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AWS Audit Manager

1. Introduction​

In today’s cloud environment, organizations face ever-growing compliance requirements and frequent audits. AWS Audit Manager addresses this challenge by offering a service that continuously audits your AWS usage to help you maintain a state of readiness for external and internal audits. Whether your company must adhere to frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI, Audit Manager simplifies the process by automating the collection and organization of evidence. This service enables you to assess risk and compliance across your AWS workloads—providing a clear view into how well your policies, procedures, and activities (collectively known as controls) are functioning.

By automatically gathering compliance reports and evidence folders, AWS Audit Manager reduces the manual overhead involved in audit preparation. As your organization evolves, the service continuously validates that your resources remain compliant with your chosen regulatory standards, ensuring that your audit posture remains robust.

2. Core Features​

AWS Audit Manager offers several core features that streamline risk assessment and compliance activities:

2.1. Continuous Compliance & Risk Assessment​

Audit Manager continuously monitors your AWS resources to determine whether they adhere to the compliance requirements defined in your chosen frameworks. It automatically assesses the risk associated with each resource and identifies control gaps. If any resource does not comply, the service notifies you and provides actionable items to address the non-compliant issues. This ongoing evaluation ensures that even as your infrastructure grows, you are always aware of your compliance posture.

2.2. Automated Evidence Collection​

One of the key strengths of AWS Audit Manager is its ability to automate evidence collection. Once an assessment is initiated, the service begins gathering evidence across the defined AWS accounts, regions, and services. Evidence may include resource configuration snapshots, change activity logs, and compliance check results—each mapped to the specific control requirements in your assessment. By automating these tasks, Audit Manager reduces the labor-intensive efforts traditionally associated with manual evidence collection.

2.3. Multi-Account/Region Support​

For organizations with complex, distributed AWS environments, Audit Manager provides robust support for multi-account and multi-region deployments. Through its integration with AWS Organizations, the service can conduct assessments across numerous accounts, consolidating evidence into a central, delegated administrator account. This feature ensures that regardless of where your resources reside, you maintain a consistent and comprehensive view of your compliance status.

3. AWS Service Integrations​

AWS Audit Manager does not work in isolation; it is tightly integrated with several other AWS services to provide a holistic view of your security and compliance landscape:

  • AWS Security Hub: Audit Manager leverages findings from Security Hub to gather compliance evidence—capturing the results of security checks and compliance assessments that are run against your AWS resources.
  • AWS Config: By integrating with AWS Config, Audit Manager collects configuration snapshots and rule evaluations, which are crucial for determining whether resources are compliant with defined standards.
  • AWS CloudTrail: CloudTrail logs provide a detailed audit trail of API calls and changes within your account. Audit Manager uses this information to corroborate evidence regarding resource changes and user activities.
  • AWS Control Tower: For organizations managing multiple accounts, Control Tower helps enforce governance and best practices. Audit Manager works with Control Tower to incorporate guardrails and compliance checks into your overall audit process.
  • AWS License Manager: To assist with software licensing audits, Audit Manager integrates with License Manager—aggregating license usage information and mapping it to defined licensing controls.

These integrations enable a broad, automated, and efficient collection of evidence, ensuring that every aspect of your AWS usage is covered when preparing for audits.

4. Audit Workflow Setup​

The audit workflow in AWS Audit Manager is designed to provide an end-to-end solution for continuous compliance:

AWS Audit Manager

  1. Framework Selection: Begin by choosing one or more prebuilt frameworks that match the regulatory or industry standards your organization must meet. Frameworks provide a structured set of controls, each with detailed testing procedures and requirements.
  2. Scope Definition: Define the scope of your assessment by specifying the AWS accounts, regions, and services to be included. This step ensures that Audit Manager collects evidence from the correct resources and eliminates unnecessary noise.
  3. Automated Evidence Collection: Once the assessment is launched, Audit Manager automatically collects evidence from integrated data sources (such as AWS Config, CloudTrail, and Security Hub). This evidence is organized by control and stored securely.
  4. Control Reviews and Delegation: Review the collected evidence for each control. If necessary, delegate specific controls to subject matter experts who can validate or supplement the evidence with manual inputs.
  5. Root Cause Analysis and Remediation: If any control is found to be non-compliant, Audit Manager provides actionable insights to identify the root causes and remediate issues promptly.
  6. Report Generation: Finally, once the assessment is complete, generate audit-ready reports. These reports include a summary document and organized evidence folders, making it easier to demonstrate compliance during formal audits.

This workflow not only reduces manual effort but also ensures that audit and compliance teams can respond swiftly to emerging risks and compliance gaps.

5. Conclusion​

AWS Audit Manager is a powerful service that transforms the traditional, labor-intensive audit process into a streamlined, automated workflow. By continuously monitoring your AWS environment, automating evidence collection, and integrating with key AWS services, Audit Manager simplifies how organizations assess risk and maintain compliance. Its ability to scale across multiple accounts and regions makes it an essential tool for modern enterprises facing complex regulatory requirements.