Ask HN: Why Can't I Separate My Personal and AWS Amazon Accounts?

[fisherjeff]

Ten or so years ago, when I was running a business of ~5 people, I signed up for AWS using my personal account. Now that the business is larger, I'd like to transfer the root account to our IT director but it's tied to my personal Amazon account so I can't do that without transferring my whole account to him.

I asked AWS to separate the two accounts (which is a thing they can do!), and the response I received a week later was:

  After carefully reviewing your request alongside the Service Team, we are unable to separate your AWS and Amazon.com accounts. Having said this, please note that we continuously evaluate eligibility for this separation process. While we are unable to provide you with a specific timeframe that your account may be eligible, we may automatically complete the separation process for you in the future.

What does this even mean? Has anyone had this experience before, and, if so, how did you get this resolved?

[caprock]

Interesting. There must be some internal inconsistencies across accounts (not surprising for something that's existed this long). So maybe they are slowly working through the changes as they hint.

For instance, in the past month I received this notice, unprompted, from amazon:

Greetings from Amazon Web Services,

In the past, you have used the same email address and password to sign in to Amazon.com and AWS. In response to customer feedback, AWS is updating your account to make your access to Amazon.com and AWS independent. You can continue using this email address and your current password to sign in to Amazon.com. However, the next time that you sign in to AWS, you will be prompted to create a new password and will have the option to register a new multi-factor authentication (MFA) device. MFA is a best practice that adds an extra layer of protection on top of your email and password.

[bell-cot]

Reminds me of advice that a small business I worked at got from a really good lawyer ~20 years ago - if the ownership of the small business changes, then it should close down all bank accounts (& merchant accounts, lines of credit, etc.), and replace those with new accounts (& etc.) at new banks. Why - he said that all banks were Complete Crap at correctly doing changes of ownership & control of small businesses.

[saltcured]

Have you considered creating a new account for the business and transferring aws resources to it instead?

I'm not an expert at this, but my coworkers claim to have moved production systems to new accounts when dealing with changes of project stewardship, funding, or accounting.

[groffee]

Just tell them to move your account or you'll take your business over to Azure or GCP.

[OJFord → groffee]

I think this is good advice, because it's realistic - the alternative is you recreate everything in a new account anyway, a prime time for considering such a move.

[fisherjeff → OJFord]

Ah, this is an excellent point

[fisherjeff → groffee]

Yeah, I've asked them to escalate and if that doesn't work, this is pretty much where I'm headed next.

[yuppie_scum → groffee]

Unless you are spending probably 5mil+ a year, AWS doesn’t really give a shit about you, in my experience