AWS CloudFormation Templates (CFTs)

AWS CloudFormation Templates (CFTs) is a tool that allows you to create, manage, and provision AWS resources using code. CFTs use a declarative language to define the desired state of resources. They also provide features such as dependency management, rollback protection, and cross-stack references. By using CFTs, you can easily automate your infrastructure deployment and management.

To use CFTs, you can either create your own templates from scratch or use existing templates available on the AWS CloudFormation registry. Once you have a template, you can deploy it using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs.

Some of the key features of CFTs include:

• Declarative syntax: CFTs use a declarative syntax, which means that you simply define the desired end state of your resources, and AWS takes care of the rest.
• Resource dependencies: CFTs enable you to define dependencies between resources, so that they are provisioned in the right order.
• Rollback protection: CFTs provide rollback protection, which means that if a stack update fails, AWS automatically rolls back the changes to the previous working state.
• Cross-stack references: CFTs enable you to reference resources across different stacks, which can be useful in complex environments.

In summary, AWS CloudFormation Templates provide a powerful and efficient way to manage your AWS infrastructure as code. By using CFTs, you can automate the provisioning and management of your resources, while also ensuring consistency and repeatability.

Here's an example of a CloudFormation template that creates an EC2 instance and a security group:

Resources: MyEC2Instance:

Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
Properties:
  ImageId: ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0
  InstanceType: t2.micro
  SecurityGroupIds:
        

MySecurityGroup:

Type: AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup
Properties:
  GroupDescription: Allow SSH access to EC2 instances
  SecurityGroupIngress:        

Now Companies are moving from CFT to Terraform below are some reasons:

Terraform is better than AWS CloudFormation Templates (CFTs) in terms of multi-cloud support and greater flexibility. Terraform allows you to manage resources across multiple cloud providers, and it has a larger set of providers and modules available. Additionally, Terraform's configuration language is more expressive and easier to learn than CFT's JSON or YAML.

Happy Learning.... :)