Which service helps automate tasks like applying operating system patches?

AWS Systems Manager is the service that specifically assists with automating tasks such as applying operating system patches. This capability is part of its broader functionality, which allows users to manage and automate common administrative tasks across their AWS resources. Systems Manager provides features like Patch Manager, which can automatically scan for missing patches and apply them to instances, ensuring that the environment remains up to date and secure.

Additionally, AWS Systems Manager enables users to create maintenance windows for scheduling updates and to monitor compliance for the updates that have been applied. Through this automation, it reduces the operational burden on teams and minimizes the risk of security vulnerabilities associated with unpatched systems.

In contrast, while AWS CloudFormation is a service for defining and deploying infrastructure as code, it doesn’t specifically handle tasks like patching operating systems. Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) is focused on database management and does not extend to operating system tasks outside of its managed database environment. AWS Auto Scaling is designed for automatically adjusting the capacity of computing resources based on demand but does not offer patch management functionalities.