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AWS lesson

AWS Resource Access Manager (AWS RAM)

AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) is a service that allows you to securely share AWS resources across AWS accounts, within your AWS Organization, or with specific IAM roles and users — without having to duplicate resources.

Instead of creating the same resource in multiple accounts, you create it once in a central account and then grant shared access using AWS RAM.

Key Features

  1. Cross‑Account Resource Sharing
    • Share resources with specific AWS accounts, organizational units (OUs), or your entire AWS Organization.
  2. Granular Control
    • Define exactly which resources (e.g., a specific VPC subnet or Transit Gateway) are shared.
    • Control whether principals can further share resources.
  3. Integration with AWS Organizations
    • Simplifies sharing across multiple accounts under a single organization with centralized governance.
  4. Audit & Tracking
    • Integrated with AWS CloudTrail, so all resource sharing and usage is logged.

Commonly Shared Resources (examples)

  • Networking & Connectivity: Subnets, Transit Gateways, VPC Lattice services, Route 53 Resolver rules
  • Security & Access: License Manager configurations
  • Compute & Storage: Outposts, Dedicated Hosts, FSx file systems
  • Other: Aurora DB clusters, App Mesh

(Availability of shareable resources grows over time, depending on the service.)

Use Cases

  • Centralized Networking:
    • One account creates a Transit Gateway and shares it with multiple VPCs across accounts.
  • Shared Services VPC:
    • A central VPC providing common security tools (firewalls, monitoring) can be shared across accounts.
  • Cost Efficiency in Multi‑Account Orgs:
    • Reduce duplication of expensive resources (e.g., Outposts, FSx).
  • Consistency & Governance:
    • Prevents shadow IT by enabling controlled sharing instead of ad hoc duplication.

Benefits

  • Efficiency – Provision once, share many times.
  • Governance – Centrally control shared access.
  • Security – Fine‑grained permissions + CloudTrail logging.
  • Scalability – Works seamlessly with multi‑account strategies and Organizations.