Simplify Cloud Governance with the Control Catalog in AWS Control Tower

As organizations scale their AWS footprint, governance becomes a strategic requirement rather than an operational afterthought. Without consistent and automated controls:

• Misconfigured Amazon S3 buckets can expose sensitive data
• Unmonitored resources can drive unexpected cloud costs
• Compliance audits can uncover gaps that take weeks or months to remediate

At the same time, teams often struggle to understand which governance controls already exist, how they relate to one another, and which combinations best address their objectives across security, compliance, cost optimization, and operational excellence.

AWS provides powerful governance services—such as AWS Organizations, AWS Config, AWS Security Hub, and AWS Control Tower—but managing them individually can fragment governance efforts. Organizations benefit most from a unified approach.

What Is the AWS Control Tower Control Catalog

The Control Catalog in AWS Control Tower acts as a centralized system of record for governance controls across AWS. It brings together preventive, detective, and monitoring controls into a single, structured catalog that simplifies discovery, evaluation, and deployment.

Key capabilities include:

• A library of 1,000+ managed controls
• Centralized visibility across governance domains
• Clear relationships between controls and compliance requirements
• Organization-wide deployment through AWS Control Tower

Instead of navigating multiple AWS service consoles, teams can manage governance from one place.

Clear Structure and Compliance Mapping

Each control in the Control Catalog is enriched with structured metadata that helps teams quickly understand its purpose and relevance:

• Domain – such as Security, Data Protection, or Cost Optimization
• Objective – for example, encrypt data at rest or prevent public access
• Common Control – standardized categories that group similar controls across services

A key advantage of the Control Catalog is its mapping to 17 major compliance frameworks, including:

• PCI DSS (including PCI DSS v4.0)
• NIST
• ISO standards
• FedRAMP

This mapping allows organizations to identify which AWS controls support their regulatory obligations and where additional controls may be required.

Building Complete Governance Strategies, Not Isolated Controls

The Control Catalog highlights relationships between controls, helping organizations avoid gaps or redundancies.

For example:

• Preventive controls (such as Service Control Policies enforcing encryption)
• Detective controls (such as AWS Config rules monitoring encryption settings)

By viewing these controls together, teams can design layered governance strategies that prevent misconfigurations while continuously monitoring compliance.

Once selected, controls can be deployed organization-wide through AWS Control Tower, ensuring consistent governance across all AWS accounts.

Example Use Case: Data Protection and Compliance

For security and compliance teams, the Control Catalog simplifies common initiatives such as enforcing encryption for data stores while aligning with standards like PCI DSS. Using the catalog, teams can:

• Filter controls by security objective (for example, encryption at rest)
• Narrow results to specific AWS services such as Amazon DynamoDB
• Align selected controls with compliance frameworks
• Deploy both preventive and detective controls across all accounts

What previously required extensive manual research and coordination can now be achieved quickly and consistently through a unified interface.

Automation and Integration

For organizations that automate governance processes, the Control Catalog is accessible programmatically via:

• AWS Control Catalog API
• AWS CLI
• AWS SDKs

This enables integration with internal governance workflows, CI/CD pipelines, and security automation frameworks.

How Softprom Helps

As an official AWS partner, Softprom supports customers in:

• Designing scalable AWS governance architectures
• Implementing AWS Control Tower and Control Catalog
• Aligning AWS environments with regulatory and industry standards
• Reducing audit preparation time and operational overhead

Our expertise helps organizations move from reactive compliance to proactive, automated governance.

Conclusion

AWS Control Tower’s Control Catalog transforms how organizations manage governance at scale. By centralizing more than 1,000 controls, mapping them to leading compliance frameworks, and enabling organization-wide deployment, it significantly reduces complexity while strengthening security and compliance.

With Softprom’s guidance, organizations can confidently scale their AWS environments while maintaining consistent governance, visibility, and control.

Contact Softprom to learn how AWS Control Tower and Control Catalog can help streamline your cloud governance strategy.