Security is one of the most important advantages of cloud technology and AWS has made substantial investments in extensive security capabilities. All AWS users benefit from a higher level of security with industry compliance standards. These security features are provided as an indelible and essential part of the service, at no extra cost.

Public sector institutions need to define and document their strategy for IT security as they make the journey to the cloud. Create a strategy that articulates the security principles necessary for the institution to evolve and operate safely at peak efficiency. The strategy should also provide a set of catalytic actions and metrics to guide the implementation roadmap. Steps to creating an effective strategy include:

Leverage industry best practices on security and audit. Provides assurance that AWS has effective physical and logical security controls in place.

Educate customers on cloud security basics. All key stakeholders should understand cloud basics, such as their roles and responsibilities in the shared responsibility model. Work towards standardizing the security approval process as part of the broader cloud governance model.

Engage with AWS Professional Services and solution architects. Security engagements are part of a comprehensive approach to security control selection, workload compliance validation, and building security operations that capitalize on the cloud’s agility, TCO, and security innovation.