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AWS CloudFormation VS AWS Control Tower

Compare AWS CloudFormation VS AWS Control Tower and see what are their differences

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AWS CloudFormation logo AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation gives developers and systems administrators an easy way to create and manage a...

AWS Control Tower logo AWS Control Tower

AWS Control Tower provides you with a single location to set up a well-architected multi-account environment to govern your AWS workloads with rules for security, operations, and compliance. Sign up for our preview today!
  • AWS CloudFormation Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-22
  • AWS Control Tower Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-11-05

AWS CloudFormation features and specs

  • Infrastructure as Code
    CloudFormation allows you to define your infrastructure using code or templates, promoting version control, reviewability, and collaborative planning.
  • Automated Provisioning
    It automates the provisioning and updating of infrastructure, reducing the manual intervention required and minimizing human errors.
  • Consistency and Repeatability
    Ensures consistent configurations by deploying the same template multiple times across different environments, eliminating configuration drift.
  • Integration with Other AWS Services
    Tightly integrated with other AWS services, allowing for comprehensive infrastructure management, security policies, monitoring and logging.
  • Scalability and Flexibility
    Facilitates easy scaling and modifying of resources according to the application requirements without significant downtime.

Possible disadvantages of AWS CloudFormation

  • Complexity
    Large templates can become complex and difficult to manage, making troubleshooting and updating challenging.
  • Learning Curve
    Requires time and effort to learn and master, especially for newcomers to AWS or Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts.
  • Limited Cross-Platform Support
    Primarily tailored for AWS services, with limited support for managing infrastructure on other cloud platforms.
  • State Management
    Managing the state of your infrastructure can be complex, as creating or updating resources is highly dependent on the current state of your stack.
  • Debugging Issues
    Error messages and stack traces can sometimes be cryptic, making it difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of deployment failures.

AWS Control Tower features and specs

  • Simplified Multi-Account Management
    AWS Control Tower provides a straightforward setup and governance model for managing multiple AWS accounts, which helps organizations enforce policies and maintain security across their AWS environment.
  • Automated Policy Enforcement
    It offers pre-configured governance guardrails that automatically enforce baseline policies, which help in maintaining compliance and security without requiring manual intervention.
  • Centralized Visibility
    The service gives a central dashboard for monitoring the compliance and status of all accounts within an organization's AWS environment, making it easier to manage and oversee AWS resources.
  • Scalability
    AWS Control Tower is designed to scale with the needs of the organization, allowing for the addition and management of AWS accounts as the organization grows.
  • Integration with AWS Services
    It integrates with other AWS services like AWS Organizations, AWS SSO, and AWS Config, providing a cohesive environment for governance and security management.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Control Tower

  • Region Limitations
    AWS Control Tower is not available in all AWS regions, which could be a limitation for organizations that require resources in non-supported regions.
  • Complex Pricing
    Understanding the cost associated with using AWS Control Tower can be difficult as it involves considering the costs of the underlying services it uses, such as AWS Organizations and AWS Config.
  • Limited Customization
    The predefined guardrails might not cover all specific governance needs of an organization, leading to the requirement for additional manual setup or customization.
  • Initial Setup Complexity
    While designed for simplicity, the initial setup process for AWS Control Tower can be complex for those unfamiliar with AWS governance and multi-account architecture.
  • Dependency on AWS Services
    Since AWS Control Tower relies on other AWS services, any disruptions or changes in those services could impact the effectiveness and reliability of AWS Control Tower.

AWS CloudFormation videos

What is AWS Cloudformation? Pros and Cons?

More videos:

  • Demo - AWS CloudFormation Tutorial | AWS CloudFormation Demo | AWS Tutorial | AWS Training | Edureka
  • Tutorial - AWS CloudFormation Template Tutorial

AWS Control Tower videos

What is AWS Control Tower?

More videos:

  • Review - AWS re:Inforce 2019: Using AWS Control Tower to Govern Multi-Account AWS Environments (GRC313-R)
  • Review - Enable AWS Control Tower for Existing Organizations

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS CloudFormation and AWS Control Tower)
DevOps Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Security
0 0%
100% 100
Continuous Integration
100 100%
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare AWS CloudFormation and AWS Control Tower

AWS CloudFormation Reviews

5 Best DevSecOps Tools in 2023
There are multiple providers for Infrastructure as Code such as AWS CloudFormation, RedHat Ansible, HashiCorp Terraform, Puppet, Chef, and others. It is advised to research each to determine what is best for any given situation since each has pros and cons. Some of these also are not completely free while others are. There are also some that are specific to a particular...
Do not use AWS CloudFormation
CloudFormation being a layer of indirection makes it difficult to work with in multi-region/multi-account scenarios. With CloudFormation you have to create Stack Sets and IAM policies that allow the CloudFormation service to impersonate other roles. The prerequisite steps you have to take to use CloudFormation across multiple accounts also must be taken just to have...
Why we use Terraform and not Chef, Puppet, Ansible, SaltStack, or CloudFormation
Of course, there are downsides to declarative languages too. Without access to a full programming language, your expressive power is limited. For example, some types of infrastructure changes, such as a rolling, zero-downtime deployment, are hard to express in purely declarative terms. Similarly, without the ability to do “logic” (e.g. if-statements, loops), creating...

AWS Control Tower Reviews

We have no reviews of AWS Control Tower yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, AWS CloudFormation should be more popular than AWS Control Tower. It has been mentiond 123 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

AWS CloudFormation mentions (123)

  • What is an AWS CloudFormation Template?
    CloudFormation is an IaC AWS-native service that helps you model and configure your resources declaratively. Using CloudFormation, you can manage and operate your AWS infrastructure efficiently, so you can spend less time managing infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Master Secure File Uploads to AWS S3 in Node.js with Express and Multer
    Basic knowledge of AWS and CloudFormation. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • AWS Serverless Security: Preventing HTTP Flood DDoS Attack
    AWS WAF Security Automations use AWS CloudFormation to quickly configure AWS WAF rules that help block these common types of attacks:. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Provisioning A Three-Tier Application on AWS using Infrastructure-As-Code (IaC)
    IaC stands for Infrastructure as code and for a while I struggled to understand this concept, and when it seemed like I was starting to get it, I started confusing it with some other thing. IaC allows you to build, change, and manage your infrastructure in a safe, consistent, and repeatable way by defining resource configurations that you can version, reuse, and share. Infrastructure as code is basically... - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • How to Migrate AWS Resources from one AWS Account to Another
    1.1 Using AWS CloudFormation If you already use AWS CloudFormation, you can simply bring your existing templates over to the new AWS account. AWS CloudFormation helps you manage and set up your resources easily. You create templates that allow you to quickly and reliably set up services or applications called “stacks.”. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
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AWS Control Tower mentions (17)

  • Cloud Made Easy: AWS Control Tower
    Let's explore today something interesting and very important AWS service: Control tower. - Source: dev.to / 8 days ago
  • Is AWS Landing Zone Accelerator any good?
    I think it’s been superseded by Control Tower, right? Landing Zones solutions refer to the days when there wasn’t an actual service that did account vending and policy. Https://aws.amazon.com/controltower/. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Receiving Slack notifications when CloudTrail logging gets turned off
    Amazon CloudTrail is the surveillance camera for our accounts. It records every API call that any users or roles make. If we have multiple accounts set up in AWS Organizations, we can create a central trail in the management account. We can then enable logging to all accounts and all regions. Or, if we use Control Tower to set up the account structure, we don't need to do anything because it will automatically... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Presenting AWS Speakers Directory, an AI Hackathon Project
    Deploy our application to sandbox, test, and production environments in a multi-account AWS organization managed by Control Tower. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Testing your Landing Zone when using AWS Deployment Framework
    Build your own… In this post I am focussing on ADF. The benefit of ADF over AWS Control Tower is that you have more control over the framework. All resources run in your accounts and are under your control. AWS Control Tower is a managed service by AWS. Giving less flexibility but remove maintenance burden. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing AWS CloudFormation and AWS Control Tower, you can also consider the following products

AWS Lambda - Automatic, event-driven compute service

Qualys - Qualys helps your business automate the full spectrum of auditing, compliance and protection of your IT systems and web applications.

Codeship - Codeship is a fast and secure hosted Continuous Delivery platform that scales with your needs.

Azure Security Center - Turn on Azure Security Center to gain unmatched hybrid cloud security management and threat protection for your workloads.

Terraform - Tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently.

Nutanix Beam - Nutanix Beam is a multi-cloud optimization service