Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

AWS CloudFormation VS AWS Lambda

Compare AWS CloudFormation VS AWS Lambda and see what are their differences

AWS CloudFormation logo AWS CloudFormation

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

AWS Lambda logo AWS Lambda

Automatic, event-driven compute service
  • AWS CloudFormation Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-22
  • AWS Lambda Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-29

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 Lambda features and specs

  • Scalability
    AWS Lambda automatically scales your application by running your code in response to each trigger. This means no manual intervention is required to handle varying levels of traffic.
  • Cost-effectiveness
    You only pay for the compute time you consume. Billing is metered in increments of 100 milliseconds and you are not charged when your code is not running.
  • Reduced Operations Overhead
    AWS Lambda abstracts the infrastructure management layer, so there is no need to manage or provision servers. This allows you to focus more on writing code for your applications.
  • Flexibility
    Supports multiple programming languages such as Python, Node.js, Ruby, Java, Go, and .NET, which allows you to use the language you are most comfortable with.
  • Integration with Other AWS Services
    Seamlessly integrates with many other AWS services such as S3, DynamoDB, RDS, SNS, and more, making it versatile and highly functional.
  • Automatic Scaling and Load Balancing
    Handles thousands of concurrent requests without managing the scaling yourself, making it suitable for applications requiring high availability and reliability.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Lambda

  • Cold Start Latency
    The first request to a Lambda function after it has been idle for a certain period can take longer to execute. This is referred to as a 'cold start' and can impact performance.
  • Resource Limits
    Lambda has defined limits, such as a maximum execution timeout of 15 minutes, memory allocation ranging from 128 MB to 10,240 MB, and temporary storage up to 512 MB.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Using AWS Lambda ties you into the AWS ecosystem, making it difficult to migrate to another cloud provider or an on-premises solution without significant modifications to your application.
  • Complexity of Debugging
    Debugging and monitoring distributed, serverless applications can be more complex compared to traditional applications due to the lack of direct access to the underlying infrastructure.
  • Cold Start Issues with VPC
    When Lambda functions are configured to access resources within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), the cold start latency can be exacerbated due to additional VPC networking overhead.
  • Limited Execution Control
    AWS Lambda is designed for stateless, short-running tasks and may not be suitable for long-running processes or tasks requiring complex orchestration.

Analysis of AWS CloudFormation

Overall verdict

  • Good

Why this product is good

  • AWS CloudFormation can be a powerful tool for managing infrastructure as code, allowing you to model and set up your Amazon Web Services resources so that you can spend less time managing those resources and more time focusing on your applications. It provides a consistent, repeatable process for provisioning infrastructure, improves change management, enhances resource tracking, and reduces the possibility of human errors. Additionally, it integrates seamlessly with other AWS services and enables the deployment of infrastructure through code, which can be version controlled, tested, and automated.

Recommended for

  • Organizations that heavily utilize AWS services and wish to manage resources through a codified approach
  • Software teams that implement CI/CD pipelines and require infrastructure code to be included in those pipelines
  • DevOps teams striving for automation, consistency, and scalability in their cloud infrastructure management
  • Developers and IT professionals who need to manage complex infrastructures or regularly spin up and tear down environments

Analysis of AWS Lambda

Overall verdict

  • AWS Lambda is a strong choice for developers looking for scalable, event-driven applications with minimal management overhead. It is particularly beneficial for applications that experience intermittent traffic or unpredictable workloads.

Why this product is good

  • AWS Lambda is a popular serverless computing service because it allows users to run code without provisioning or managing servers. It automatically scales applications by running code in response to triggers such as HTTP requests, changes in data, or system events. This can significantly reduce operational overhead and costs, as you only pay for the compute time you consume.

Recommended for

  • Developers building microservices or serverless applications.
  • Companies looking to reduce infrastructure management.
  • Startups wanting to quickly deploy applications with limited operational costs.
  • Organizations needing to integrate with other AWS services for a comprehensive solution.
  • Projects with unpredictable or variable workloads that require automatic scaling.

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 Lambda videos

AWS Lambda Vs EC2 | Serverless Vs EC2 | EC2 Alternatives

More videos:

  • Tutorial - AWS Lambda Tutorial | AWS Tutorial for Beginners | Intro to AWS Lambda | AWS Training | Edureka
  • Tutorial - AWS Lambda | What is AWS Lambda | AWS Lambda Tutorial for Beginners | Intellipaat

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS CloudFormation and AWS Lambda)
DevOps Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
12 12%
88% 88
Continuous Integration
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Hosting
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 Lambda

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 โ€œlogicโ€ (e.g. if-statements, loops), creating...

AWS Lambda Reviews

Top 7 Firebase Alternatives for App Development in 2024
AWS Lambda is suitable for applications with varying workloads and those already using the AWS ecosystem.
Source: signoz.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, AWS Lambda should be more popular than AWS CloudFormation. It has been mentiond 297 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 (129)

  • Dynamic Looping Comes to AWS SAM
    AWS SAM CLI, the command-line tool for building and deploying serverless applications, now supports AWS CloudFormation Language Extensions. The one I am most excited about is Fn::ForEach, which brings dynamic looping to your YAML templates, but it's close. If you, like me, have been copy-pasting resource definitions to infinity, that stops today. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • AWS CloudFormation Drift Detection & Remediation Guide
    AWS CloudFormation is an IaC service that helps users automate, scale, and manage their environments efficiently. On the other hand, GitOps has become one of the standard ways of ensuring the IaC configuration stored in code repositories is deployed live on the correct systems. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Announcing AWS CDK Mixins: Composable Abstractions for AWS Resources
    The AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) is an open-source software development framework for defining cloud infrastructure in code and provisioning it through AWS CloudFormation. It contains pre-written modular and reusable cloud components known as constructs. Constructs are the basic building blocks representing one or more AWS CloudFormation resources and their configuration. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Top 12 Puppet Alternatives for Automation
    Website: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • From Code to Cloud in Minutes: How AWS Amplify Supercharges Modern App Development
    When you deploy a cloud sandbox, Amplify creates an AWSโ€ฏCloudFormation stack following the naming convention of amplify--<$(whoami)>-sandbox in your AWS account with the resources configured in your amplify/ folder. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
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AWS Lambda mentions (297)

  • Serverless with Mama J โ€” Why Serverless
    AWS Lambda is a service that runs your code without you managing any servers. You write your code, deploy it to Lambda, and it takes care of the infrastructure โ€” servers, networking, security, and scaling. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Enriching Free Trial Signups: The PLG Data Stack for Turning Inbound Users Into Qualified Pipeline
    Clay can replace the Lambda and API chain if you'd rather avoid custom code. You set up a Clay table as the enrichment layer, trigger it from Segment via webhook, and it handles the waterfall and CRM push without writing a function. The tradeoff: less control over scoring logic and higher cost per enriched contact. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Dynamic Looping Comes to AWS SAM
    To show why this matters, take a look at the following example. I have three AWS Lambda functions, Lambda being the serverless compute service, that each handle a different endpoint on the same API. But, almost everything about them is the same. They have the same runtime, the same memory configuration, and nearly the same structure. The only differences are the name, handler, and possibly some environment variables. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • AIP-C01 last-minute revision: exam traps, memory hooks, and quick notes
    Query Expansion and Decomposition: Amazon Bedrock query expansion broadens search; AWS Lambda query decomposition breaks complex queries into sub-queries; AWS Step Functions orchestrates multi-step retrieval. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Why AWS Certified GenAI Developer stands apart from other AWS certs
    You need to understand synchronous and asynchronous inference patterns, event-driven architectures using Amazon EventBridge, workflow orchestration with AWS Step Functions, data processing with AWS Lambda, state management with Amazon DynamoDB, and security with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). The exam tests your ability to design serverless architectures that scale automatically, handle failures... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Amazon API Gateway - Create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale

Bamboo - Bamboo is a continuous integration and deployment tool that ties automated builds, tests and releases together in a single workflow.

Amazon S3 - Amazon S3 is an object storage where users can store data from their business on a safe, cloud-based platform. Amazon S3 operates in 54 availability zones within 18 graphic regions and 1 local region.

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

Google App Engine - A powerful platform to build web and mobile apps that scale automatically.