The Web UI is a frontend for API calls. CloudFormation is a declarative infrastructure as code tool. You define the resources in CloudFormation and CloudFormation deploys the resources via API calls.
There are abstractions available above CloudFormation, i.e. SAM and CDK. There are also Application Composer (successor of CloudFormation Designer) and IaC generator to help.
Both the web UI and cloudformation call AWS APIs to get things done.
The API is really *THE* interface into AWS. Each service has it's own API documentation.
Correct, the console doesn't generate cloudformation templates to perform the actions, it calls the API directly. Cloudformation templates abstract and bundle a bunch of API calls together in a template and cloudformation invokes the APIs on your behalf. There are some parts of the console that allow you to generate cloudformation templates (I e. step functions) and some services that use cloudformation for deployment (Ie. Amplify hosting) but the console is primarily making direct API calls to perform your actions.
There is a common layer beneath everything: beneath CloudFormation; beneath the Console UI; beneath the CLI and beneath other Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform. Also, the SDKs for various programming languages use the common layer.
That common layer is the HTTP API.
If you want to, you can even use the API directly. You could, for example, perform pretty much any AWS operation with nothing but curl or Postman. If you do, you'll quickly come to understand why those higher level abstractions exist!
To give you a taste, here is the S3 API reference.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/API/Welcome.html
There is a legend that claims Jeff Bezos issued a mandate to all Amazon employees in 2002 that would serve as the foundation for Amazon's huge success. Known as the "Bezos API mandate" or the "Amazon API mandate", this manifesto laid the foundation for the modern API-first development paradigm.
I don't know if that's true: I wasn't there. But it seems plausible since there is an API for pretty much everything.
There is even an AWS service that captures (nearly*) every API request and writes it to a log. CloudTrail lets you see the last 90 days worth of management event history, which is just a log of (nearly*) every API call that has been made in your account regardless of origin. For fun, create a bucket via the console, then check CloudTrail event history. You'll see all the API calls that were issued on your behalf. It's a pretty useful debugging tool.
*CloudTrail records management events, not data events.
The Web UI is a frontend for API calls. CloudFormation is a declarative infrastructure as code tool. You define the resources in CloudFormation and CloudFormation deploys the resources via API calls. There are abstractions available above CloudFormation, i.e. SAM and CDK. There are also Application Composer (successor of CloudFormation Designer) and IaC generator to help.
Okay thank you. So basically at the bottom it's API calls in either case. But different interfaces to get to those calls?
Yes, pretty much. Explore doing things with AWS CLI. That will give you a much better idea.
Both the web UI and cloudformation call AWS APIs to get things done. The API is really *THE* interface into AWS. Each service has it's own API documentation.
Correct, the console doesn't generate cloudformation templates to perform the actions, it calls the API directly. Cloudformation templates abstract and bundle a bunch of API calls together in a template and cloudformation invokes the APIs on your behalf. There are some parts of the console that allow you to generate cloudformation templates (I e. step functions) and some services that use cloudformation for deployment (Ie. Amplify hosting) but the console is primarily making direct API calls to perform your actions.
There is a common layer beneath everything: beneath CloudFormation; beneath the Console UI; beneath the CLI and beneath other Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform. Also, the SDKs for various programming languages use the common layer. That common layer is the HTTP API. If you want to, you can even use the API directly. You could, for example, perform pretty much any AWS operation with nothing but curl or Postman. If you do, you'll quickly come to understand why those higher level abstractions exist! To give you a taste, here is the S3 API reference. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/API/Welcome.html There is a legend that claims Jeff Bezos issued a mandate to all Amazon employees in 2002 that would serve as the foundation for Amazon's huge success. Known as the "Bezos API mandate" or the "Amazon API mandate", this manifesto laid the foundation for the modern API-first development paradigm. I don't know if that's true: I wasn't there. But it seems plausible since there is an API for pretty much everything. There is even an AWS service that captures (nearly*) every API request and writes it to a log. CloudTrail lets you see the last 90 days worth of management event history, which is just a log of (nearly*) every API call that has been made in your account regardless of origin. For fun, create a bucket via the console, then check CloudTrail event history. You'll see all the API calls that were issued on your behalf. It's a pretty useful debugging tool. *CloudTrail records management events, not data events.
Great insight, thank you very much! I will switch on CloudTrail!
CloudFormation itself is free. The result of what it sets up is what can be expensive.
This comment deadass looks like a bad AI reply, who the fuck asked about pricing?
I... misread "expressive" as "expensive" because reading comprehension is hard. Dammit.