The AWS Landing Zone Accelerator (LZA) Community of Practice (CoP) held its kick-off meeting last Tuesday (7/2), and it was a great success.

You might be wondering what the AWS LZA Community of Practice is. The AWS LZA CoP is a place for anyone in the research and education community to to ask questions, share ideas, and give feedback on the AWS LZA solution.

You may also wonder, "What is the AWS LZA?" or "Why should I care about it?" These questions were answered during the kick-off meeting. In short, the AWS LZA is an open-source solution developed by AWS to automate the setup of foundational security and operational best practices in a multi-account AWS environment. Below I’ve shared some links to resources for more details.

Interesting, right? We think so! The kick-off meeting had 18 attendees from 8 institutions along with AWS, Internet2, and TD SYNNEX Public Sector. Participants ranged from those who have implemented and customized the LZA to those who were there to learn and see if it might be suitable for their institution.

The discussion was excellent. Here are some key highlights:

  • Tufts University shared their experience implementing a new, greenfield LZA.
  • Washington State University and the University of Oklahoma discussed their goals, such as aligning with security standards and centralizing AWS accounts.
  • The University of Denver shared their proof of concept and sought operational insights for a production deployment.
  • AWS mentioned that institutions with an NDA will have an opportunity to preview future roadmap items for AWS LZA through this CoP. Contact your account team for assistance if you're unsure about your NDA status.

What's next for the AWS LZA CoP? The long-term goal is to help the research and education community understand, use, and improve AWS LZA through collaboration with other institutions, AWS, and Internet2. It is also to give input to the AWS LZA team on how the project can better meet institutions' needs. In the next meeting, we’ll address unanswered questions like "What are the different flavors of LZA?" and "How can we use LZA with other tools in addition to CloudFormation?" We hope to see you there.

Resources from the call: