AWS Management Console
- What it is
- The web-based graphical interface for AWS. Browser and mobile app.
- What it is good for
- Learning, exploration, one-off tasks, visual dashboards, and billing views.
- What it is bad for
- Repeatable work. Manual console changes cause configuration drift and cannot be version controlled or code reviewed.
- The three access methods (know when to pick each)
- Console — one-time, exploratory, visual.
- AWS CLI / SDKs — scripted and programmatic, repeatable.
- infrastructure as code (AWS CloudFormation) — declarative, versioned, reproducible environments.
- Security note
- Protect the root user with MFA and stop using it for daily work — sign in as an IAM identity or via AWS IAM Identity Center.