Enterprise SIEM Implementation with Wazuh Challenge Implement a comprehensive Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution for a fintech payment processing platform to:
Achieve PCI DSS Compliance: Meet Requirements 10 (logging) and 11 (monitoring)Threat Detection: Identify security incidents in real-time across 200+ nodesCompliance Automation: Automate evidence collection for auditsIncident Response: Enable rapid investigation and response to security eventsVisibility: Centralize security monitoring across AWS and KubernetesArchitecture Overview High-Level Design Wazuh Architecture :
Management Layer :
Wazuh Manager Cluster (HA) :
- 3 manager nodes (active-active)
- Load balancing for agent connections
- Shared configuration via cluster sync
- Deployed on AWS EC2 (m5.xlarge)
Data Storage Layer :
OpenSearch Cluster :
- 5 data nodes (m5.2xlarge)
- 2 master nodes (m5.xlarge)
- S3 for snapshot backups
- 90 -day hot retention
- 1 -year cold storage (S3 Glacier)
Agent Layer :
200+ Wazuh Agents :
- EKS worker nodes (100+)
- EC2 instances (80+)
- RDS/Aurora monitoring (indirect via CloudWatch)
- Container-based agents (DaemonSet)
Integration Layer :
AWS Services :
- CloudTrail → S3 → Wazuh ingestion
- VPC Flow Logs → S3 → Wazuh processing
- GuardDuty → EventBridge → Wazuh
- Security Hub → aggregation
- Config → compliance data
- ALB/WAF logs → S3 → analysis
Implementation Details 1. Wazuh Infrastructure Deployment Manager Cluster (High Availability) Deployment :
Platform : AWS EC2 (Auto Scaling Group)
Instance Type : m5.xlarge (4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM)
Count : 3 nodes (active-active cluster)
OS : Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (CIS hardened)
Configuration :
Cluster Communication :
- Wazuh cluster protocol (port 1516)
- Shared configuration synchronization
- Automatic failover
- Load balanced agent connections
Agent Communication :
- Port 1514 : Agent data ingestion
- Port 1515 : Agent enrollment
- TLS encryption enforced
- Certificate-based authentication
API :
- RESTful API (port 55000)
- JWT token authentication
- Integration with automation tools
- Rate limiting enabled
Storage :
- 500 GB EBS gp3 for local buffer
- S3 for long-term archive
- Daily snapshots to S3
OpenSearch Cluster Cluster Design :
Data Nodes :
- Count : 5 nodes
- Instance : m5.2xlarge (8 vCPU, 32 GB RAM)
- Storage : 2 TB EBS gp3 per node
- Purpose : Index and search operations
Master Nodes :
- Count : 2 nodes (quorum)
- Instance : m5.xlarge (4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM)
- Purpose : Cluster state management
Index Management :
Hot Tier (0-30 days) :
- SSD storage (gp3)
- High IOPS for real-time queries
- Daily index rotation
- Replica count : 1
Warm Tier (31-90 days) :
- SSD storage (gp3)
- Reduced replica count
- Force merge for optimization
Cold Tier (91-365 days) :
- S3 storage via snapshots
- Searchable snapshots
- Minimal compute cost
Security :
- TLS 1.3 for all connections
- OpenSearch Security plugin
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
- Audit logging enabled
- VPC private subnet deployment
- Security group restrictions
2. Agent Deployment Strategy Kubernetes (EKS) Agents Deployment Method : DaemonSet
Purpose : One agent per node
Resource Limits :
CPU : 200m request, 500m limit
Memory : 256Mi request, 512Mi limit
Container Configuration :
Image : wazuh/wazuh-agent:4.8.0
Security Context :
- Privileged : true (for host monitoring)
- hostPID : true
- hostNetwork : true
Volumes :
- /var/log → container logs
- /var/ossec → agent data
- /etc/os-release → OS detection
- /var/run/docker.sock → container monitoring
Monitoring Capabilities :
- Container lifecycle events
- Kubernetes audit logs
- Pod security violations
- Node system logs
- File integrity monitoring
- Rootkit detection
EC2 Agents Installation :
Method : Ansible playbook automation
OS Support :
- Amazon Linux 2 / 2023
- Ubuntu 20.04 / 22.04
- CentOS 7 / 8
Enrollment :
- Automated via API
- Certificate-based authentication
- Group assignment by tags
Configuration Profile by Role :
Web Servers :
- Apache/Nginx log monitoring
- Web attack detection
- SSL/TLS monitoring
Database Servers :
- PostgreSQL audit logs
- Failed authentication attempts
- Privilege escalation detection
Application Servers :
- Application log parsing
- API abuse detection
- Performance metrics
3. Security Detection & Rules Custom Rule Development (500+ Rules) Payment-Specific Threats :
PAN Data Access Detection :
- Regex patterns for credit card numbers
- Unauthorized database queries
- File access to cardholder data
- Network transmission of sensitive data
- Alert severity : CRITICAL
Transaction Anomalies :
- Unusual transaction amounts
- Rapid transaction frequency
- Geographic anomalies
- Velocity checks (same card, multiple locations)
- ML-based anomaly detection
Authentication & Access :
Brute Force Detection :
- Failed SSH attempts (5+ in 1 min)
- Failed API authentication (10+ in 5 min)
- Account lockout monitoring
- Distributed brute force detection
Privilege Escalation :
- Sudo usage monitoring
- IAM permission changes
- Role assumption tracking
- Unauthorized service account usage
Web Attacks :
OWASP Top 10 Detection :
- SQL injection attempts
- Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
- Command injection
- Path traversal
- Insecure deserialization
- XML External Entities (XXE)
API Abuse :
- Rate limiting violations
- Invalid API token usage
- Unusual API endpoints
- Parameter tampering
Data Exfiltration :
Indicators :
- Large data transfers (>100MB)
- Unusual outbound connections
- Database dumps
- SSH/SCP file transfers
- S3 bucket data access anomalies
Integration Rules AWS CloudTrail :
High-Risk Events :
- IAM policy changes
- Security group modifications
- S3 bucket policy changes
- Root account usage
- KMS key deletion attempts
- CloudTrail logging disabled
Compliance Events :
- Encryption disabled on resources
- Public access enabled
- Unencrypted snapshots
- Cross-region resource access
GuardDuty Findings :
- Malware detection
- Cryptocurrency mining
- Backdoor detection
- Unusual API calls
- Compromised credentials
- Data exfiltration attempts
VPC Flow Logs :
- Port scanning detection
- DDoS indicators
- Unusual traffic patterns
- Blocked connection attempts
- Internal lateral movement
4. File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) Monitored Files (10,000+) :
System Files :
Linux :
- /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow
- /etc/ssh/sshd_config
- /etc/sudoers
- /boot/grub/grub.cfg
- Systemd service files
Frequency : Real-time
Actions : Alert + snapshot
Configuration Files :
Application :
- Nginx/Apache configs
- Application .env files
- Database configuration
- SSL certificates
Kubernetes :
- Pod manifests
- ConfigMaps
- Secrets (metadata only)
- Service definitions
Frequency : Real-time
Actions : Alert + backup + change review
Code Directories :
- /var/www/html
- /opt/applications
- Container image layers
Frequency : Scheduled (daily)
Actions : Alert on unauthorized changes
Logs & Audit :
- /var/log/*
- Application log directories
- Audit logs
Frequency : Real-time
Actions : Detect log tampering
FIM Capabilities :
- Real-time change detection
- File checksum (SHA256)
- File attributes (permissions, owner)
- Who-data (who made the change)
- Baseline comparison
- Automated restoration (critical files)
5. Vulnerability Management Vulnerability Detection :
Methods :
- Agent-based scanning
- Package manager integration (apt, yum)
- CVE database correlation
- OVAL definitions
Scan Frequency :
- Critical systems : Daily
- Production servers : Daily
- Non-production : Weekly
- Containers : On image push
Risk-Based Prioritization :
Scoring :
- CVSS base score
- Exploitability (EPSS)
- Asset criticality
- Network exposure
- Data sensitivity
SLA by Severity :
- Critical : 24 hours
- High : 7 days
- Medium : 30 days
- Low : 90 days
Integration :
- Jira ticket creation
- Slack notifications
- Email alerts to teams
- Dashboard for management
- Monthly vulnerability reports
Remediation Tracking :
- Patch deployment via Ansible
- Verification scanning
- Exception management
- Compliance reporting
6. Compliance Automation (PCI DSS) PCI DSS Dashboard (150+ Checks) :
Requirement 1 & 2 : Network & Configuration :
Checks :
- Firewall rules in place
- Default passwords changed
- Unnecessary services disabled
- Configuration standards enforced
Requirement 3 & 4 : Data Protection :
Checks :
- Encryption at rest enabled
- TLS version compliance (1.2+)
- Key rotation schedules
- Sensitive data masking
Requirement 5 & 6 : Malware & Development :
Checks :
- Anti-malware running
- Malware signature updates
- Secure coding practices
- Change management process
Requirement 7 & 8 : Access Control :
Checks :
- Least privilege enforcement
- User access reviews
- MFA enabled
- Password complexity
Requirement 10 : Logging & Monitoring :
Checks :
- Log collection enabled
- Log retention (1 year)
- Clock synchronization (NTP)
- Log integrity protection
- Audit trail completeness
Requirement 11 : Security Testing :
Checks :
- Vulnerability scans completed
- Penetration test schedule
- IDS/IPS operational
- File integrity monitoring
Automated Evidence Collection :
- Daily compliance snapshots
- Configuration backups
- Change logs
- Access reports
- Exception documentation
- Quarterly audit packages
7. Incident Response Integration Active Response :
Automated Actions :
IP Blocking :
- Trigger : 5 + failed SSH attempts
- Action : iptables block for 30 minutes
- Scope : Source IP
Account Lockout :
- Trigger : 10 + failed logins
- Action : Disable account
- Notification : Security team + manager
Container Quarantine :
- Trigger : Malware detected in container
- Action : Kill pod, taint node
- Notification : DevOps + Security
Process Kill :
- Trigger : Cryptocurrency miner detected
- Action : Kill process, block binary
- Forensics : Memory dump
Incident Management :
PagerDuty Integration :
- Critical alerts → immediate page
- High severity → notification
- Escalation after 15 minutes
- 24 /7 SOC coverage
Workflow :
1 . Alert triggered in Wazuh
2 . PagerDuty incident created
3 . On-call engineer notified
4 . Investigation in OpenSearch
5 . Response action (manual/automated)
6 . Incident documentation
7 . Post-incident review
Playbooks :
- Brute force attack response
- Malware infection containment
- Data breach procedure
- DDoS mitigation
- Insider threat investigation
- Compromised credentials
8. Monitoring & Alerting Alert Channels :
Email :
- Daily summary reports
- Critical alerts (immediate)
- Weekly compliance reports
Slack :
- Real-time alerts (high+)
- Compliance violations
- System health issues
PagerDuty :
- Critical security events
- System outages
- Escalation after 15 min
Custom Dashboards :
Security Operations Center (SOC) :
- Real-time event stream
- Alert count by severity
- Top attacked assets
- Geographic threat map
- MITRE ATT&CK mapping
Executive Dashboard :
- Security posture score
- Compliance status (%)
- Incident trends
- Vulnerability metrics
- Cost of incidents
Compliance Dashboard :
- PCI DSS requirement status
- Failed compliance checks
- Remediation progress
- Audit readiness score
Results & Metrics Security Improvements Threat Detection:
├── Security Incidents: 85% reduction (20/month → 3/month)
├── MTTD (Mean Time To Detect): 5 minutes average
├── MTTR (Mean Time To Respond): 30 minutes average
└── False Positive Rate: <10% (continuous tuning)
Visibility:
├── Monitored Nodes: 200+ agents
├── Events Per Day: 500K+ security events
├── Log Sources: 15+ integrated sources
└── Coverage: 100% of CDE infrastructure
Compliance Achievement PCI DSS Level 1 Certification:
├── Audit Result: Zero findings
├── Requirement 10: PASS (Logging & Monitoring)
├── Requirement 11: PASS (Security Testing & Monitoring)
└── Automated Evidence: 150+ compliance checks
Operational Benefits:
├── Audit Preparation: Reduced from 2 weeks to 2 days
├── Evidence Collection: 90% automated
├── Compliance Reporting: Real-time dashboard
└── Audit Cost: Reduced by 60%
Operational Efficiency Alert Investigation: 70% faster with centralized SIEMIncident Response: 50% faster MTTRCompliance Effort: 90% reduction in manual checksSecurity Team Productivity: 3x improvementTechnologies Used Core SIEM Stack Wazuh: 4.8.x (SIEM platform)OpenSearch: 2.11.x (data storage and search)OpenSearch Dashboards: Visualization and reportingIntegration & Automation AWS Services: CloudTrail, GuardDuty, VPC Flow Logs, Config, Security HubPython: Custom integrations and scriptsAnsible: Agent deployment automationPagerDuty: Incident managementSlack: Real-time notificationsInfrastructure AWS EC2: Wazuh managers and OpenSearch nodesKubernetes: Agent deployment via DaemonSetS3: Long-term log archiveEBS: High-performance storageKey Learnings Best Practices Rule Tuning is Critical: Started with 1000+ alerts/day, tuned to 50/dayAgent Performance: Proper resource limits prevent node impactData Retention: Balance compliance requirements with storage costsIntegration First: AWS service integration provides deeper visibilityAutomation: Active response reduces MTTR significantlyChallenges Overcome OpenSearch Scaling: Tuned cluster for 500K events/day ingestionAgent Overhead: Optimized configuration to <5% CPU usageAlert Fatigue: Implemented severity-based routing and aggregationCustom Rules: Iterative development with security team feedbackFuture Enhancements SOAR Integration: Security Orchestration and AutomationThreat Intelligence: Integrate external threat feedsUser Behavior Analytics (UBA): ML-based anomaly detectionMITRE ATT&CK Mapping: Automated attack technique identificationRed Team Integration: Automated detection testingSeptember 15, 2024
• SIEM
Wazuh
PCI DSS
Threat Detection
SOC
Incident Response
AWS Multi-Account Landing Zone Challenge Design and implement a secure, scalable, and compliant AWS foundation for a fintech payment processing platform from scratch, supporting:
PCI DSS Compliance: Prepare for Level 1 certificationHigh Availability: 99.95% SLA for payment processingMulti-Region DR: Active-passive disaster recovery across EU regionsSecurity First: Zero-trust principles and defense in depthCost Efficiency: Optimize for FinOps best practicesScalability: Support 1M+ daily transactionsArchitecture Overview Multi-Account Strategy Organization Structure (15+ Accounts) :
Management OU :
- management : Root account, Control Tower, Organizations
- logging : Centralized logging (CloudTrail, Config, Flow Logs)
- security : Security Hub, GuardDuty findings aggregation
- audit : Read-only audit access for compliance
Infrastructure OU :
- network : Transit Gateway, shared networking
- shared-services : DNS, Active Directory, central repositories
Workloads OU :
Production :
- prod-cde : PCI DSS Cardholder Data Environment
- prod-non-cde : Non-CDE production workloads
Non-Production :
- staging : Pre-production testing environment
- dev : Development environment
- sandbox : Experimentation and POCs
Security OU :
- security-tooling : Security tools and scanning
- incident-response : IR automation and forensics
Network Architecture Hub-and-Spoke Topology Transit Gateway (TGW) Hub :
Purpose : Central routing for all VPCs
Regions :
- Primary : eu-west-1 (Ireland)
- DR : eu-west-2 (London)
Routing :
- Centralized egress via NAT Gateways
- Inter-VPC communication controls
- On -premise connectivity (future VPN/Direct Connect)
- Route table segmentation for CDE isolation
VPC Design per Account :
Subnets :
- Public : NAT GW, ALB, bastion (jump hosts)
- Private : Application tier, EKS nodes
- Data : Databases, ElastiCache, MSK
- Management : Systems Manager endpoints
CIDR Strategy :
- Non-overlapping ranges across all accounts
- /16 for production, /20 for non-production
- Reserved ranges for future expansion
Security Controls Network Firewall :
- Centralized in network account
- Deep packet inspection
- Intrusion prevention (IPS)
- Domain filtering for egress
- Threat intelligence integration
Multi-Layer Protection :
1. NACLs : Subnet-level stateless filtering
2. Security Groups : Instance-level stateful filtering
3. WAF : Application layer protection (ALB/CloudFront)
4. Shield Standard : DDoS protection (all accounts)
5. VPC Flow Logs : Network traffic analysis
Implementation Details 1. Infrastructure as Code Repository Structure :
terraform-live/
├── management/
├── production/
│ ├── eu-west-1/
│ │ ├── vpc/
│ │ ├── eks/
│ │ ├── rds/
│ │ └── security/
│ └── eu-west-2/
├── staging/
└── modules/
├── vpc/
├── eks/
├── rds-aurora/
└── security-baseline/
Terraform Stack :
- 1000 + AWS resources managed
- Terragrunt for DRY configuration
- Remote state : S3 + DynamoDB locking
- State encryption with KMS
- Module versioning and testing
Security Scanning :
- Checkov : Compliance and security checks
- tfsec : Terraform security scanning
- Terrascan : Policy as code enforcement
- Automated in CI/CD before apply
- Drift detection and remediation
GitLab CI/CD Integration Pipeline Stages :
1. Validate :
- terraform validate
- terraform fmt check
- Module version verification
2. Security Scan :
- Checkov (CIS, PCI DSS policies)
- tfsec (AWS security best practices)
- Secret detection (gitleaks)
3. Plan :
- terraform plan
- Cost estimation (Infracost)
- Plan review and approval
4. Apply :
- Manual approval gate
- terraform apply
- Drift detection scheduling
2. AWS Control Tower Setup Landing Zone Features :
Account Factory :
- Automated account provisioning
- Baseline security configuration
- IAM Identity Center (SSO) integration
- CloudTrail and Config enabled by default
Guardrails (SCPs) :
Mandatory :
- Deny disabling CloudTrail
- Deny modifying Config rules
- Deny root user access keys
- Enforce MFA for root user
Strongly Recommended :
- Deny leaving organization
- Deny disabling EBS encryption
- Deny public S3 buckets
- Enforce encrypted volumes
Custom (PCI DSS) :
- Deny non-approved regions
- Enforce KMS encryption
- Restrict instance types
- Deny IMDSv1 (require IMDSv2)
Account Baseline :
- VPC with private subnets
- NAT Gateway for outbound
- VPC endpoints for AWS services
- CloudWatch log groups
- SNS topics for alerts
- Systems Manager access
Cluster Architecture Production EKS Clusters :
Primary (eu-west-1) :
- 3 Availability Zones
- Managed node groups (on-demand)
- Spot instances for batch jobs
- Fargate for serverless workloads
DR (eu-west-2) :
- Pilot-light configuration
- Minimal capacity (cost-optimized)
- Automated scale-up on failover
Node Configuration :
- Instance types : m5.xlarge, r5.xlarge
- Auto Scaling : Cluster Autoscaler
- OS : Amazon Linux 2
- Container runtime : containerd
- IRSA for pod-level IAM permissions
Control Plane :
- Control plane logging to CloudWatch
- Private endpoint (VPC-only access)
- Kubernetes version : 1.27 +
- Encryption : KMS for secrets
GitOps with ArgoCD Deployment Strategy :
- ArgoCD deployed in EKS
- Git as single source of truth
- 80 + microservices managed
- Application-per-repo pattern
- Automated sync (with approval for prod)
Progressive Delivery (Argo Rollouts) :
Strategies :
- Blue-Green deployments
- Canary releases (10% → 50% → 100%)
- Automated rollback on metrics
Analysis :
- Prometheus metrics integration
- Success rate, latency, error rate
- Automated promotion or rollback
4. Observability Stack Prometheus & Grafana Prometheus Architecture :
- Thanos for long-term storage (S3)
- Multi-cluster monitoring
- 7 -day local retention
- 1 -year Thanos retention
- AlertManager for notifications
Grafana Dashboards :
Infrastructure :
- EKS cluster health
- Node and pod metrics
- Network performance
- Storage utilization
Application :
- Service-level metrics
- Payment processing metrics
- API response times
- Error rates and SLIs
Security :
- GuardDuty findings
- WAF blocked requests
- Failed authentication attempts
- Compliance posture
Cost :
- Per-service costs (Kubecost)
- AWS Cost Explorer integration
- Budget vs actual tracking
Logging (ELK + Loki) OpenSearch (ELK) :
- Centralized log aggregation
- 30 -day retention in hot tier
- 1 -year retention in S3 (cold tier)
- Vector for log collection
- Kibana for visualization
Loki + Promtail :
- Kubernetes-native logging
- Label-based log queries
- Grafana integration
- Lower storage costs vs ELK
- Real-time log streaming
Log Sources :
- Application logs (stdout/stderr)
- AWS CloudTrail (API calls)
- VPC Flow Logs (network traffic)
- EKS control plane logs
- Load balancer access logs
- WAF logs
5. Security Architecture IAM Identity Center (AWS SSO) Configuration :
- Centralized user management
- Azure AD integration (SAML)
- MFA enforcement
- Permission sets per role :
* Admin : Full access (break-glass only)
* DevOps : Infrastructure management
* Developer : Application deployment
* ReadOnly : Audit and compliance
* Security : Security tools access
Access Patterns :
- Time-limited sessions (8 hours)
- JIT access for production
- Approval workflow for sensitive accounts
- Audit logging of all access
Secrets Management HashiCorp Vault :
Deployment :
- HA cluster on EKS
- Auto-unseal with AWS KMS
- Consul storage backend
- Cross-region replication
Use Cases :
- Database credentials (dynamic)
- API keys and tokens
- TLS certificates (PKI engine)
- Encryption as a service
Authentication :
- Kubernetes auth for pods
- AWS IAM for services
- OIDC for users
AWS Secrets Manager :
- RDS password rotation
- Cross-account secret sharing
- Lambda rotation functions
- Backup to Vault for redundancy
Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL :
Configuration :
- Multi-AZ deployment
- Read replicas (3x)
- Cross-region read replica (DR)
- Performance Insights enabled
Security :
- Encryption at rest (KMS)
- Encryption in transit (TLS 1.3)
- IAM database authentication
- Private subnet deployment
- Security group restrictions
Backup :
- Automated daily snapshots
- 35 -day retention
- Cross-region snapshot copy
- Point-in-time recovery (PITR)
MongoDB Atlas :
- Managed service (AWS VPC peering)
- Replica set configuration
- Automated backups
- Performance monitoring
ElastiCache Redis :
- Cluster mode enabled
- Multi-AZ automatic failover
- Encryption in-transit and at-rest
- Session storage and caching
7. Disaster Recovery Multi-Region Strategy :
Primary : eu-west-1 (Ireland)
DR : eu-west-2 (London)
Approach : Pilot Light
- Network infrastructure pre-deployed
- EKS cluster in standby (minimal nodes)
- Database read replica in DR region
- S3 cross-region replication
- Route 53 health checks and failover
Automation :
- Lambda-based failover orchestration
- Automated DNS cutover (Route 53)
- EKS cluster scale-up automation
- Database promotion scripts
- Runbooks in Confluence
Testing :
- Quarterly DR drills
- Documented runbooks
- Automated validation scripts
- RTO : 4 hours
- RPO : 15 minutes
Backup Strategy :
- Velero for EKS (daily)
- RDS automated snapshots
- S3 versioning enabled
- Configuration backups in Git
- 3-2-1 backup rule adherence
Results & Metrics Uptime & Availability:
├── Infrastructure Uptime: 99.95%
├── API Availability: 99.98%
├── Payment Processing: 1M+ daily transactions
└── Database Latency: p95 80ms (optimized from 500ms)
Disaster Recovery:
├── RTO (Recovery Time Objective): 4 hours
├── RPO (Recovery Point Objective): 15 minutes
├── DR Tests: Quarterly (100% success rate)
└── Failover Time: <30 minutes (automated)
Cost Optimization (FinOps) Monthly Cost Reduction: 45%
├── Before: $180,000/month
└── After: $99,000/month
Optimization Strategies:
├── Reserved Instances: 30% compute savings
├── Savings Plans: Additional 15% savings
├── Spot Instances: 50-70% savings for batch jobs
├── Rightsizing: Reduced over-provisioned instances
├── S3 Lifecycle: Automated tiering to Glacier
└── EBS Optimization: gp3 vs gp2, volume cleanup
Security Posture GuardDuty Findings: <5 medium+ findings/monthSecurity Hub Score: 95+ compliance scoreConfig Compliance: 98% compliant resourcesIAM Access Analyzer: Zero external exposure findingsVulnerability Management: <24h MTTR for critical CVEsAutomation & Efficiency Infrastructure Provisioning: 90% automatedDeployment Frequency: 10+ deployments/dayDeployment Time: Reduced from 4 hours to 15 minutesMTTR (Mean Time To Recovery): <30 minutesChange Failure Rate: <5%Technologies Used AWS Services Governance: Organizations, Control Tower, SSO (Identity Center)Networking: VPC, Transit Gateway, Route 53, Network FirewallCompute: EKS, EC2, Fargate, LambdaStorage: S3, EBS, EFSDatabase: Aurora PostgreSQL, ElastiCache Redis, DynamoDBSecurity: KMS, Secrets Manager, GuardDuty, Security Hub, Config, WAF, ShieldMonitoring: CloudWatch, CloudTrail, VPC Flow LogsInfrastructure as Code Terraform/OpenTofu: Infrastructure provisioningTerragrunt: DRY configuration managementAnsible AWX: Configuration management, OS hardeningKubernetes Ecosystem EKS: Managed KubernetesArgoCD: GitOps continuous deliveryArgo Rollouts: Progressive deliveryIstio: Service meshHelm: Package managementObservability Prometheus/Thanos: Metrics and monitoringGrafana: Visualization and dashboardsOpenSearch (ELK): Log aggregation and analysisLoki: Kubernetes-native loggingJaeger: Distributed tracingSecurity HashiCorp Vault: Secrets managementCheckov: IaC compliance scanningtfsec: Terraform security scanningWazuh: SIEM (added in 2024)Key Learnings Architectural Decisions Multi-Account Strategy: Critical for security, compliance, and blast radius reductionTransit Gateway: Simplified network architecture vs VPC peeringGitOps: ArgoCD provided excellent deployment visibility and rollback capabilityTerraform Modules: Reusable modules accelerated account provisioningBest Practices Established Infrastructure as Code for all resources (100%) Security scanning in CI/CD before deployment Automated compliance monitoring (AWS Config) Cost allocation tags on all resources Documentation as code (README in every Terraform module) Challenges Overcome Service Quotas: Proactive quota increases for productionCross-Account Networking: TGW routing and DNS resolutionEKS Upgrades: Blue-green cluster strategy for zero downtimeCost Control: Implemented budget alerts and cost anomaly detectionFuture Enhancements AWS Network Firewall for advanced threat protection ✅ (Completed) Service mesh (Istio) for zero-trust networking ✅ (Completed) Automated security remediation (Security Hub + Lambda) FinOps automation with cost recommendations Infrastructure drift detection and auto-remediation December 15, 2023
• AWS
Landing Zone
Multi-Account
Security
Governance
Fintech
Cryptocurrency Exchange Infrastructure Challenge Build a robust, scalable, and secure multi-cloud infrastructure for a cryptocurrency exchange platform handling high-frequency trading operations, requiring:
High Performance: Process 10K+ orders per second with minimal latencySecurity: Protect hot/cold wallets and blockchain nodesAvailability: Ensure 24/7 operations across multiple environmentsCompliance: Meet cryptocurrency regulatory requirementsScalability: Support growing trading volumes and user baseArchitecture Overview Multi-Cloud Strategy On-Premise Infrastructure (Colocation) :
Purpose : Core trading engine and cold wallet storage
Resources :
- 50 physical servers
- VMware ESXi virtualization platform
- Ceph distributed storage (200TB)
- OPNsense firewall cluster
Hetzner Cloud :
Purpose : Additional compute and redundancy
Resources :
- Dedicated servers
- Automated provisioning via Ansible
- Load balancing tier
Google Cloud Platform :
Purpose : Public-facing services and analytics
Resources :
- GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine)
- Cloud SQL for relational data
- Cloud Armor for DDoS protection
- Global load balancing
Technical Implementation 1. Kubernetes Architecture Multi-Distribution Setup Production Clusters :
GKE (Google Cloud) :
- Public-facing trading interface
- API gateway services
- Real-time market data feeds
- User authentication services
K3s (On-Premise) :
- Core trading engine
- Order matching engine
- Wallet management services
- Blockchain node management
Management :
- Rancher for centralized cluster management
- Unified monitoring and logging
- Cross-cluster service mesh
Container Registry & Security Nexus Registry :
- Private container registry
- Vulnerability scanning integration
- Image signing and verification
- Access control and audit logging
Security Measures :
- Network policies for pod-to-pod communication
- RBAC with least privilege access
- Secret management with encrypted storage
- Regular security scanning and updates
2. Storage Infrastructure Ceph Distributed Storage (200TB) Architecture :
Pools :
- Hot data pool (SSD) : Trading data, active wallets
- Cold data pool (HDD) : Historical data, backups
- Metadata pool : File system metadata
Replication :
- 3x replication for critical data
- 2x replication for warm data
- Erasure coding for cold storage
Performance :
- IOPS optimization for trading engine
- Low-latency access for hot wallets
- Bandwidth optimization for blockchain sync
Other Storage Solutions :
- Linstor for Kubernetes persistent volumes
- PortWorx for database workloads
- MinIO for object storage (S3 compatible)
- NFS for shared application data
3. Cryptocurrency Infrastructure Blockchain Nodes Supported Blockchains :
- Bitcoin (BTC) : Full node + pruned nodes
- Ethereum (ETH) : Geth full nodes
- Litecoin (LTC) : Full node
- Other altcoins : Selective node deployment
Node Management :
- Automated synchronization monitoring
- Health checks and auto-healing
- Version management and updates
- Performance optimization
Wallet Architecture Hot Wallets (Online) :
Location : Kubernetes pods with strict security
Purpose : Active trading and withdrawals
Security :
- Multi-signature requirements
- Rate limiting on withdrawals
- Real-time monitoring and alerts
- Encrypted keys with HSM integration
Cold Wallets (Offline) :
Location : Air-gapped servers in colocation
Purpose : Long-term storage of customer funds
Security :
- Hardware security modules (HSM)
- Physical security controls
- Multi-party authorization
- Regular security audits
Warm Wallets (Semi-Online) :
Purpose : Balance between hot and cold
Process : Automated cold-to-warm-to-hot transfers
4. CI/CD Pipeline Jenkins on Kubernetes Pipeline Architecture :
- Jenkins master on Kubernetes
- Dynamic agent provisioning
- Parallel job execution
- Docker-in-Docker builds
Stages :
1 . Code checkout and validation
2 . Unit and integration tests
3. Security scanning :
- Trivy for vulnerabilities
- SonarQube for code quality
4 . Container image build and push
5 . Helm chart packaging
6 . Deployment to staging
7 . Automated testing
8 . Production deployment (manual approval)
GitLab Integration :
- Self-hosted GitLab instance
- Git repository management
- Code review and merge requests
- 100 + Helm charts for deployments
5. Security Architecture Network Security OPNsense Firewall :
- High-availability cluster
- Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
- Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)
- VPN for secure remote access
- Traffic analysis and logging
Network Segmentation :
- Isolated trading network
- Separate blockchain node network
- DMZ for public-facing services
- Management network isolation
- Strict firewall rules between segments
DDoS Protection :
- Cloud Armor (GCP) for public endpoints
- Rate limiting at multiple layers
- Traffic scrubbing and filtering
- Automated incident response
Application Security Security Measures :
- Two-factor authentication (2FA) mandatory
- IP whitelisting for API access
- API rate limiting per user/IP
- Session management and timeout
- Encrypted communication (TLS 1.3)
- Regular penetration testing
- Bug bounty program
6. Observability & Monitoring Multi-Layer Monitoring Infrastructure Monitoring (Zabbix) :
- Server hardware metrics
- Network device monitoring
- Service availability checks
- Capacity planning metrics
- Alerting and escalation
Application Monitoring (Prometheus/Grafana) :
- Trading engine performance
- Order processing latency
- Wallet transaction metrics
- API response times
- Custom business metrics
Log Aggregation (ELK Stack) :
- Centralized logging
- Security event correlation
- Audit trail for compliance
- Real-time log analysis
- Long-term log retention
Distributed Tracing (Jaeger) :
- Request flow visualization
- Performance bottleneck identification
- Dependency mapping
Real-Time Communication Infrastructure :
- WebRTC signaling servers on Kubernetes
- TURN/STUN servers for NAT traversal
- Media servers for group calls
- Load balancing for 1000+ concurrent users
Features :
- Peer-to-peer video/audio calls
- Screen sharing capabilities
- Recording and playback
- Integration with trading platform
Performance :
- Low latency (<100ms)
- Adaptive bitrate streaming
- Network resilience
- Quality monitoring
Results & Metrics Trading Performance:
├── Order Processing: 10,000+ orders/second
├── Order Latency: <50ms average
├── API Response Time: <100ms p95
└── Blockchain Sync: 99.9% uptime
User Capacity:
├── Concurrent Users: 5,000+ active traders
├── WebRTC Sessions: 1,000+ concurrent
└── API Requests: 50K+ requests/minute
Availability & Reliability Platform Uptime: 99.9% across all servicesZero Security Breaches: Throughout operation periodDisaster Recovery: 2-hour RTO, 15-minute RPOIncident Response: 24/7 on-call teamBusiness Impact Revenue Growth
June 15, 2022
• Cryptocurrency
Blockchain
Trading
High Availability
Multi-Cloud