AWS recently dropped a new feature that’s going to make cloud governance significantly less painful—declarative policies. While that might sound about as exciting as watching paint dry in us-east-1, this is actually a big deal for anyone running production workloads at scale.

First attempts at cloud governance are usually flawed, sometimes disastrously so. Companies often end up with a tangled web of Service Control Policies (SCPs), resource policies, and CloudFormation templates that would make a Gordian knot jealous. These solutions typically work until they don’t – usually when AWS releases a new feature or API that bypasses your carefully crafted restrictions.

Declarative policies flip this script entirely. Instead of playing whack-a-mole with individual API permissions, you simply declare what you want: “No public access to VPCs” or “Only approved AMIs allowed.” AWS handles the rest, even as new features roll out. It’s the difference between trying to parent a teenager by listing every specific thing they can’t do versus setting clear, principle-based boundaries.

The Real Innovation

The clever bit here isn’t just the simplification – it’s how AWS has fundamentally changed the game for cloud governance. Three things stand out:

1. Service-Level Enforcement: Unlike SCPs that control API access, declarative policies work at the service level. This means they catch everything, including those pesky service-linked roles that have probably been keeping your security team up at night.
2. Custom Error Messages: Instead of cryptic “Access Denied” errors that send developers on a wild goose chase through IAM policies, you can now provide actually helpful error messages. Want to redirect users to your internal wiki? Done. Need to explain why public VPC access isn’t allowed? No problem.
3. Account Status Reports: You can now see exactly how your accounts are configured across your organization. It’s like having x-ray vision into your cloud governance state, except less creepy and more useful.

The Rhythmic Take

At Rhythmic, we’ve spent years helping clients build and manage secure, efficient AWS infrastructure. Declarative policies align perfectly with what we call “The Rhythmic Way” – particularly our principles of “Do Things The Right Way” and “Embrace Change.”

This feature isn’t just about making governance easier; it’s about making it more reliable and maintainable. When you’re running production workloads, you need governance that’s both robust and flexible. Declarative policies give you both, allowing you to set strong guardrails while still enabling innovation.

Looking Ahead

Currently, declarative policies support EC2, VPC, and EBS services. While this might seem limited, these services form the foundation of most AWS workloads. The real question isn’t if AWS will expand this to other services, but when. For organizations struggling with cloud governance (and let’s be honest, who isn’t?), declarative policies offer a path forward that doesn’t involve sacrificing security for agility or vice versa. It’s a rare win-win in the cloud world – kind of like finding an underutilized reserved instance that perfectly matches your workload.

If you’re wondering how to implement declarative policies effectively in your organization, or how they fit into your broader cloud governance strategy, we’re here to help. After all, setting the tone for cloud infrastructure is kind of our thing. Just remember—while declarative policies make governance easier, they still won’t fix your YAML indentation issues. Some problems remain eternally our own to solve.