. Configure SSO access
3. Apply baseline SCPs
4. Deploy baseline CloudFormation/CDK
   - VPC and networking
   - IAM roles
   - CloudTrail
   - Config
   - GuardDuty membership
5. Configure budgets and alerts
6. Add to monitoring
7. Document in account registry

Customization Guide

To customize this skill for your organization:

•Update the organization pattern section with your actual structure
•Document your specific accounts and their purposes
•Define your CIDR allocation plan
•Specify your SCP policies
•Document your account provisioning process

Store organization-specific details in:

•templates/single-account.md
•templates/multi-account-basic.md
•templates/multi-account-control-tower.md

Related Skills

•aws-governance-guardrails — Policy enforcement
•aws-cli-playbook — Organizations CLI commands
•aws-well-architected — Architectural guidance