# AWS Organizations + IAM Identity Center

> Centralised accounts, billing and access. Every client gets this first.

- Verdict: My default
- Vendor: AWS
- Layer: [Accounts, identity and cost](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/layers/accounts.md). Job: Accounts and access
- Last reviewed: 18 October 2026, by Nicolas Dao (Cloudless Labs, Sydney)
- Web page: https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/aws-organizations-identity-center/. The whole stack in one file: https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/brief.md

Separate accounts per environment, one place for billing and one sign-in for people. Non-negotiable.

## Use it when

- Every AWS engagement.

## Pricing

No extra charge.

## Gotchas, with fixes

- **Gotcha:** Long-lived IAM user keys scattered across laptops.
  **Fix:** SSO through Identity Center for every human; no static keys.

## Provisioning

Official Pulumi package · Official Terraform provider

## Where it fits

- [An AWS foundation for a client](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/use-cases/aws-foundation.md): pick 1. Accounts per environment, SSO for people.
- [Moving on-premises systems to AWS](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/use-cases/migration.md): pick 3. The landing spot.

## Related

- [Accounts, identity and cost](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/layers/accounts.md): every tool in this layer, with its verdict
- [The whole stack in one file](https://cloudlesslabs.com/stack/brief.md): every use case and tool, for questions that span many
- [Map of every Markdown file on cloudlesslabs.com, with what each one answers](https://ask.cloudlesslabs.com)