In plain English: if your product touches card payments, PCI DSS decides how your AWS environment has to be built. We design and operate a tightly scoped, segmented cardholder data environment that an assessor can sign off, and we produce the evidence they ask for. We are not a QSA. We build the environment that passes.
The cardholder data environment (CDE) is every system that stores, processes, or transmits card data, plus anything connected to it. PCI DSS applies to all of it. The single most effective thing we do is make that footprint as small as possible, because a smaller CDE means fewer systems to secure, fewer controls to evidence, and a cheaper, faster assessment.
Where possible we route cardholder data straight to the payment processor with hosted fields or a redirect, so your own systems never touch a full card number. Less data in your environment means less environment to assess.
Whatever must stay in scope goes into a dedicated, segmented part of the network with tight ingress and egress. Everything outside that boundary, proven by segmentation, is out of scope and does not carry PCI controls.
Segmentation is what lets you keep the rest of your estate out of scope, and it is what an assessor tests hardest. On AWS we build it with careful VPC design and workload isolation so the boundary is real, not just a diagram.
The CDE lives in its own private subnets with no direct internet path, reached only through controlled load balancers and bastionless access. Security groups and network ACLs enforce least-privilege traffic in and out.
In-scope services run as isolated ECS tasks with their own task roles and network paths, separated from non-CDE workloads. Secrets stay in Secrets Manager, and every data path is encrypted with TLS and KMS.
PCI DSS is twelve requirement areas. Here is how each maps to the AWS controls we implement. AWS is itself a PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider, so the platform beneath you is already assessed; these are the parts that are your responsibility, and ours to build.
There are two ways your compliance gets validated, and which one applies depends on how card data flows, not on your size.
For lower-risk flows, often fully outsourced or redirect-based, you attest against a Self-Assessment Questionnaire. We map your data flows to the right SAQ, build the environment to satisfy it, and prepare the evidence so the self-assessment is honest and defensible.
For higher-risk flows a Qualified Security Assessor performs a formal assessment and issues the Attestation of Compliance. We are not a QSA. We build the cardholder environment that passes, remediate findings, and hand the assessor the evidence they need. You choose the assessor; we make sure the assessment goes smoothly.
Payments compliance rarely stands alone. If you are a payments or FinTech business, see FinTech on AWS for the wider regulatory picture, including DORA for EU financial entities. Requirement 11 penetration testing is covered by our VAPT service, and the security management system behind it all is our ISO 27001 practice.
Do not see your question? Book a 30-minute call and ask directly.
Book a call →No sales pitch. We will look at how card data flows through your product, where the CDE really is, and what would surface in an assessment, then tell you honestly what a scoped, segmented, evidence-ready build would take. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.
★ AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner · ISO 27001:2022 · ISO 9001:2015 · 5× AWS-Certified Founder
