Beginning with AWS can be a disappointing experience: While AWS is great at delivering services and options, they don’t provide an opinionated way how to start. New users open the AWS Console with 150 services – and are usually lost. Where to start? What are the best practices? How to secure the AWS setup? In this talk/workshop you will learn how to set up a modern and opinionated AWS environment quickly – based on a decade of our AWS experience: We will walk through a multi-account setup with AWS Control Tower and how to deploy your applications across several stages with the AWS Deployment Framework (ADF) and the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). We will also cover concepts such as Single Sign-On with AWS SSO as well as guardrails with Service Control Policies and AWS Config Rules. As a result, you’ll get an extensible AWS baseline – regardless whether you are a startup, SME, or an enterprise.