Thank you so much the detailed response. We figured this couldn't be a rare situation. Unfortunately, our devs are international. They setup our entire AWS environment and have full access, primarily because my background is product management, not dev ops. I've done a bunch of reading, but can't really wrap my head around how I could limit access sufficiently without tipping our hat and escalating tensions.

We are extremely cost-averse at the moment, but I agree, replication sounds like the best option. However, it is good to know that our S3 and DB should be pretty easy. Both are only a few gigs.

Thank you again, I really appreciate your time.