Client: Padmavati
Industry: Manufacturing / Business Operations
Engagement Type: AWS Security, Governance & Compliance Enhancement

The Challenge

Padmavati was operating critical workloads on AWS without consistent security governance, audit visibility, and standardized retention controls. Key concerns included limited audit logging, lack of network visibility, IAM security risks, and insufficient backup and data retention alignment with compliance needs.

Without addressing these gaps, the organization faced increased security risk, audit challenges, and operational exposure, particularly as workloads and data volumes continued to grow.

This engagement was delivered for an SMB organization operating business-critical workloads on AWS, requiring improved security governance and audit readiness without disrupting day-to-day operations.

Discovery

DevOps TechLab conducted a structured discovery and assessment to understand Padmavati’s AWS environment and governance posture. The discovery phase focused on:

– Review of AWS account security configuration
– Assessment of IAM users, password policies, and MFA enforcement
– Evaluation of audit logging and log retention practices
– Review of network visibility and traffic logging
– Assessment of backup and data retention configurations

This phase helped identify immediate gaps and prioritize security and governance improvements.

Onboarding

Following discovery, DevOps TechLab onboarded Padmavati into a structured security and governance improvement workflow:

– Defined scope focused on security hardening, audit readiness, and governance controls
– Aligned activities with AWS Well-Architected Framework (Security & Reliability pillars)
– Established approval and validation steps before applying changes
– Planned changes to avoid impact on existing production workloads

Operations & Support

During execution, DevOps TechLab supported Padmavati with controlled implementation and operational guidance:

– IAM security hardening through MFA enforcement and secure password policies
– AWS CloudTrail enablement with one-year log retention for audit purposes
– VPC Flow Logs configuration for network traffic visibility
– Review and validation of existing backup and retention configurations
– Ongoing verification to ensure configurations were applied correctly
– Security and governance controls were implemented using AWS-native services to minimize operational overhead for a small internal IT team.

All changes were implemented with minimal operational disruption.

Optimisation & Advisory

Beyond implementation, DevOps TechLab provided advisory support to ensure long-term governance:

– Guidance on improving backup coverage and disaster recovery readiness
– Recommendations for encryption, access control, and future security enhancements
– Advisory on log lifecycle management to balance compliance and cost
– Documentation of security and governance gaps as part of a future improvement roadmap

This ensured Padmavati had a clear path for continuous improvement.

Architecture Overview

The AWS environment was enhanced without architectural redesign, focusing on governance and security improvements:

– Existing AWS account with improved IAM security controls
– AWS CloudTrail enabled for centralized audit logging
– VPC Flow Logs providing network traffic visibility
– Log retention and lifecycle policies aligned with compliance needs
– Governance controls layered on top of existing workloads

The architecture emphasizes security, auditability, and governance, aligned with AWS best practices.

Outcome

As a result of this engagement, Padmavati achieved:

– Improved AWS security posture through IAM hardening and governance controls
– Enhanced audit and compliance readiness with centralized logging
– Better visibility into network traffic and account activity
– Reduced operational risk through standardized security practices
– Alignment with AWS Well-Architected best practices for security and governance
– Improved audit readiness with centralized logging and standardized retention policies
– Reduced security risk by enforcing consistent IAM controls across the AWS account
– Enabled proactive visibility into account activity and network traffic

These improvements created a more secure and compliant AWS foundation.

AWS Best Practices Applied

– Security: IAM hardening, MFA enforcement, centralized audit logging
– Reliability: Backup review and retention alignment
– Operational Excellence: Controlled change execution and validation
– Governance: Log retention, visibility, and audit readiness

About DevOps TechLab

DevOps TechLab is an AWS consulting and cloud optimization company helping SMBs build secure, compliant, and well-governed AWS environments. With deep expertise in AWS security, governance, and operational best practices, DevOps TechLab enables organizations to scale confidently while maintaining strong control over their cloud infrastructure.