AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) is a service that enables you to share AWS resources across multiple AWS accounts within your organization or with external accounts. This capability is essential for managing organizational complexity in enterprise environments where resources need to be accessed …AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) is a service that enables you to share AWS resources across multiple AWS accounts within your organization or with external accounts. This capability is essential for managing organizational complexity in enterprise environments where resources need to be accessed by different teams, departments, or partner organizations.
Key features of AWS RAM include:
1. **Resource Sharing**: RAM allows you to share resources such as VPC subnets, Transit Gateways, Route 53 Resolver rules, License Manager configurations, and many other AWS resources. This eliminates the need to duplicate resources across accounts, reducing costs and administrative overhead.
2. **Integration with AWS Organizations**: RAM integrates seamlessly with AWS Organizations, enabling you to share resources with all accounts in your organization or specific organizational units (OUs). You can enable sharing within your organization through the AWS Organizations console.
3. **Granular Permissions**: Resource owners maintain full control over shared resources and can specify which principals (accounts, OUs, or the entire organization) can access specific resources. Consumers can use shared resources as if they owned them, subject to the permissions granted.
4. **Centralized Management**: RAM provides a centralized view of all shared resources and sharing relationships, making it easier to audit and manage resource access across your organization.
5. **Security and Compliance**: Shared resources remain in the owner account, maintaining security boundaries. CloudTrail logs all RAM API calls for auditing purposes.
Common use cases include sharing VPC subnets for centralized networking, sharing Transit Gateways for hub-and-spoke architectures, and sharing AWS License Manager configurations for software license compliance.
For the Solutions Architect Professional exam, understanding RAM is crucial for designing multi-account architectures that balance resource efficiency with security and governance requirements.
AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) is a critical service for organizations managing multiple AWS accounts. As enterprises grow, they often adopt multi-account strategies for security isolation, billing separation, and organizational structure. RAM addresses the challenge of sharing resources across these accounts without duplicating infrastructure, reducing costs and administrative overhead while maintaining security and governance.
What is AWS Resource Access Manager?
AWS Resource Access Manager is a service that enables you to securely share AWS resources across AWS accounts within your organization or with specific AWS accounts. Instead of creating duplicate resources in each account, RAM allows you to create a resource once and share it with other accounts, promoting resource efficiency and centralized management.
Step 1: Create a Resource Share The resource owner creates a resource share in RAM, specifying which resources to share and with whom (AWS accounts, organizational units, or the entire organization).
Step 2: Specify Principals Principals are the AWS accounts, OUs, or organization that will receive access. When sharing within AWS Organizations with sharing enabled, recipients automatically gain access. For external accounts, an invitation is sent.
Step 3: Accept the Share (if required) For accounts outside your organization, the recipient must accept the resource share invitation. Within Organizations with trusted access enabled, acceptance is automatic.
Step 4: Access Shared Resources Once shared, the recipient account can use the shared resources as if they were in their own account, subject to the permissions granted.
Key Concepts
Resource Shares: A container that specifies the resources to share, the principals to share with, and the permissions granted.
Principals: AWS accounts, organizational units (OUs), or an entire organization that receives access to shared resources.
Managed Permissions: AWS-managed policies that define what actions principals can perform on shared resources.
Trusted Access: When enabled in AWS Organizations, allows automatic resource sharing without invitations.
VPC Subnet Sharing - A Common Use Case
One of the most popular RAM use cases is VPC subnet sharing: - The networking team creates and manages VPCs centrally - Subnets are shared with application accounts - Application teams deploy resources into shared subnets - Network configuration remains centrally controlled - Each account maintains ownership of resources they create in shared subnets - Security groups and resources remain account-specific
Benefits of Using RAM
- Cost Reduction: Avoid duplicating resources across accounts - Operational Efficiency: Centralized resource management - Security: Resources stay in the owner account with controlled access - Simplified Networking: Share VPC infrastructure while maintaining isolation - Governance: Centralized control with distributed usage
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM)
Tip 1: Recognize Multi-Account Scenarios When exam questions describe organizations with multiple AWS accounts needing to share resources efficiently, RAM is typically the answer. Look for keywords like share resources, cross-account, and multi-account architecture.
Tip 2: VPC Sharing vs VPC Peering RAM subnet sharing allows accounts to deploy resources into shared subnets. VPC Peering connects separate VPCs. If the question involves a central networking team managing VPCs while other teams deploy into those networks, RAM is the solution.
Tip 3: Understand Ownership Resources created in shared subnets are owned by the account that created them, not the subnet owner. This is a key distinction tested in exams.
Tip 4: Organizations Integration RAM works seamlessly with AWS Organizations. When trusted access is enabled, sharing within the organization does not require invitation acceptance. Questions about streamlined sharing often point to this integration.
Tip 5: Know What Cannot Be Shared RAM cannot share all AWS resources. Security groups, for example, cannot be shared - each account creates their own even when using shared subnets.
Tip 6: Cost Attribution Data transfer and resources created in shared subnets are billed to the account that created them, not the resource share owner. This supports cost allocation in shared environments.
Tip 7: Transit Gateway Sharing Sharing Transit Gateways via RAM is the recommended approach for hub-and-spoke network architectures across multiple accounts. This is a frequently tested scenario.
Tip 8: Elimination Strategy When you see options involving copying resources to each account or complex custom solutions for cross-account access, consider whether RAM provides a simpler native solution.
Common Exam Scenarios
- A company wants to centralize VPC management while allowing application teams to deploy EC2 instances → Use RAM to share subnets - Multiple accounts need to connect to a central Transit Gateway → Share Transit Gateway via RAM - An organization wants to share Route 53 Resolver rules across accounts → Use RAM resource sharing - Reduce duplicate infrastructure costs in a multi-account setup → Implement RAM for resource sharing