Microsoft Azure → Amazon Web Services
AWS equivalent of Azure Bastion
The closest AWS equivalents of Azure Bastion are AWS Systems Manager Session Manager and EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint.
About Azure Bastion
| Provider | Microsoft Azure |
|---|---|
| Status | Generally available |
| What it is | A managed jump service for RDP and SSH to VMs over TLS from the portal or a native client, with no public IPs on the VMs. Available SKUs are Developer (free, shared), Basic, Standard, and Premium (session recording, private-only). |
| Documentation | learn.microsoft.com |
| Pricing | Official pricing page |
AWS mappings (1)
| Capability | AWS equivalent | Match |
|---|---|---|
| Secure remote access to VMs | AWS Systems Manager Session Manager, EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint | Partial match |
VM security & operations(1)
Secure remote access to VMs Partial match
AWS Systems Manager Session Manager and EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint map to Azure Bastion. Bastion is a managed RDP/SSH gateway, while Session Manager is agent-based shell access through the Systems Manager service.
- How it works. Session Manager uses the SSM Agent's outbound connection, with no inbound ports and IAM-controlled, logged sessions. EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint is a VPC endpoint that proxies SSH or RDP to private IPs. Bastion is a managed service in your VNet (or shared, for the Developer SKU) that brokers RDP and SSH over TLS.
- Logging. Session Manager can log session content to CloudWatch Logs or S3. Bastion Premium offers graphical session recording.
- Azure Run Command and serial console cover the "run a script without logging in" case (like SSM Run Command).