Management and Governance Related Services
1. AWS Organizations
AWS Organizations is a service that helps businesses centrally manage and govern multiple AWS accounts from a single place. It allows companies to group accounts, apply policies, control permissions, and manage billing across all accounts in an organized way. With AWS Organizations, businesses can create a hierarchical structure using Organizational Units (OUs) and apply service control policies (SCPs) to enforce rules across accounts. It is mainly used by large enterprises that operate multiple teams, projects, or environments within AWS. The service simplifies cost management, security enforcement, and compliance at scale.
Example:
A large IT company can use AWS Organizations to separate AWS accounts for development, testing, and production teams while controlling budgets and security policies centrally.
2. CloudWatch
Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring and observability service that helps developers and system administrators track the performance and health of AWS resources and applications in real time. It collects metrics, logs, and events from services like EC2, Lambda, RDS, and many others to provide insights into system behavior. CloudWatch allows users to set alarms, create dashboards, and automatically react to changes in system performance, such as scaling resources or sending alerts when issues occur. It is widely used for application monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, and operational troubleshooting. AWS manages the underlying data collection and storage, making it easy to gain visibility into cloud systems.
Example:
An e-commerce company can use Amazon CloudWatch to monitor server CPU usage and automatically trigger alerts or scale resources when website traffic increases during a sales event.
3. AWS Auto Scaling
AWS Auto Scaling is a service that automatically adjusts the number of compute resources in response to application demand. It helps maintain application performance and reduce costs by scaling resources such as Amazon EC2 instances up or down based on traffic or load conditions. AWS Auto Scaling continuously monitors metrics like CPU usage, network traffic, and request counts to decide when to add or remove capacity. It ensures that applications remain available during high traffic and do not waste resources during low usage. It is commonly used in web applications, APIs, and backend systems that experience fluctuating workloads.
Example:
An online shopping website can use AWS Auto Scaling to automatically add more EC2 servers during festive sales when traffic is high and reduce them afterward to save costs.
4. CloudFormation
AWS CloudFormation is a service that allows developers to define and manage AWS infrastructure using code instead of manual setup. It uses templates (written in JSON or YAML) to describe resources like EC2 instances, databases, networks, and security configurations, and then automatically creates and configures them. This approach is called Infrastructure as Code (IaC), which makes infrastructure repeatable, consistent, and easier to manage. CloudFormation also helps track changes, update resources safely, and roll back if something goes wrong during deployment. It is commonly used for automating cloud infrastructure setup in development, testing, and production environments.
Example:
A software team can use AWS CloudFormation to automatically create an entire application environment including EC2 servers, databases, and networking with a single template instead of setting everything up manually.
5. AWS Config
AWS Config is a service that helps users monitor, assess, and audit the configuration of AWS resources over time. It continuously records configuration changes of resources like EC2 instances, S3 buckets, IAM roles, and more, and allows users to see how their environment has changed. AWS Config also helps evaluate whether resources comply with organizational policies and security rules. It provides a history of configurations, relationships between resources, and compliance dashboards for auditing purposes. It is commonly used for security monitoring, governance, and compliance management in AWS environments.
Example:
A company can use AWS Config to track whether any S3 bucket was accidentally made public and automatically get alerts if it violates security policies.
6. Service Catalog
AWS Service Catalog is a service that allows organizations to create, manage, and distribute approved IT services and resources that users can deploy on AWS. It helps companies define standardized templates for infrastructure like EC2 instances, databases, networking setups, and applications, ensuring consistency and compliance across teams. Instead of allowing users to manually create resources, Service Catalog provides a controlled list of approved products that can be launched with proper configurations. It is commonly used by large enterprises to enforce governance, reduce configuration errors, and simplify resource provisioning. It integrates with AWS CloudFormation to automate the deployment of cataloged services.
Example:
A large IT company can use AWS Service Catalog to provide developers with pre-approved server and database setups so they can launch environments quickly without violating company security policies.
7. Systems Manager
AWS Systems Manager is a service that helps users manage, operate, and automate tasks across AWS resources and on-premises servers from a single interface. It provides tools for monitoring system health, applying patches, running commands remotely, managing configurations, and automating operational workflows. Systems Manager allows administrators to control large fleets of servers without logging into each machine individually. It is commonly used for system maintenance, security updates, compliance management, and operational automation. AWS handles the backend coordination, making infrastructure management more efficient and centralized.
Example:
A company managing hundreds of EC2 instances can use AWS Systems Manager to automatically install security updates and run diagnostic commands across all servers at once without manual intervention.
8. Trusted Advisor
AWS Trusted Advisor is a service that helps users optimize their AWS environment by providing real-time guidance and best practice recommendations. It analyzes AWS accounts and gives suggestions in areas like cost optimization, security, performance, fault tolerance, and service limits. Trusted Advisor acts like an automated cloud consultant that continuously checks your setup and highlights improvements. It is widely used to reduce costs, improve security posture, and ensure AWS resources follow best practices. AWS provides different levels of checks depending on the support plan.
Example:
A company running multiple EC2 instances can use AWS Trusted Advisor to identify underutilized servers and shut them down to reduce unnecessary cloud costs.
9. Control Tower
AWS Control Tower is a service that helps organizations set up and govern a secure, well-architected multi-account AWS environment. It provides a pre-built framework called a landing zone, which includes best-practice configurations for security, compliance, identity management, and account structure. AWS Control Tower automates the setup of new AWS accounts and applies governance rules (called guardrails) to ensure all accounts follow organizational policies. It is mainly used by enterprises that manage many AWS accounts across different teams or projects. The service simplifies governance, reduces setup complexity, and improves security consistency across the entire AWS environment.
Example:
A large enterprise can use AWS Control Tower to automatically create separate AWS accounts for development, testing, and production teams while enforcing security rules across all of them.
10. AWS Well-Architected Tool
AWS Well-Architected Tool is a service that helps cloud architects and developers review their AWS workloads against best practices defined by the AWS Well-Architected Framework. It evaluates applications based on key pillars such as security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and operational excellence. The tool guides users through structured questionnaires to identify risks and improvement opportunities in their cloud architecture. It then provides recommendations to improve system design and reduce potential issues. It is commonly used during architecture reviews, cloud optimization, and system audits.
Example:
A startup running a web application on AWS can use AWS Well-Architected Tool to identify security gaps and optimize its infrastructure for better performance and lower costs.
11. Amazon Q Developer in chat applications (previously AWS chatbot)
Amazon Q Developer in chat applications is an AI-powered assistant that integrates into chat platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams to help developers and teams get answers about AWS, troubleshoot issues, and manage cloud resources through natural language conversation. It allows users to ask questions about infrastructure, logs, deployments, and best practices without switching to the AWS console. The service is designed to improve productivity by providing instant guidance, automation support, and contextual AWS knowledge directly inside chat applications. It can also help with operational tasks like diagnosing errors or suggesting fixes. It is commonly used by DevOps teams and developers for faster problem-solving and cloud management.
Example:
A DevOps engineer in a Slack channel can ask Amazon Q Developer why an application deployment failed, and it can analyze logs and suggest the likely cause and fix instantly.
12. Launch Wizard
AWS Launch Wizard is a service that helps users deploy applications on AWS by automatically guiding them through sizing, configuring, and provisioning the required resources. It simplifies the deployment of enterprise applications such as Microsoft SQL Server, SAP, and other complex workloads by recommending the right AWS resources based on application requirements. The service reduces manual effort by generating a deployment plan and automatically creating the necessary infrastructure. It is mainly used by organizations that want to quickly set up production-ready environments without deep AWS expertise. AWS Launch Wizard also ensures best practices for performance, security, and cost optimization during setup.
Example:
A company deploying a Microsoft SQL Server database can use AWS Launch Wizard to automatically choose the right EC2 instances, storage, and networking configuration and deploy the database in minutes instead of manually setting it up.
13. AWS Compute Optimizer
AWS Compute Optimizer is a service that analyzes the utilization of AWS resources and provides recommendations to improve performance and reduce costs. It uses machine learning to evaluate usage patterns of services like EC2 instances, Auto Scaling groups, EBS volumes, and Lambda functions. Based on this analysis, it suggests the optimal resource types, sizes, and configurations for better efficiency. The service helps businesses avoid over-provisioning or under-provisioning cloud resources. It is commonly used for cost optimization, performance tuning, and improving overall cloud efficiency.
Example:
A company running multiple EC2 servers can use AWS Compute Optimizer to identify instances that are underutilized and downgrade them to smaller, cheaper configurations to save costs.
14. Resource Groups and Tag Editor
AWS Resource Groups and Tag Editor is a tool that helps users organize, manage, and search AWS resources using tags and logical groupings. Resource Groups allow you to create collections of AWS resources (like EC2 instances, S3 buckets, or databases) based on tags or shared attributes, making it easier to manage related resources together. Tag Editor lets users quickly add, edit, or remove tags across multiple AWS resources in bulk. Tags are key-value labels used for organizing, filtering, and tracking costs or ownership of resources. This service is commonly used for cost management, resource tracking, and simplifying operations in large AWS environments.
Example:
A company can use AWS Resource Groups and Tag Editor to group all resources related to a âproduction web appâ and quickly track its total cost and manage updates across all associated services.
15. Amazon Grafana
Amazon Managed Grafana is a fully managed service that allows users to visualize, analyze, and monitor data from multiple sources using dashboards. It is based on the open-source Grafana platform and integrates with AWS services like CloudWatch, X-Ray, OpenSearch, and various databases. It helps developers and operations teams create real-time dashboards to monitor application performance, infrastructure health, and business metrics. AWS manages scaling, security, authentication, and availability, so users can focus on data visualization instead of infrastructure setup. It is widely used for observability, system monitoring, and performance analysis in cloud environments.
Example:
A DevOps team can use Amazon Managed Grafana to create dashboards that display CPU usage, error rates, and latency of their web application in real time for better system monitoring.
16. Amazon Prometheus
Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus is a fully managed monitoring service that helps collect, store, and analyze metrics from containerized and cloud-native applications. It is based on the open-source Prometheus project and is commonly used with Kubernetes and microservices architectures. The service automatically scales to handle large volumes of metrics and integrates with Amazon EKS, ECS, and other AWS services. It is mainly used for system monitoring, performance tracking, and alerting in real-time applications. AWS manages the underlying infrastructure, so users do not need to operate or scale Prometheus servers manually.
Example:
A company running applications on Amazon EKS can use Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus to monitor container performance and trigger alerts if CPU usage or response times become too high.
17. AWS Resilience Hub
AWS Resilience Hub is a service that helps businesses evaluate, improve, and track the resilience of their applications running on AWS. It analyzes application architectures and provides recommendations to improve fault tolerance, recovery, and overall system reliability. AWS Resilience Hub allows users to define recovery objectives like RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and checks whether applications meet these targets. It integrates with other AWS services to continuously monitor and assess resilience posture. The service is mainly used for disaster recovery planning and ensuring critical applications remain available during failures.
Example:
A banking application can use AWS Resilience Hub to ensure its systems can recover quickly during outages and meet strict uptime requirements for financial transactions.
18. Incident Manager
AWS Incident Manager is a service that helps organizations prepare for, respond to, and recover from operational incidents in their AWS environments. It provides a structured way to manage incidents by coordinating alerts, communication, and response actions through predefined runbooks. AWS Incident Manager integrates with services like CloudWatch to automatically detect issues and trigger incident workflows. It also helps teams collaborate during outages by providing a central dashboard for tracking progress and resolution steps. The service is mainly used to reduce downtime and improve response speed during system failures or disruptions.
Example:
A company running an online banking platform can use AWS Incident Manager to automatically alert engineers, start a response plan, and coordinate recovery steps when a critical server outage occurs.
19. AWS for SAP
AWS for SAP is a set of AWS services, tools, and best practices designed to help businesses run SAP workloads in the AWS cloud. SAP systems are used by large enterprises for managing business processes like finance, supply chain, HR, and logistics. AWS for SAP provides optimized infrastructure, certified instance types, and automation tools to ensure SAP applications run with high performance, reliability, and security. It supports SAP HANA and other SAP applications with features like backup, disaster recovery, and scaling. The service is commonly used by enterprises migrating their SAP systems from on-premises data centers to the cloud.
Example:
A global manufacturing company can use AWS for SAP to run its SAP ERP system in the cloud to manage inventory, finance, and supply chain operations across multiple countries.
20. AWS Telco Network Builder
AWS Telco Network Builder is a service that helps telecommunications companies design, deploy, and manage network functions in the AWS cloud. It provides tools to automate the creation of telecom networks such as 5G cores, radio access networks, and virtual network functions using predefined templates and blueprints. AWS Telco Network Builder reduces the complexity of building large-scale telecom infrastructure by simplifying configuration, deployment, and lifecycle management. It also integrates with AWS infrastructure to ensure scalability, security, and reliability. The service is mainly used by telecom operators to modernize their networks and transition from traditional hardware-based systems to cloud-native architectures.
Example:
A telecom company can use AWS Telco Network Builder to deploy a cloud-based 5G network core that supports high-speed mobile internet services for customers.
21. AWS Health Dashboard
AWS Health Dashboard is a service that provides real-time information about the status and availability of AWS services. It shows alerts, ongoing issues, maintenance events, and service disruptions that may affect AWS resources. The dashboard is divided into two parts: the Public Health Dashboard, which shows general AWS service status for everyone, and the Personal Health Dashboard, which provides customized alerts related to a userâs specific AWS account. It helps businesses stay informed about outages and planned maintenance so they can respond quickly. The service is mainly used for monitoring AWS reliability and operational awareness.
Example:
A company running critical applications on AWS can use the AWS Health Dashboard to get notified if there is an ongoing issue with EC2 or S3 that may affect their services.
22. AWS Proton
AWS Proton is a fully managed deployment service that helps organizations standardize and automate the setup of container-based and serverless applications. It is designed for platform engineering teams who want to provide ready-to-use templates for infrastructure and application deployments. Developers can use these templates to deploy services without worrying about underlying infrastructure details. AWS Proton manages provisioning, updates, and governance, ensuring that applications follow organizational best practices. It is commonly used in microservices environments where many teams deploy similar types of applications across ECS, EKS, or Lambda.
Example:
A large tech company can use AWS Proton to allow different development teams to deploy microservices using pre-approved infrastructure templates, ensuring consistency and reducing setup time.
23. AWS Sustainability
AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool is a service that helps customers measure, monitor, and understand the carbon emissions associated with their AWS usage. It provides detailed reports on energy consumption and carbon footprint across AWS services, helping organizations track their environmental impact over time. The tool allows businesses to analyze trends, set sustainability goals, and identify ways to reduce carbon emissions by optimizing cloud usage. It is mainly used by companies focused on environmental responsibility and sustainability reporting. AWS uses data from its global infrastructure to estimate emissions for customer workloads.
Example:
A global IT company can use AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool to track how much carbon is produced by its cloud workloads and make decisions to reduce emissions by optimizing resource usage or choosing more efficient architectures.
24. AWS User Notifications
AWS User Notifications is a service that helps users receive and manage alerts about AWS events in a centralized way. It allows you to configure notifications for service updates, health events, security alerts, and resource changes across AWS accounts and regions. The service integrates with multiple AWS sources like AWS Health, CloudWatch, and Trusted Advisor to deliver consistent notifications. Users can choose how they receive alerts, such as email, SMS, or AWS Console notifications. It helps teams stay informed about important AWS activities without checking multiple dashboards.
Example:
A DevOps team can use AWS User Notifications to get instant alerts on their phone or email if an EC2 instance goes down or if there is a security issue in their AWS environment.
25. AWS Partner Central
AWS Partner Central is a portal and management platform designed for AWS Partners to build, grow, and manage their business relationship with AWS. It provides access to tools, training, marketing resources, funding programs, and co-selling opportunities with AWS sales teams. Partners can register solutions, track customer opportunities, access AWS programs, and earn certifications or competencies through the platform. AWS Partner Central is mainly used by consulting firms, managed service providers, software vendors, and system integrators who work with AWS customers. It helps partners collaborate with AWS and scale their cloud-based business offerings.
Example:
A cloud consulting company can use AWS Partner Central to register its services, access AWS training, and collaborate with AWS sales teams to help customers migrate their applications to the cloud.
26. CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail is a service that records and monitors all API calls and account activity across your AWS environment. It provides detailed logs of actions taken by users, services, and applications, such as creating EC2 instances, modifying S3 buckets, or changing security settings. CloudTrail helps with security monitoring, compliance auditing, and troubleshooting by maintaining a history of all AWS activity. It can store logs in Amazon S3 and integrate with services like CloudWatch for real-time analysis and alerts. It is commonly used by organizations to track changes, detect unauthorized actions, and meet compliance requirements.
Example:
A company can use AWS CloudTrail to find out who deleted an important S3 bucket and when the action was performed by reviewing the recorded API activity logs.
27. AWS License Manager
AWS License Manager is a service that helps organizations manage, track, and control software licenses used in AWS and on-premises environments. It simplifies the management of licenses for software from vendors like Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and others by providing centralized visibility and control. AWS License Manager allows businesses to set licensing rules, enforce usage limits, and avoid over-provisioning or non-compliance. It integrates with AWS services to automatically track license usage across EC2 instances and other resources. The service is commonly used by enterprises to reduce licensing costs, improve compliance, and simplify software license management.
Example:
A company running Microsoft Windows Server on AWS can use AWS License Manager to track how many licenses are being used and ensure they do not exceed their purchased license limit.
28. AWS Resource Explorer
AWS Resource Explorer is a service that helps users quickly search and discover AWS resources across multiple regions and accounts from a single interface. It creates an index of resources such as EC2 instances, S3 buckets, IAM roles, and more, making it easy to find and view them without switching between regions. AWS Resource Explorer simplifies resource management by providing a unified search experience across the entire AWS environment. It is especially useful in large organizations with many resources spread across different accounts and regions. The service helps improve visibility, operational efficiency, and resource tracking.
Example:
A cloud administrator can use AWS Resource Explorer to quickly find all running EC2 instances across multiple regions without manually checking each AWS region one by one.
29. Service Quotas
AWS Service Quotas is a service that helps users view, manage, and request increases for AWS service limits (also called quotas). Every AWS service has default limits, such as the number of EC2 instances, S3 buckets, or API requests allowed per account. AWS Service Quotas provides a centralized dashboard to monitor these limits and track usage across services. It also allows users to request quota increases directly without contacting AWS support manually. This helps prevent service interruptions and ensures applications can scale smoothly. It is commonly used for capacity planning, scaling workloads, and managing large AWS environments.
Example:
A company planning a big product launch can use AWS Service Quotas to increase its EC2 instance limit in advance so the application can handle a sudden spike in traffic.