Easier CloudFormation

How AWS re:Invent 2014 GameDay got me started

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🔒 Related Stories: AWS Security | Security Automation

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When I started getting serious about AWS, I immediately understood how CloudFormation could help organizations to improve cybersecurity. More on that later. First, some tips to make CloudFormation easier to learn and use. When I hired a particular individual at a company who is brilliant, he didn’t like CloudFormation much. He already knew how to write it. I shared some of the structural tips at the end with him, and then he liked it a lot better, so now I’m sharing them with you. The general tips about how to structure and troubleshoot templates also apply to Terraform, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform templates.

Where to start

The first time you look at a long involved AWS CloudFormation template, it may seem overwhelming. I felt the same way. Even though I had many years of experience as a software engineer and knew many software languages, it was something new, and I had to figure out where to start. I wasn’t allowed to use AWS at work when I got seriously interested in using it for production workloads. I was using AWS in a personal account just to get started and didn’t get around to…