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AWS CloudFormation vs VMware vSphere: What are the differences?
Deployment Model: AWS CloudFormation is a managed service provided by AWS for infrastructure as code, allowing users to define and provision resources in AWS through templates. On the other hand, VMware vSphere is a virtualization platform used to create virtual machines and manage data center resources on-premises. While CloudFormation is cloud-based and emphasizes scalability and automation, vSphere focuses on virtualization and on-premises data center management.
Vendor Lock-In: AWS CloudFormation is tightly integrated with AWS services and resources, which can result in vendor lock-in as users become reliant on AWS-specific features and services. In contrast, VMware vSphere supports a broader range of hypervisors and cloud providers, giving users more flexibility and reducing the risk of vendor lock-in. Organizations looking to avoid vendor lock-in may prefer vSphere for its compatibility with multiple environments.
Pricing Model: AWS CloudFormation pricing is based on the resources provisioned and the actions performed with the service, making it a pay-as-you-go model. In comparison, VMware vSphere follows a different pricing model, typically based on the number of CPU sockets or physical cores in use. This difference in pricing models can impact cost calculations and decision-making for organizations considering either CloudFormation or vSphere.
Availability and Scalability: AWS CloudFormation is designed for cloud environments and leverages the scalability and availability of AWS services, allowing users to easily scale resources as needed. VMware vSphere, while capable of supporting large-scale virtualized environments, may require additional configuration and management to achieve the same level of scalability and availability as CloudFormation in the cloud.
Integration with Ecosystem: AWS CloudFormation integrates tightly with other AWS services such as EC2, S3, RDS, and more, providing a seamless experience for deploying and managing resources within the AWS ecosystem. VMware vSphere, while offering integration with VMware's suite of products, may not have the same level of integration with third-party cloud services or tools, limiting the interoperability of vSphere compared to CloudFormation.
Community and Support: AWS CloudFormation benefits from a large and active community of users and contributors, providing access to resources, templates, and best practices for leveraging the service effectively. VMware vSphere also has a strong community of users, particularly in enterprise environments, but may have fewer resources and community-contributed content compared to CloudFormation. The availability of community support and resources can influence the adoption and success of either CloudFormation or vSphere in an organization.
In Summary, AWS CloudFormation and VMware vSphere differ in their deployment model, vendor lock-in potential, pricing model, availability and scalability, integration with ecosystem, and community support, impacting their suitability for different use cases and environments.
Ok, so first - AWS Copilot is CloudFormation under the hood, but the way it works results in you not thinking about CFN anymore. AWS found the right balance with Copilot - it's insanely simple to setup production-ready multi-account environment with many services inside, with CI/CD out of the box etc etc. It's pretty new, but even now it was enough to launch Transcripto, which uses may be a dozen of different AWS services, all bound together by Copilot.
Because Pulumi uses real programming languages, you can actually write abstractions for your infrastructure code, which is incredibly empowering. You still 'describe' your desired state, but by having a programming language at your fingers, you can factor out patterns, and package it up for easier consumption.
We use Terraform to manage AWS cloud environment for the project. It is pretty complex, largely static, security-focused, and constantly evolving.
Terraform provides descriptive (declarative) way of defining the target configuration, where it can work out the dependencies between configuration elements and apply differences without re-provisioning the entire cloud stack.
AdvantagesTerraform is vendor-neutral in a way that it is using a common configuration language (HCL) with plugins (providers) for multiple cloud and service providers.
Terraform keeps track of the previous state of the deployment and applies incremental changes, resulting in faster deployment times.
Terraform allows us to share reusable modules between projects. We have built an impressive library of modules internally, which makes it very easy to assemble a new project from pre-fabricated building blocks.
DisadvantagesSoftware is imperfect, and Terraform is no exception. Occasionally we hit annoying bugs that we have to work around. The interaction with any underlying APIs is encapsulated inside 3rd party Terraform providers, and any bug fixes or new features require a provider release. Some providers have very poor coverage of the underlying APIs.
Terraform is not great for managing highly dynamic parts of cloud environments. That part is better delegated to other tools or scripts.
Terraform state may go out of sync with the target environment or with the source configuration, which often results in painful reconciliation.
I personally am not a huge fan of vendor lock in for multiple reasons:
- I've seen cost saving moves to the cloud end up costing a fortune and trapping companies due to over utilization of cloud specific features.
- I've seen S3 failures nearly take down half the internet.
- I've seen companies get stuck in the cloud because they aren't built cloud agnostic.
I choose to use terraform for my cloud provisioning for these reasons:
- It's cloud agnostic so I can use it no matter where I am.
- It isn't difficult to use and uses a relatively easy to read language.
- It tests infrastructure before running it, and enables me to see and keep changes up to date.
- It runs from the same CLI I do most of my CM work from.
Pros of AWS CloudFormation
- Automates infrastructure deployments43
- Declarative infrastructure and deployment21
- No more clicking around13
- Any Operative System you want3
- Atomic3
- Infrastructure as code3
- CDK makes it truly infrastructure-as-code1
- Automates Infrastructure Deployment1
- K8s0
Pros of VMware vSphere
- Strong host isolation8
- Industry leader6
- Great VM management (HA,FT,...)5
- Easy to use4
- Feature rich2
- Great Networking2
- Free1
- Running in background1
- Can be setup on single physical server1
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Cons of AWS CloudFormation
- Brittle4
- No RBAC and policies in templates2
Cons of VMware vSphere
- Price8
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