In at the moment’s enterprise panorama, corporations attempt to equip their workers with probably the most appropriate and environment friendly instruments to carry out their jobs successfully. To realize this objective, many corporations flip to Software program-as-a-Service (SaaS) purposes. This method permits corporations to optimize their workflows, improve worker productiveness, and focus their sources on core enterprise actions somewhat than software program growth and upkeep.
As the usage of SaaS purposes expands, there’s an rising want for options that may proactively establish and deal with potential safety threats to keep up uninterrupted enterprise operations. Safety groups spend time monitoring software utilization knowledge for threats or suspicious habits, they usually’re chargeable for sustaining safety oversight to satisfy regulatory and compliance necessities.
Sadly, integrating SaaS purposes with present safety instruments requires many groups to construct, handle, and keep point-to-point (P2P) integrations. These P2P integrations are wanted so safety groups can monitor occasion logs to know person or system exercise from every software.
Introducing AWS AppFabric
At the moment, we’re launching AWS AppFabric, a totally managed service that aggregates and normalizes safety knowledge throughout SaaS purposes to enhance observability and assist scale back operational effort and price with no integration work essential.
Right here’s an animated GIF that provides you a fast take a look at how AWS AppFabric works.
With AppFabric, you may simply combine main SaaS purposes with out constructing and managing customized code or point-to-point integrations. For extra data on what’s supported, confer with Supported Functions for AppFabric.

The generative AI options of AppFabric, powered by Amazon Bedrock, might be obtainable in a future launch. To be taught extra, go to the AWS AppFabric web site.
When the SaaS purposes are licensed and linked, AppFabric ingests the information and normalizes disparate safety knowledge akin to person exercise logs; that is completed utilizing the Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework (OCSF), an trade commonplace schema and open-source challenge co-founded by AWS. This delivers an extensible framework for creating schemas and a vendor-agnostic core safety schema.
The information is then enriched with a person identifier, akin to a company e-mail deal with. This reduces safety incident response time since you achieve full visibility to person data for every incident. You’ll be able to ingest normalized and enriched knowledge to your most popular safety instruments, which lets you set widespread insurance policies, standardize safety alerts, and simply handle person entry throughout a number of purposes.
Getting Began with AWS AppFabric
To get began with AppFabric, you must create an App bundle, a one-time course of. This shops all AppFabric app authorizations and ingestions, together with the encryption key used. Once you create an app bundle, AppFabric creates the required AWS Identification and Entry Administration (IAM) function in your AWS account, which is required to ship metrics to Amazon CloudWatch and to entry AWS sources akin to Amazon Easy Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Kinesis Knowledge Firehose.
Creating an App Bundle
First, I choose Getting began from the house web page or left navigation panel from inside the AWS Administration Console.
Following the step-by-step directions to arrange AppFabric, I choose Create app bundle.
Within the Encryption part, I exploit AWS Key Administration Service (AWS KMS) to outline an encryption key to securely defend my knowledge in all unauthorized purposes. The KMS key encrypts my knowledge inside my inside knowledge shops used as my ingestion locations; for this instance, my vacation spot is Amazon S3. My key choices embody AWS owned and Buyer managed. Choose Buyer managed if you wish to use a key you will have inside KMS.
Authorizing Functions
As soon as I’ve created the app bundle, the subsequent step is Create app authorization. On this web page, I can choose the supported SaaS software that I need to hook up with my app bundle.
Then, I must enter my software credentials in order that AppFabric can join; one of many benefits of utilizing AppFabric is that it connects straight into SaaS purposes with out the necessity for me to write down any code.
I can arrange a number of app authorizations by repeating this step, as required, for every software. The credentials required for authorization range by app; see the AppFabric documentation for particulars.
Establishing Audit Log Ingestions
Now I’ve created an app authorization in my app bundle. I can proceed with Arrange audit log ingestions. This step ingests and normalizes audit logs and delivers them to a number of locations inside AWS, together with Amazon S3 or Amazon Kinesis Knowledge Firehose.
Below Choose app authorizations, I choose the licensed app that I created within the earlier step. Right here, I can select multiple licensed software that enables me to consolidate knowledge from varied SaaS purposes right into a single vacation spot. Then, I can choose a vacation spot for the audit logs of the chosen apps. If I chosen a number of app authorizations, the vacation spot is utilized to every licensed app. At present, AppFabric helps the next locations:
- Amazon S3 – New Bucket
- Amazon S3 – Present Bucket
- Amazon Kinesis Knowledge Firehose
After I choose a vacation spot, extra fields seem. For instance, if I choose Amazon S3 – New Bucket, I must fill the main points for my Amazon S3 bucket and the elective prefix.
After that, I must outline Schema & Format of the ingested audit log knowledge for my chosen purposes. Right here, I’ve three choices:
- OCSF – JSON
- OCSF – Parquet
- Uncooked – JSON
AppFabric normalizes the audit log knowledge to the OCSF schema and codecs the audit log knowledge into JSON or Parquet format. For OCSF – JSON and OCSF – Parquet choices, AppFabric mechanically maps the fields and enriches the sector with person e-mail as an identifier. As for the Uncooked – JSON knowledge format, AppFabric merely supplies the audit log knowledge in its unique JSON type.
To see an in depth view of my ingestion standing, on the Ingestions web page, I choose my present ingestion.
Right here, I see the ingestion standing is Enabled and the standing for my Amazon S3 bucket is Lively.
After my ingestion runs for round 10 minutes, I can see AppFabric saved the audit knowledge logs in my Amazon S3 bucket.
After I open the file, I can see all of the audit knowledge logs from the SaaS software.
With audit knowledge logs now in Amazon S3, I may also use AWS providers to investigate and extract insights from the log knowledge. For instance, from knowledge in Amazon S3, I can use AWS Glue and run a question utilizing Amazon Athena. The next screenshot reveals how I run a question for all actions within the audit knowledge logs.
Consumer Entry
AWS AppFabric additionally has a characteristic referred to as Consumer entry to permit safety and IT admin groups to shortly see who has entry to which purposes. Utilizing an worker’s company e-mail deal with, AppFabric searches all licensed purposes within the app bundle to return an inventory of apps that the person has entry to. This helps to establish unauthorized person entry and speed up person deprovisioning.
Issues to Know
Availability — AWS AppFabric is mostly obtainable at the moment in US East (N. Virginia), Europe (Eire), and Asia Pacific (Tokyo), with availability in extra AWS Areas coming quickly.
AWS AppFabric generative AI capabilities – Accessible in a future launch, AWS AppFabric will empower you to mechanically carry out duties throughout purposes utilizing generative AI. Powered by Amazon Bedrock, this AI assistant generates solutions to pure language queries, automates activity administration, and surfaces insights throughout SaaS purposes.
Integrations with SaaS purposes — AppFabric connects SaaS purposes together with Asana, Atlassian Jira suite, Dropbox, Miro, Okta, Slack, Smartsheet, Webex by Cisco, Zendesk, and Zoom. Discuss with Supported purposes for extra particulars.
Integration with Safety Instruments — Audit knowledge log from AppFabric is suitable with safety instruments, akin to Logz.io, Netskope, NetWitness, Rapid7, and Splunk, or a buyer’s proprietary safety answer. Discuss with Suitable safety instruments and providers for extra particulars on arrange particular safety instruments and providers.
Be taught extra
To get began, go to AWS AppFabric for extra data and pricing particulars.
Joyful constructing.
— Donnie