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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Build Automation
  4. Infrastructure Build Tools
  5. AWS CloudFormation vs Webpack

AWS CloudFormation vs Webpack

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

AWS CloudFormation
AWS CloudFormation
Stacks1.6K
Followers1.3K
Votes88
Webpack
Webpack
Stacks45.0K
Followers28.1K
Votes752
GitHub Stars65.7K
Forks9.2K

AWS CloudFormation vs Webpack: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In this comparison, we will highlight the key differences between AWS CloudFormation and Webpack - two popular tools for managing and deploying applications in the cloud.

  1. Infrastructure as Code vs. Module Bundler: AWS CloudFormation is primarily used for defining and provisioning the infrastructure resources in a declarative manner using templates, known as Infrastructure as Code (IaC). On the other hand, Webpack is a module bundler that focuses on bundling JavaScript and other assets for web deployment.

  2. Deployment and Orchestration vs. Code Optimization: AWS CloudFormation facilitates the deployment and orchestration of complex cloud environments by defining resources and their dependencies. In contrast, Webpack specializes in optimizing client-side code for performance and bundling multiple assets together to enhance the loading speed of web applications.

  3. Cloud Resource Management vs. Frontend Build Tool: CloudFormation is more suitable for managing cloud resources like EC2 instances, S3 buckets, and RDS databases in AWS. Meanwhile, Webpack is a frontend build tool that helps developers bundle, minify, and transform front-end assets like JavaScript, CSS, and images for deployment.

  4. AWS Ecosystem vs. JavaScript Applications: AWS CloudFormation is closely integrated with the AWS ecosystem, allowing users to create, update, and delete AWS resources easily. Conversely, Webpack is commonly used in JavaScript ecosystem to bundle modules and assets for building modern web applications.

  5. Declarative vs. Programmatic: CloudFormation templates are written in JSON or YAML format and follow a declarative approach to define resources and their configurations. In contrast, Webpack configurations are written in JavaScript and offer more flexibility and programmability to customize the build process according to specific requirements.

  6. Automated Infrastructure Provisioning vs. Code Optimization: AWS CloudFormation enables automated provisioning of infrastructure resources based on templates, ensuring consistency and repeatability. On the other hand, Webpack focuses on optimizing code for performance and efficiency, enhancing the overall user experience of web applications.

In Summary, AWS CloudFormation is designed for managing cloud resources through Infrastructure as Code, while Webpack is a module bundler and optimization tool for frontend assets in web applications.

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Advice on AWS CloudFormation, Webpack

Timothy
Timothy

SRE

Mar 20, 2020

Decided

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.
385k views385k
Comments
Daniel
Daniel

May 4, 2020

Decided

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.

426k views426k
Comments
Aleksandr
Aleksandr

Contract Software Engineer - Microsoft at Microsoft-365

Dec 23, 2019

Decided

Why migrated?

I could define the next points why we have to migrate:

  • Decrease build time of our application. (It was the main cause).
  • Also jspm install takes much more time than npm install.
  • Many config files for SystemJS and JSPM. For Webpack you can use just one main config file, and you can use some separate config files for specific builds using inheritance and merge them.
301k views301k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

AWS CloudFormation
AWS CloudFormation
Webpack
Webpack

You can use AWS CloudFormation’s sample templates or create your own templates to describe the AWS resources, and any associated dependencies or runtime parameters, required to run your application. You don’t need to figure out the order in which AWS services need to be provisioned or the subtleties of how to make those dependencies work.

A bundler for javascript and friends. Packs many modules into a few bundled assets. Code Splitting allows to load parts for the application on demand. Through "loaders" modules can be CommonJs, AMD, ES6 modules, CSS, Images, JSON, Coffeescript, LESS, ... and your custom stuff.

AWS CloudFormation comes with the following ready-to-run sample templates: WordPress (blog),Tracks (project tracking), Gollum (wiki used by GitHub), Drupal (content management), Joomla (content management), Insoshi (social apps), Redmine (project mgmt);No Need to Reinvent the Wheel – A template can be used repeatedly to create identical copies of the same stack (or to use as a foundation to start a new stack);Transparent and Open – Templates are simple JSON formatted text files that can be placed under your normal source control mechanisms, stored in private or public locations such as Amazon S3 and exchanged via email.;Declarative and Flexible – To create the infrastructure you want, you enumerate what AWS resources, configuration values and interconnections you need in a template and then let AWS CloudFormation do the rest with a few simple clicks in the AWS Management Console, via the command line tools or by calling the APIs.
Bundles ES Modules, CommonJS, and AMD modules (even combined); Can create a single bundle or multiple chunks that are asynchronously loaded at runtime (to reduce initial loading time); Dependencies are resolved during compilation, reducing the runtime size; Loaders can preprocess files while compiling, e.g. TypeScript to JavaScript, Handlebars strings to compiled functions, images to Base64, etc; Highly modular plugin system to do whatever else your application requires
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
65.7K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
9.2K
Stacks
1.6K
Stacks
45.0K
Followers
1.3K
Followers
28.1K
Votes
88
Votes
752
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 43
    Automates infrastructure deployments
  • 21
    Declarative infrastructure and deployment
  • 13
    No more clicking around
  • 3
    Any Operative System you want
  • 3
    Infrastructure as code
Cons
  • 4
    Brittle
  • 2
    No RBAC and policies in templates
Pros
  • 309
    Most powerful bundler
  • 182
    Built-in dev server with livereload
  • 142
    Can handle all types of assets
  • 87
    Easy configuration
  • 22
    Laravel-mix
Cons
  • 15
    Hard to configure
  • 5
    No clear direction
  • 2
    Loader architecture is quite a mess (unreliable/buggy)
  • 2
    SystemJS integration is quite lackluster
  • 2
    Fire and Forget mentality of Core-Developers
Integrations
No integrations available
JavaScript
JavaScript

What are some alternatives to AWS CloudFormation, Webpack?

gulp

gulp

Build system automating tasks: minification and copying of all JavaScript files, static images. More capable of watching files to automatically rerun the task when a file changes.

Grunt

Grunt

The less work you have to do when performing repetitive tasks like minification, compilation, unit testing, linting, etc, the easier your job becomes. After you've configured it, a task runner can do most of that mundane work for you—and your team—with basically zero effort.

Packer

Packer

Packer automates the creation of any type of machine image. It embraces modern configuration management by encouraging you to use automated scripts to install and configure the software within your Packer-made images.

Brunch

Brunch

Brunch is an assembler for HTML5 applications. It's agnostic to frameworks, libraries, programming, stylesheet & templating languages and backend technology.

Scalr

Scalr

Scalr is a remote state & operations backend for Terraform with access controls, policy as code, and many quality of life features.

Pulumi

Pulumi

Pulumi is a cloud development platform that makes creating cloud programs easy and productive. Skip the YAML and just write code. Pulumi is multi-language, multi-cloud and fully extensible in both its engine and ecosystem of packages.

Parcel

Parcel

Parcel is a web application bundler, differentiated by its developer experience. It offers blazing fast performance utilizing multicore processing, and requires zero configuration.

rollup

rollup

It is a module bundler for JavaScript which compiles small pieces of code into something larger and more complex, such as a library or application. It uses the new standardized format for code modules included in the ES6 revision of JavaScript, instead of previous idiosyncratic solutions such as CommonJS and AMD.

Backpack

Backpack

Backpack is minimalistic build system for Node.js. Inspired by Facebook's create-react-app, Zeit's Next.js, and Remy's Nodemon, Backpack lets you create modern Node.js apps and services with zero configuration. Backpack handles all the file-watching, live-reloading, transpiling, and bundling, so you don't have to.

Vite

Vite

It is an opinionated web dev build tool that serves your code via native ES Module imports during dev and bundles it with Rollup for production.

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