AWS Cloud Orchestration for Credit Unions Automate your cloud infrastructure without breaking compliance.

Try It Yourself - Free AWS Orchestration Lab

Even if you're deep in Azure or still on-prem, AWS offers a no-commitment sandbox to experiment with orchestration tools - perfect for credit union IT teams who want to automate without breaking anything. Here's a deeper dive into each step.

1. Create a Free AWS Account

Start at aws.amazon.com/free. You'll provide an email, create a password, and enter a credit card (required for identity, but you won't be charged unless you exceed usage). Choose the Basic Support Plan - that one's free.

Optional but smart: In the AWS Console, go to Billing > Budgets and create a $0 alert so you'll get notified if anything becomes billable.

2. Launch a CloudFormation Stack

CloudFormation lets you deploy infrastructure (like VPCs and EC2 instances) using prebuilt templates.

This will spin up a working VPC, subnets, and one EC2 instance. Free-tier eligible sizes like t2.micro or t3.micro won't trigger billing unless left running for weeks.

3. Add Automation with Systems Manager

Systems Manager (SSM) lets you run commands on your EC2 instance, patch it, and store state - all from the AWS Console. First, make sure SSM Agent is installed on your EC2 instance (Amazon Linux 2 and recent Windows AMIs have it pre-installed).

Congrats - you're now automating actions across cloud resources. This is the basis for patch jobs, drift remediation, and compliance enforcement later.

4. Trigger with Lambda

Next, set up a basic Lambda function to automatically tag any new EC2 instances or send an alert. Lambda is serverless, meaning you don't provision anything - it just runs code when triggered.

Use it to apply naming tags, auto-start backups, or even enforce policies like 'no untagged EC2 allowed.'

5. Monitor & Clean Up

Use AWS Config to track resources, config drift, and compliance rules. Or go simpler with CloudWatch Logs to review activity and Lambda output.

When you're finished experimenting, go back to CloudFormation and delete the stack - this removes all associated resources and avoids any future charges.

That's it! You've just built and automated a cloud environment - without buying anything or committing to AWS long-term. It's one of the easiest ways to get familiar with orchestration, even if you stay in Azure for production.

Common Questions

Free Templates & Resources

• Secure VPC CloudFormation Template
  
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  AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
  Description: Basic VPC with 2 public subnets and Internet Gateway
  
  Resources:
    MyVPC:
      Type: AWS::EC2::VPC
      Properties:
        CidrBlock: 10.0.0.0/16
        EnableDnsSupport: true
        EnableDnsHostnames: true
        Tags:
          - Key: Name
            Value: CU-VPC
  
    InternetGateway:
      Type: AWS::EC2::InternetGateway
      Properties:
        Tags:
          - Key: Name
            Value: CU-Gateway
  
    AttachGateway:
      Type: AWS::EC2::VPCGatewayAttachment
      Properties:
        VpcId: !Ref MyVPC
        InternetGatewayId: !Ref InternetGateway
  
    PublicSubnet1:
      Type: AWS::EC2::Subnet
      Properties:
        VpcId: !Ref MyVPC
        CidrBlock: 10.0.1.0/24
        AvailabilityZone: !Select [ 0, !GetAZs '']
        Tags:
          - Key: Name
            Value: CU-PublicSubnet1
  
    PublicSubnet2:
      Type: AWS::EC2::Subnet
      Properties:
        VpcId: !Ref MyVPC
        CidrBlock: 10.0.2.0/24
        AvailabilityZone: !Select [ 1, !GetAZs '']
        Tags:
          - Key: Name
            Value: CU-PublicSubnet2
  
    RouteTable:
      Type: AWS::EC2::RouteTable
      Properties:
        VpcId: !Ref MyVPC
  
    PublicRoute:
      Type: AWS::EC2::Route
      DependsOn: AttachGateway
      Properties:
        RouteTableId: !Ref RouteTable
        DestinationCidrBlock: 0.0.0.0/0
        GatewayId: !Ref InternetGateway
  
    RouteTableAssoc1:
      Type: AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation
      Properties:
        SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet1
        RouteTableId: !Ref RouteTable
  
    RouteTableAssoc2:
      Type: AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation
      Properties:
        SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet2
        RouteTableId: !Ref RouteTable

• SSM Patch Baseline for Windows Server
  
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  {
    "Name": "CU-Windows-Baseline",
    "OperatingSystem": "WINDOWS",
    "ApprovalRules": {
      "PatchRules": [
        {
          "PatchFilterGroup": {
            "PatchFilters": [
              {"Key": "PRODUCT", "Values": ["WindowsServer2019", "WindowsServer2022"]},
              {"Key": "CLASSIFICATION", "Values": ["SecurityUpdates", "CriticalUpdates"]}
            ]
          },
          "ApproveAfterDays": 3,
          "EnableNonSecurity": false
        }
      ]
    },
    "ApprovedPatchesComplianceLevel": "CRITICAL",
    "RejectedPatchesAction": "BLOCK",
    "Description": "Patch baseline for Windows servers in credit union environment"
  }

• Lambda: Auto-tagging EC2 Instances
  
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  import boto3
  
  def lambda_handler(event, context):
      instance_id = event['detail']['instance-id']
      ec2 = boto3.client('ec2')
      ec2.create_tags(Resources=[instance_id], Tags=[
          {'Key': 'Environment', 'Value': 'Test'},
          {'Key': 'Owner', 'Value': 'Automation'}
      ])