How can AWS help a business grow while keeping costs under control?

AWS enables business growth through on-demand scalability that allows companies to expand computing resources instantly without capital expenditure, a pay-as-you-go pricing model that aligns costs with actual usage, and a global infrastructure that enables reaching new markets quickly. Cost optimization tools such as AWS Cost Explorer and Reserved Instances help organizations reduce spending as usage grows.

What is the AWS Well-Architected Framework and why is it important?

The AWS Well-Architected Framework is a set of best practices across five pillars covering operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. It provides a consistent methodology for evaluating cloud architectures and helps organizations identify areas for improvement before investing in long-term cloud strategies.

What are the key security responsibilities for businesses using AWS?

Under the shared responsibility model, businesses must secure their own applications, data, operating systems, and network configurations within AWS. This includes managing IAM permissions, encrypting sensitive data, configuring security groups and VPCs properly, enabling logging and monitoring services, and regularly assessing their cloud environment against security benchmarks.

What services should businesses prioritize when migrating to AWS for the first time?

Organizations migrating to AWS for the first time should prioritize establishing a secure landing zone with proper account structure and IAM policies, setting up network architecture with VPCs and subnets, enabling CloudTrail and GuardDuty for monitoring, and using AWS Migration Hub to track and coordinate their workload migrations. Starting with less critical workloads helps teams build cloud competency before migrating mission-critical systems.

What is AWS and how to safely use Amazon cloud for your...

The era when every company had to invest in building and maintaining its own physical server room is slowly coming to an end. Just as a century ago businesses stopped building their own power plants in favor of buying power from the grid, today organizations around the world are abandoning their own servers in favor of using the computing power, storage space and advanced services provided by global public cloud providers. Cloud computing has become the new default operating model for modern business - from agile startups to the largest global corporations.

The undisputed pioneer and leader of this market is Amazon Web Services (AWS). The platform, which began by offering a few simple services, is today a gigantic ecosystem, encompassing hundreds of products, that powers the operations of millions of companies around the world. The potential that AWS offers for scalability, innovation and cost efficiency is enormous. But with this power comes a new liability model and new, complex cyber security challenges. Moving infrastructure to the cloud does not make security problems magically disappear - they simply change in nature.

This guide is written for business leaders, IT directors and CISOs who are facing the decision to migrate to the cloud or want to optimize and better secure their existing environment on AWS. Step by step, we will answer 12 key questions that will help you understand what AWS is, how to dispel the most common security myths, what the key services are, and how to consciously and securely leverage the potential of the cloud to grow your business.

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What is Amazon Web Services (AWS) and why are the world’s largest companies using it?
What are the biggest myths about data security in the public cloud?

What is Amazon Web Services (AWS) and why are the world’s largest companies using it?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a comprehensive and growing cloud computing platform created and maintained by Amazon. At its core, AWS provides a wide range of IT resources and services over the Internet in an “as a service” model. Instead of buying, installing and maintaining their own physical servers and software, companies can “rent” the resources they need from AWS in minutes, paying only for what they actually use.

Initially, in 2006, AWS offered just a few basic services, such as virtual servers (EC2) and storage space (S3). Today, it’s a portfolio of more than 200 full-featured services, covering virtually every aspect of modern computing - from computing power, databases, analytical tools, machine learning (AI/ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), to mobile applications and satellite technologies.

Behind the global success of AWS and the trust placed in it by millions of companies around the world (including giants such as Netflix, NASA, Coca-Cola and BMW), there are several fundamental advantages:

Scalability and flexibility: This is the cloud’s biggest advantage. A company can run thousands of servers in a matter of minutes to handle a surge in traffic to its site, and then shut them down when traffic drops, paying only for actual usage. This eliminates the need for costly oversizing of one’s own infrastructure “for backup.”
breadth and depth of service portfolio: AWS offers the broadest portfolio of services on the market, allowing companies to build almost any type of application and system in the cloud, from simple websites to complex analytics platforms and AI systems.
Global reach: AWS owns and manages data centers in dozens of regions around the world. This allows companies to easily deploy their applications close to their customers, ensuring low latency and high availability, and to build fault-tolerant architectures for a single data center.
Maturity, reliability and security: As the longest-established and largest public cloud provider, AWS has extensive operational experience. It invests billions of dollars in the security of its global infrastructure, achieving a level of physical and procedural security that is unmatched by almost any single company.

📚 Read the complete guide: Cloud Security / AWS: Bezpieczeństwo chmury publicznej - AWS, Azure, best practices

What are the biggest myths about data security in the public cloud?

Despite the immense popularity of the cloud, there are still many myths and misunderstandings about security that often inhibit migration decisions. It’s worth debunking them once and for all.

Myth 1: “The cloud is inherently unsafe because my data is on someone else’s servers.” This is the most common concern, stemming from the loss of a sense of physical control. In fact, for most companies, a professionally configured cloud environment is much more secure than their own local server room. Providers such as AWS employ the world’s best security experts and employ multi-layered physical security (guards, monitoring, biometric access control) that would be prohibitively expensive to implement in-house. Security problems in the cloud are rarely due to weaknesses in the platform itself - they are almost always the result of configuration errors on the client side.
Myth 2: “The cloud provider is fully responsible for the security of my data.” This is the second, equally dangerous myth. Moving infrastructure to the cloud does not mean transferring all security responsibility. As we’ll explain in a moment, security in the cloud is always a shared responsibility. AWS is responsible for securing its global infrastructure, but the customer is fully responsible for how they use it.
Myth 3: “Amazon employees can view my data.” This is a privacy-related concern. In fact, AWS has strict operational and technical policies that prevent its employees from accessing customer data. What’s more, customers have powerful tools at their disposal to encrypt their data with keys that only they have control over. When properly configured, this data is unreadable by absolutely no one, including AWS staff.

What is the Shared Responsibility Model in AWS?

Understanding this model is absolutely key to using the cloud securely. The Shared Responsibility Model is a fundamental principle that clearly divides security responsibilities between AWS and the customer.

It can be illustrated with a simple analogy of renting an apartment in a guarded apartment building. AWS is responsible for the security of the “cloud” (Security of the Cloud). It is the equivalent of a building administrator. It is responsible for the solid foundations and walls (global data centers), for the physical protection of the entire facility (guards, monitoring), for the smooth operation of installations (network, power, cooling) and for controlling access to common areas. In practice, this means that AWS takes care of the security of the hardware, software and networks on which all cloud services run.

The customer is responsible for security “in the cloud” (Security in the Cloud). This is the equivalent of a tenant in an apartment. The building administrator has provided him with secure walls and a solid front door, but it is the tenant who is responsible for whether he locks that door, who he gives spare keys to, and whether he leaves the first floor window open. In practice, this means that the customer is fully responsible for:

Identity and access management: Deciding who has access to its cloud resources and what permissions they have.
Service configuration: Properly configure each of the AWS services you use.
Data security: Deciding whether and how it encrypts its data.
Network configuration: Properly configure virtual firewalls (security groups) and network segmentation.
Security of operating systems and applications: Install security patches on your virtual servers and take care of the security of your own applications.

Lack of understanding of this division is the cause of most cloud security incidents.

What are the key AWS services for identity, access and data encryption management?

To enable customers to effectively perform their part of the responsibility, AWS provides a powerful set of built-in security services. Among the absolutely fundamental ones are:

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): This is the nerve center for managing access to your entire AWS account. This service allows you to create users, groups and roles and assign them very granular permissions according to the principle of “least privilege.” It allows you to define precisely who (or what, such as an application) can perform what action on what resource.
AWS Key Management Service (KMS): This is a managed service that makes it easy to create and control the cryptographic keys used to encrypt data. With KMS, customers can easily encrypt their databases, disks or files, confident that the keys are securely stored and managed according to best practices.
AWS Secrets Manager: Every application needs access to “secrets” - database passwords, API keys, tokens. Storing them in plain text in code or configuration files is extremely dangerous. Secrets Manager is a service that allows you to securely store, rotate and audit access to this sensitive data.

How do you properly configure a network (VPC) in AWS to isolate your resources?

The primary tool for building a secure network architecture on AWS is the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) service. VPC allows us to create a fully logically isolated, private part of the AWS cloud over which we have full control.

A key concept in VPC design is the division into public and private subnets.

Public subnets are for resources that need to be directly accessible from the Internet, such as web servers or load balancers (gateways).
Private subnets are designed for internal resources that should not have a direct connection to the Internet, such as application servers or, most importantly, databases. Access to the Internet from a private subnet is possible only through a special NAT gateway.

Network traffic to and from individual resources (such as EC2 virtual servers) is controlled by two mechanisms:

Security Groups (Security Groups): Act like a stateful firewall at the single instance level. They allow you to define what inbound and outbound traffic is allowed for a given machine.
Network Access Control Lists (Network ACLs): Act as a stateless firewall at the entire subnet level, providing an additional layer of defense.

Properly designing a VPC architecture with subnetting and rigorous configuration of security groups is the absolute foundation of security on AWS.

How can migrating to the AWS cloud increase the scalability and efficiency of your business?

In addition to security, migrating to the cloud brings a number of benefits that directly translate into business efficiency and innovation. The most important of these is flexibility and scalability. A company can dynamically adapt its infrastructure to current needs. In the case of an online store, you can automatically increase the number of web servers to handle the huge traffic during the Black Friday sales, and automatically reduce their number afterwards, paying only for the power actually used.

The second huge benefit is the acceleration of the pace of innovation. Development teams, instead of waiting weeks for IT to prepare a new server, can get it up and running on their own in minutes with a few clicks. This drastically shortens development cycles and allows for much faster testing and deployment of new ideas.

The third element is cost optimization. The cloud allows the company to change its financial model from CAPEX (capital expenditures) to OPEX (operating expenditures). Instead of incurring huge upfront costs to purchase physical servers, the company pays a monthly bill that reflects its actual resource consumption.

How do you monitor your infrastructure in AWS to detect threats and anomalies in a timely manner?

AWS provides a powerful set of tools that enable comprehensive monitoring of both infrastructure performance and security. Key services in this area include:

Amazon CloudWatch: This is a central service for collecting logs, metrics and events. It allows you to monitor server load, network utilization, and create advanced alerts that notify administrators when defined thresholds are exceeded.
AWS CloudTrail: This is a service that cannot be turned off and is absolutely crucial from a security and auditing perspective. CloudTrail logs every single API call to an AWS account. Every action - from starting a server, to changing a rule in the firewall, to attempting to access data - is recorded, creating a complete and undeniable audit trail.
AWS GuardDuty: This is an intelligent threat detection service. It runs in the background, analyzing logs from various sources (CloudTrail, VPC logs, DNS logs) and using machine learning to identify suspicious and malicious activity, such as port scanning, communication with C&C servers known to distribute malware, or unusual IAM user behavior.
AWS Security Hub: This acts as a central dashboard that aggregates security alerts from all of these services (and partner services) in one place, allowing for easier management and prioritization of threats.

What configuration errors in AWS most often lead to data leaks?

As already mentioned, most security incidents in the cloud are not the result of security breaches of the AWS platform itself, but of client-side configuration errors. Some of the most common and dangerous mistakes include:

Publicly available Amazon S3 buckets: This is a classic and unfortunately still common mistake. Administrators, when storing data in the S3 object service, mistakenly or ignorantly set access permissions in such a way that the contents of the “bucket” become publicly accessible to anyone on the Internet. This is how the data of millions of customers of many global companies has been leaked.
Overly broad permissions in AWS IAM: Granting excessive privileges to users or applications, often amounting to granting “full administrator access” for convenience. If such an account is compromised, the attacker immediately gains full control of the entire environment.
Unsecured security groups: Leaving management ports, such as SSH (port 22) or RDP (port 3389), open to the entire Internet (address 0.0.0.0/0). This is an open invitation to bots that constantly scan the network for such open doors.
No encryption of sensitive data: Storing in unencrypted form databases, backups or files containing personal data or trade secrets.
Lack of rotation and secure storage of access keys: Placing API access keys in publicly available source code on platforms such as GitHub.

How do you optimize the cost of using Amazon’s cloud without sacrificing performance and security?

The flexibility of the cloud is its greatest advantage, but it can also be a pitfall. Without active management, costs can quickly spiral out of control. However, there are a number of proven practices that allow for financial optimization (known as FinOps):

Selecting the right price model: AWS offers different models. The standard “On-Demand” model is the most flexible, but also the most expensive. For fixed, predictable charges, it’s worthwhile to take advantage ofSavings Plans or Reserved Instances, which offer significant discounts in exchange for a one- or three-year commitment.
Auto Scaling (Autoscaling): Instead of maintaining a fixed number of servers, you can set up auto-scaling groups to add new instances during peak hours and automatically remove them when traffic drops.
Shutting down development and testing resources: Development and testing environments typically do not need to run 24/7. Simple scripts can be implemented to automatically shut down these resources during off-hours and restart them in the morning, which can save up to 60-70%.
Choosing the right types of resources: AWS offers hundreds of different types of virtual machines and storage classes, optimized for different applications. Choosing resources that are perfectly suited to our application requirements avoids paying for unused power.

What does the professional process of migrating a company’s infrastructure to the AWS cloud look like?

A successful migration to the cloud is a complex project that requires careful planning and execution. AWS promotes a proven methodology that breaks down the process into several logical phases.

Phase 1: Discover & Assess: The first step is an in-depth analysis of the existing local environment. All applications, servers and dependencies between them should be inventoried. Based on this, a business case for migration is made and the organization’s readiness is assessed.
Phase 2: Planning & Design (Plan & Design): This phase designs the target architecture in the AWS cloud. A so-called “landing zone” - that is, a secure, best-practice network and configuration environment - is created. A detailed migration plan for each application is also developed.
Phase 3: Migration (Migrate): This is the actual process of moving applications and data to the cloud. For each application, one of the strategies (the so-called “7 R’s of Migration”) is chosen, ranging from a simple “lift-and-shift” (moving a virtual machine 1:1) to a full refactoring of the application to a cloud native architecture.
Phase 4: Optimize & Operate: Once the migration is complete, the work doesn’t stop. A continuous process of monitoring and optimizing the new environment for cost, performance and security begins.

Are certifications such as ISO 27001 achievable in a cloud environment?

Yes, not only are they possible, but in many cases the certification process in the cloud is much simpler and cheaper than with on-premises infrastructure. This is a direct result of the shared responsibility model.

AWS, as a vendor itself, goes through extremely rigorous audits and has dozens of major global and local certifications, including ISO 27001, SOC 1/2/3, PCI DSS and many others. This means that the entire “cloud security” layer - that is, the physical protection of data centers, the security of the backbone network and hypervisors - is already certified.

For a customer seeking its own ISO 27001 certification, this means that the vast majority of the requirements in Appendix A, especially those related to physical and environmental security (domain A.11), are already met by AWS. The customer’s auditor can rely on certificates and audit reports from AWS itself. The customer must, of course, still demonstrate that it is securely managing its part of the responsibility (“cloud security”), but the overall scope of the audit and the effort to gather evidence are significantly reduced.

How can nFlo’s portfolio of AWS cloud and cybersecurity services help your business?

Migrating to the AWS cloud opens up tremendous opportunities for a company, but it is also a journey into a new and complex technology environment. The key to success is to conduct this transition in a thoughtful, methodical and, most importantly, secure manner. Having an experienced partner who understands both the potential of the cloud and the risks involved is invaluable in this process.

At nFlo, we specialize in designing, implementing and securing modern IT infrastructures, with a strong focus on cloud technologies. Our portfolio of services is designed to support you at every stage of your journey to the cloud.

Cloud consulting and strategy: We help you create a robust migration strategy that aligns with your business goals and is based on best practices for security and cost optimization.
Designing and implementing a secure AWS architecture: We design and build secure, scalable and efficient environments for you in the AWS cloud. We create a zero-trust network architecture, implement robust identity and access management (IAM) mechanisms, and configure monitoring and logging services.
Cloud Security Posture Management: We offer continuous monitoring and security management services for your infrastructure on AWS. We proactively find configuration errors, assess risks and help you respond quickly to emerging threats.
Migration and optimization: we guide your company through the entire, complex process of migrating applications and data to the cloud, and then help you continuously optimize your environment for cost, performance and security.

Migrating to the AWS cloud is a strategic decision that can accelerate the growth of your business. However, the key to success is to do it thoughtfully and securely. Contact nFlo experts to discuss how we can support you in this transition and ensure that your journey to the cloud is a success.

Learn key terms related to this article in our cybersecurity glossary:

CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) — CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) is a category of cloud security tools…
Ransomware — Ransomware is a type of malicious software (malware) that blocks access to a…
Network Security — Network security is a set of practices, technologies, and strategies aimed at…
Cybersecurity — Cybersecurity is a collection of techniques, processes, and practices used to…
Cybersecurity Incident Management — Cybersecurity incident management is the process of identifying, analyzing,…

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IBM Turbonomic — IBM

What is AWS and how to safely use Amazon's cloud to grow your business?

What is Amazon Web Services (AWS) and why are the world’s largest companies using it?

What are the biggest myths about data security in the public cloud?

What is the Shared Responsibility Model in AWS?

What are the key AWS services for identity, access and data encryption management?

How do you properly configure a network (VPC) in AWS to isolate your resources?

How can migrating to the AWS cloud increase the scalability and efficiency of your business?

How do you monitor your infrastructure in AWS to detect threats and anomalies in a timely manner?

What configuration errors in AWS most often lead to data leaks?

How do you optimize the cost of using Amazon’s cloud without sacrificing performance and security?

What does the professional process of migrating a company’s infrastructure to the AWS cloud look like?

Are certifications such as ISO 27001 achievable in a cloud environment?

How can nFlo’s portfolio of AWS cloud and cybersecurity services help your business?

Migrating to the AWS cloud is a strategic decision that can accelerate the growth of your business. However, the key to success is to do it thoughtfully and securely. Contact nFlo experts to discuss how we can support you in this transition and ensure that your journey to the cloud is a success.

Learn More

Explore Our Services

Explore Our Products

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Przemysław Widomski

Want to Reduce IT Risk and Costs?

What is Amazon Web Services (AWS) and why are the world’s largest companies using it?

What are the biggest myths about data security in the public cloud?

What is the Shared Responsibility Model in AWS?

What are the key AWS services for identity, access and data encryption management?

How do you properly configure a network (VPC) in AWS to isolate your resources?

How can migrating to the AWS cloud increase the scalability and efficiency of your business?

How do you monitor your infrastructure in AWS to detect threats and anomalies in a timely manner?

What configuration errors in AWS most often lead to data leaks?

How do you optimize the cost of using Amazon’s cloud without sacrificing performance and security?

What does the professional process of migrating a company’s infrastructure to the AWS cloud look like?

Are certifications such as ISO 27001 achievable in a cloud environment?

How can nFlo’s portfolio of AWS cloud and cybersecurity services help your business?

Migrating to the AWS cloud is a strategic decision that can accelerate the growth of your business. However, the key to success is to do it thoughtfully and securely. Contact nFlo experts to discuss how we can support you in this transition and ensure that your journey to the cloud is a success.

Related Terms

Learn More

Explore Our Services

Explore Our Products

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Share:

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Przemysław Widomski

Want to Reduce IT Risk and Costs?