AWS Config is the AWS service designed to continuously evaluate resource configurations against defined rules. According to the AWS Certified Security – Specialty Study Guide, AWS Config managed rules exist specifically to check database encryption, public accessibility, deletion protection, and log exports for Amazon RDS and Aurora.

AWS Config provides a real-time compliance timeline and displays the compliance state of each resource against each rule at any point in time. This granular visibility is required to assess ongoing compliance with security policies.

Audit Manager generates reports but does not provide continuous compliance monitoring. Security Hub aggregates findings but does not track configuration drift. EventBridge and Lambda introduce unnecessary complexity.

Referenced AWS Specialty Documents:

AWS Certified Security – Specialty Official Study Guide

AWS Config Managed Rules for RDS

AWS Continuous Compliance Monitoring