Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy at the 2015 re:Invent conference. (Amazon Photo)
Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy at the 2015 re:Invent conference. (Amazon File Photo)
AWS Graphic
AWS Organizations Graphic

LAS VEGAS — Amazon Web Services made its first product announcement from its re:Invent 2016 conference here this evening, unveiling a new way for companies and other organizations to centrally manage multiple AWS accounts, called AWS Organizations.

The service, released tonight in preview, is the latest effort by Amazon to boost the adoption of its cloud platform among large companies and enterprise customers, a market that’s traditionally a stronghold for Microsoft, which makes the rival Azure cloud platform.

Here’s an Amazon video explaining the service.

AWS said Organizations makes it easier for IT teams to manage multiple AWS accounts. AWS Organizations can be used to create groups of AWS accounts. Then policies can be applied to these groups to help centrally manage security and automation settings.

Groupings can be used to organize AWS accounts by application, environment, team, or any other breakdown that makes sense, AWS said. This helps prevent users of individual accounts from having unintended access to AWS services. For example, policies can be set that specify tighter controls than the AWS Identity and Access Management policies for the same account. Users in these accounts will be held to the more restrictive AWS Organizations policy.

AWS Organizations includes APIs that can be used to automate the creation of new accounts, helping eliminate the need for manual processes and custom account-configuration scripts. With AWS Organizations, accounts can be configured with the correct permissions, based on group membership. For example, administrators can automatically create sandbox accounts for new developers in their organization.

AWS Organizations can be used to set up a single payment method for multiple AWS accounts through consolidated billing. That service offers a combined view of AWS charges incurred by all accounts and provides a cost report for each individual account in an organization.

Re:Invent began Monday and continues through Thursday, with livestreamed keynotes by AWS CEO Andy Jassy on Wednesday at 8 a.m. Pacific Time and by AWS CTO Werner Vogels at 8:30 a.m. PT on Thursday.

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