Introduction

The AWS Shared Responsibility Model shows who is in charge of what when it comes to security in the cloud.
It's easy to forget - but critical to understand. Especially for:

  • AWS certifications 🧠
  • Interviews 🤝
  • Actually securing your cloud ☁️🔐 So lets break it down with a real-life analogy and my trick to remember it forever.

What It Is

When you host something on AWS, security is a shared job:

  • AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud
  • You are responsible for the security in the cloud

My Analogy: An Apartment Building

Think of AWS as an apartment complex

Who Responsibility
AWS (Landlord) Locks the front gate, maintains security cameras, keeps the building safe
You (Tenant) Lock your apartment door, don't leave the stove on, decide who gets your Wi-Fi password

Memory Trick

Saying out loud: "AWS secures the cloud. I secure what's IN the cloud"
Or if you're more of a visual learner:

AWS = hardware, networking, data center
You = data, access, app logic, configs

Mnemonic

  • OF the Cloud = Operations & Facilities
  • IN the Cloud = Instances & Networks

Real Examples

Here are some real examples to put into practice

AWS Service AWS Responsibility Your Responsibility
EC2 Physical Servers, Hypervisor Patching OS, firewall settings
S3 Infrastructure, Uptime Bucket Policies, Encryption Settings
RDS DB engine updates SQL Injection protection, User Permissions

Conclusion

You don't have to memorize every line of the AWS docs - just remember:

👉 AWS secures the cloud. You secure what’s in it.

Get that right, and you’re ahead of 80% of people trying to pass their cert or nail the “basic cloud security” interview question.

I’m sharing more bite-sized AWS concepts as I study for my Developer Associate cert — follow along and feel free to drop your own memory tricks in the comments!