Building a Secure, Scalable AWS VPC with Terraform: A Production-Ready Guide

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Terraform

   • Why IaC Matters in Modern DevOps
   • Terraform vs. Other Tools (CloudFormation, Ansible)

2. AWS Networking Fundamentals

   • What is a VPC?
   • Subnets, Route Tables, and Gateways: The Building Blocks
   • Public vs. Private Subnets: Use Cases and Security

3. Setting Up Your Terraform Environment

   • Installing Terraform and AWS CLI
   • Configuring AWS Credentials Securely

4. Designing a Production-Grade VPC

   • Multi-AZ Architecture for High Availability
   • Security Best Practices: NACLs, Security Groups, and Least Privilege

5. Step-by-Step Terraform Implementation

   • Defining the VPC and Subnets
   • Internet Gateway (IGW) and NAT Gateway
   • Route Tables and Associations
   • Security Groups for Public/Private Resources

6. Real-World Use Cases

   • Hosting a Web Application with Public/Private Tiers
   • Hybrid Cloud Connectivity with VPN/VPC Peering
   • Cost Optimization: NAT Instances vs. NAT Gateways

7. Advanced Terraform Techniques

   • Using Variables and Modules for Reusability
   • Enabling VPC Flow Logs for Auditing
   • Integrating with CI/CD Pipelines

8. Best Practices for Enterprise Environments

• Tagging Strategies for Cost Management
• Monitoring with AWS CloudWatch
• Disaster Recovery and Backup

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Building a Secure, Scalable Cloud Infrastructure: A Complete Guide with Real-Time Project

1. AWS Services & Security

Key Services & Security Best Practices

Amazon EC2:

• Security Groups: Stateful firewalls controlling inbound/outbound traffic.
• NACLs: Stateless subnet-level filters for granular control.
• Encryption: Use AWS KMS to encrypt EBS volumes and instance storage.

Amazon S3:

• Bucket Policies: Restrict access by IP, IAM roles, or conditions.
• Block Public Access: Enable this setting to prevent accidental public exposure.

  {
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [{
      "Effect": "Deny",
      "Principal": "*",
      "Action": "s3:*",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*",
      "Condition": {"Bool": {"aws:SecureTransport": "false"}}
    }]
  }
  

• Server-Side Encryption (SSE): Use SSE-KMS for audit trails.

AWS IAM:

• Least Privilege: Assign roles with minimal permissions.
• MFA Enforcement: Require multi-factor authentication for sensitive operations.

AWS CloudTrail:

• Audit Logs: Track API calls for compliance and security analysis.

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