AWS Audit Manager

AWS Audit Manager is a cloud service provided by Amazon Web Services that helps users automate the process of auditing and compliance by continuously collecting evidence, thus enabling them to assess their AWS environment against industry standards and regulations.

Cloud Services Hub →

What is AWS Audit Manager

Read the extensive description

AWS Audit Manager is a cloud service designed to help organizations automate the process of auditing their use of AWS resources to comply with internal policies, industry standards, and regulations. By streamlining the collection of evidence related to AWS resource usage, it facilitates easier and more efficient audits.

This comprehensive tool simplifies the often complex and time-consuming task of audit preparation which traditionally requires extensive manual labor to gather and manage vast amounts of data spread across different services and accounts.

At its core, AWS Audit Manager focuses on reducing the workload associated with proving compliance with standards and regulations. It does so by continuously mapping your AWS resource configurations against the requirements of the standards or regulations you need to adhere to. The service features pre-built frameworks for common compliance standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, among others.

For organizations that operate under stringent regulatory requirements, this feature alone can save significant amounts of time and reduce the risk of non-compliance related issues. Furthermore, AWS Audit Manager is designed with flexibility in mind, allowing organizations to customize or create their own audit frameworks. This is particularly beneficial for organizations that need to comply with multiple standards or have specific internal audit requirements. Users can define their own control sets and evidence folders, tailor-made to their unique audit needs.

One of the standout features of AWS Audit Manager is its evidence collection and management capabilities. The service automatically collects and organizes evidence of AWS resource usage, which can include configuration snapshots, user activity logs, and other relevant data. This automation not only speeds up the audit process but also helps ensure that the evidence collected is consistent and accurate, reducing the likelihood of manual errors. AWS Audit Manager also enhances collaboration among teams. It provides a centralized platform where audit-related data and tasks can be accessed and managed.

Audit findings can be shared across teams, streamlining the remediation process for any issues that are identified. Moreover, with its built-in audit reporting features, it facilitates the generation of detailed audit reports that can be used to demonstrate compliance to auditors, management, and other stakeholders.

In conclusion, AWS Audit Manager represents a significant leap forward in the way organizations approach auditing their cloud environments. By automating many of the tasks traditionally associated with audits, it not only saves time and reduces cost but also improves the accuracy and reliability of audit outcomes. As cloud adoption continues to grow, tools like AWS Audit Manager will become increasingly important for organizations seeking to maintain compliance and secure their cloud environments effectively.

Key AWS Audit Manager Features

AWS Audit Manager automates evidence collection, offers prebuilt and customizable compliance frameworks, continuously monitors for compliance, and generates audit-ready reports, simplifying compliance and audit processes.

Automated Audit Evidence Collection

AWS Audit Manager automates the collection of evidence required for audits to reduce the manual effort of audit preparation. It maps your AWS resource configuration and activity to audit controls, thereby streamlining evidence collection.

Prebuilt Frameworks

It provides prebuilt frameworks for common compliance standards, such as CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark, PCI DSS, and HIPAA. This helps organizations to quickly align with industry best practices and regulatory requirements.

Continuous Compliance Monitoring

AWS Audit Manager continuously monitors your AWS usage to ensure compliance with various frameworks. It identifies deviations from established policies and standards, enabling proactive risk management.

Customizable Audit Frameworks

You can customize the prebuilt audit frameworks or create your own from scratch to meet specific compliance requirements of your organization. This flexibility ensures that all relevant aspects of your environment are covered.

Audit-ready Reports

Generates comprehensive audit-ready reports that simplify the audit process. These reports can be easily shared with internal and external auditors, streamlining the review process and helping achieve compliance more efficiently.

AWS Audit Manager Use Cases

AWS Audit Manager streamlines and simplifies compliance audit processes, offers continuous compliance monitoring, allows for customizable compliance frameworks, and automates the creation of detailed audit reports, making it easier for organizations to maintain compliance with various standards and regulations.

Simplify Compliance Audits

AWS Audit Manager helps organizations by automating the collection of evidence needed to audit against industry standards and regulations. This reduces the manual task load on compliance teams and speeds up the audit process, ensuring that businesses can more easily meet compliance requirements for standards such as GDPR, ISO, SOC, and HIPAA.

Continuous Compliance Monitoring

With AWS Audit Manager, organizations can continuously monitor their AWS environment to ensure ongoing compliance. This feature provides real-time alerts for any configuration changes that might affect compliance status, allowing for immediate remediation and ensuring that compliance is maintained over time.

Customizable Frameworks for Specific Compliance Needs

Organizations can customize or create new frameworks within AWS Audit Manager to target specific compliance requirements. This flexibility ensures that businesses arenât locked into only major frameworks but can adapt their compliance efforts to fit niche or evolving regulations.

Streamlined Audit Report Generation

AWS Audit Manager automates the generation of detailed audit reports, which can be shared with auditors or used internally. These reports aggregate and organize the evidence collected, making it easier to review and assess compliance, thereby reducing the time and effort required to prepare for audits.

AWS Audit Manager pricing models

AWS Audit Manager pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model for active assessments and incurs additional costs for data storage and usage of other AWS services.

Data storage and usage

In addition to charges for active assessments, AWS Audit Manager also incurs costs based on the amount of data stored and the use of AWS services such as AWS Config rules and AWS Systems Manager documents. These are billed at standard AWS service rates.

Pay-as-you-go

AWS Audit Manager charges based on the number of active assessments over a given month. This includes creating, managing, and evaluating findings via the AWS Audit Manager. The costs accrue for each active assessment you have, and deleting an assessment stops further charges related to that assessment.

Services AWS Audit Manager integrates with

AWS CloudTrail

Enables continuous monitoring and logging of AWS account activity and API usage to help with auditing and compliance.

AWS Config

Provides detailed records of the configuration of AWS resources, including how resources are related to one another and how they were configured in the past.