Building an AWS Audit Manager Solution in Under Two Days with Amazon Q

As a security services provider, we're always looking for ways to help our clients achieve and maintain compliance more efficiently. Recently, we had an opportunity to build a comprehensive AWS Audit Manager solution for a client, and thanks to Amazon Q, we were able to go from concept to production in under two days.

The Challenge

Our client needed a way to:

• Automate evidence collection for compliance frameworks (HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC 2, etc.) across multiple AWS accounts
• Deploy AWS Audit Manager consistently across their organization
• Create and manage compliance assessments programmatically
• Schedule regular evidence collection and reporting

Traditionally, this would have taken weeks of development time, but with Amazon Q's assistance, we were able to accelerate the process significantly.

How Amazon Q Helped

Amazon Q proved invaluable in several ways:

• Rapid Code Generation: We were able to quickly generate the core Python scripts for:
  • Multi-account deployment (deploy_audit_manager.py)
  • Compliance assessment creation (create_compliance_assessment.py)
  • Automated evidence collection (audit_manager_evidence_collector.py)
• Best Practices Implementation: Amazon Q helped us implement AWS best practices for:
  • IAM role creation with least privilege
  • Secure cross-account access
  • Proper evidence collection and storage
  • Automated scheduling and monitoring
• Error Handling and Troubleshooting: The AI assistant helped us build robust error handling and logging mechanisms, making the solution production-ready quickly.

The Solution

The final solution includes:

• Automated Deployment: A script that deploys AWS Audit Manager across multiple accounts using AWS Organizations and CloudFormation StackSets.
• Compliance Assessment Creation: Tools to create and manage compliance assessments programmatically, supporting various frameworks including:
  • HIPAA
  • HITRUST
  • SOC 2
  • ISO 27001
  • PCI DSS
  • And other industry-specific requirements
• Evidence Collection: An automated evidence collector that:
  • Runs across multiple accounts
  • Collects evidence for all controls
  • Can be scheduled to run daily
  • Provides detailed logging and reporting
• Scheduling and Automation: Scripts to set up regular evidence collection and reporting.

Key Features

• Multi-Account Support: Works across your entire AWS organization
• Framework Flexibility: Supports multiple compliance frameworks
• Automated Evidence Collection: Reduces manual effort significantly
• Scheduled Operations: Daily evidence collection and reporting
• Comprehensive Logging: Detailed logs for troubleshooting and auditing
• Flexible Configuration: Supports both single-account and multi-account setups

Results

With Amazon Q's assistance, we were able to:

• Develop the complete solution in under two days
• Implement best practices from the start
• Create production-ready code with proper error handling
• Document the solution comprehensively

The client was able to start collecting and reviewing evidence immediately, significantly reducing their compliance overhead.

I've open-sourced the solution on GitHub so you can implement it in your own environment. You can find the complete codebase at: https://github.com/peterhallen/Amazon-Q-Audit-Manager