Thread by @AdamBrodziak

Navigating the cloud and #DevOps horizon is hard, things are moving quickly.

ThoughtWorks recommends HOLD on handwritten AWS CloudFormation in #TechRadar 2019 edition. Building a complex infrastructure in essentially huge YAML text file is doomed to fail thoughtworks.com/radar/tools/ha…

You could thought that Templating in YAML is a solution here, but it's also on HOLD in #TechRadar 2019 by @thoughtworks thoughtworks.com/radar/techniqu…

The same about templating in JSON, because YAML is JSON actually. Better to use real programming language instead. The dev in #DevOps

So Terraform is the ADOPT in #TechRadar 2019 and "sensible default" that addresses the shortfalls of AWS CloudFormation as stated here:
thoughtworks.com/radar/tools/ha…

There are other options listed, including troposphere, sceptre, Stack Deployment Tool and Pulumi. Not sure if endorsed.

Terraform is on the #TechRadar since 2015 reaching ADOPT in 2019 only. Bear in mind that it supports many cloud and on-premise providers it is NOT an abstraction on those - you still call vendor-specific API.

Community adds latest cloud features. Evolved into stable product.

On Terraform again from @thoughtworks #TechRadar 2019 ADOPT:

The issue with state file management can now be sidestepped by using what Terraform calls a "remote state backend." We've successfully used AWS S3 for that purpose. thoughtworks.com/radar/tools/te…

Prior to AWS S3 was Consul.

Another remedy to AWS CloudFormation excessive YAML usage (and Terraform alternative?) is AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) that is TRIAL on #TechRadar 2019 thoughtworks.com/radar/platform…

AWS CDK supports programming language to build CloudFormation docs: #JavaScript #TypeScript

Given that AWS CDK has all the benefits of CloudFormation (state management, auto rollback) there's a big win over Terraform where you have to code it via AWS API calls yourself. Note that the Terraform code has to use AWS-specific APIs anyway, there's no abstraction.

AWS CDK uses general purpose programming language: #TypeScript #javascript #Python #Java and C#. For me that's an advantage over #Terraform DSL.

On the other hand AWS CDK code looks much more verbose compared to DSL obviously.