Understanding the AWS Shared Responsibility Model
AWS is the Shared Responsibility Model.
When moving from traditional on-premises infrastructure to the cloud, it's easy to think:
“If my application is running on AWS, then AWS takes care of the security.”
But that's not quite how it works.
AWS and the customer have different responsibilities when it comes to security and compliance.
🔹 AWS is responsible for security of the cloud
AWS manages the underlying infrastructure that runs its cloud services.
This includes things such as:
- Physical data centers
- Hardware and networking infrastructure
- Physical security
- Infrastructure supporting AWS services
So, AWS is responsible for protecting the infrastructure that provides its cloud services.
🔹 Customers are responsible for security in the cloud
What the customer needs to secure depends on the AWS services being used, but can include:
- Managing users and permissions
- Protecting credentials
- Configuring security groups
- Managing application data
- Applying appropriate access controls
- Configuring services securely
Why does this matter?
This changed how I think about cloud security.
Cloud platforms don't simply “handle security for you.”
Instead, security becomes a shared responsibility, and understanding where that responsibility lies is essential before deploying applications to the cloud.
It also shows why services such as IAM, EC2, S3, and VPC aren't just random AWS services to memorize. They each play a role in building and securing cloud environments.
I'm still early in my AWS journey, but concepts like this are helping me understand the reasoning behind AWS architecture rather than simply learning individual services.
Learning the cloud isn't just about knowing which service to use - it's also about understanding what you're responsible for when you use it.
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