Security of the AWS Infrastructure

The AWS infrastructure has been architected to be one of the most flexible and secure cloud computing environments available today. It is designed to provide an extremely scalable, highly reliable platform that enables customers to deploy applications and data quickly and securely.

This infrastructure is built and managed not only according to security best practices and standards, but also with the unique needs of the cloud in mind. AWS uses redundant and layered controls, continuous validation and testing, and a substantial amount of automation to ensure that the underlying infrastructure is monitored and protected 24x7. AWS ensures that these controls are replicated in every new data center or service.

All AWS customers benefit from a data center and network architecture built to satisfy the requirements of our most security-sensitive customers. This means that you get a resilient infrastructure, designed for high security, without the capital outlay and operational overhead of a traditional data center.

AWS operates under a shared security responsibility model, where AWS is responsible for the security of the underlying cloud infrastructure and you are responsible for securing workloads you deploy in AWS (Figure 1). This gives you the flexibility and agility you need to implement the most applicable security controls for your business functions in the AWS environment. You can tightly restrict access to environments that process sensitive data, or deploy less stringent controls for information you want to make public.

Figure 1: AWS Shared Security Responsibility Model