Cloud Custodian
A unified rules engine for managing compliance, security, and cost optimization across multiple cloud environments.
| Category | Compliance & Governance |
|---|---|
| Last Commit | 1 year ago |
| This page updated | a month ago |
| Pricing Details | Free and open-source. |
| Target Audience | Cloud architects, DevOps engineers, security teams. |
Cloud Custodian addresses the core challenge of managing and enforcing compliance, security, and cost optimization across multiple cloud environments by providing a unified and flexible rules engine. This tool allows users to define policies in a simple YAML DSL, which can filter, tag, and apply actions to cloud resources such as EC2 instances, ASG, Redshift, and more.
The technical architecture of Cloud Custodian is built around a stateless rules engine that integrates tightly with cloud providers' control planes, enabling real-time compliance enforcement and remediation. Policies can be executed in various modes, including pull, periodic, and event-driven modes, leveraging serverless runtimes like AWS Lambda to minimize operational overhead. For example, in AWS, policies can be triggered by Amazon CloudWatch Events, AWS CloudTrail events, and other event streams, ensuring continuous compliance and auto-remediation.
Operationally, Cloud Custodian supports multi-cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Tencent Cloud, among others. It can be run locally, on an instance, or serverlessly, providing flexibility in deployment. The tool also integrates with infrastructure as code tools like Terraform, allowing for "Governance as Code" practices to ensure infrastructure compliance from the outset.
Key operational considerations include the need for proper authentication and authorization, such as using AWS IAM roles and credentials, and managing the execution modes to ensure policies are triggered correctly. Additionally, the use of filters and actions in policies requires careful configuration to avoid unintended resource modifications. The tool's open-source nature and active community support also mean that users can contribute and benefit from a vibrant ecosystem of developers and users.
Technically, Cloud Custodian policies are defined using a simple yet powerful YAML syntax, allowing for complex workflows and thousands of policy combinations. The tool supports over 500 resources across various cloud providers and includes hundreds of built-in actions for resource management, such as tagging, modifying attributes, deleting resources, and sending notifications.