AWS CloudFormation vs Docker Swarm

Overview

AWS CloudFormation

Stacks1.6K

Followers1.3K

Votes88

Docker Swarm

Stacks779

Followers990

Votes282

AWS CloudFormation vs Docker Swarm: What are the differences?

Key Differences between AWS CloudFormation and Docker Swarm

In web development, it is essential to understand the differences between AWS CloudFormation and Docker Swarm to choose the right tool for your infrastructure needs.

Orchestration vs. Configuration Management: AWS CloudFormation is primarily focused on infrastructure orchestration, allowing you to define, provision, and manage resources in a template-like manner, ensuring consistency across environments. On the other hand, Docker Swarm is a container orchestration tool that manages and scales containerized applications, handling tasks such as load balancing and service discovery.
Scalability Scope: While both AWS CloudFormation and Docker Swarm provide scalability features, they differ in scope. AWS CloudFormation allows you to scale infrastructure resources such as EC2 instances, databases, and networking components, ensuring high availability. Docker Swarm, on the other hand, focuses on scaling containers within a cluster, distributing workloads efficiently across multiple nodes.
Vendor Lock-in: AWS CloudFormation is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which may lead to vendor lock-in as your infrastructure is tightly coupled with AWS's ecosystem. In contrast, Docker Swarm is an open-source tool that can be used with any cloud provider or on-premises environment, providing more flexibility and avoiding vendor dependency.
Declarative vs. Imperative: AWS CloudFormation uses a declarative approach where you define the desired state of your infrastructure in a template, and CloudFormation handles the provisioning and configuration. Docker Swarm, on the other hand, follows an imperative approach where you specify commands to be executed to manage container deployments and scaling.
Resource Abstraction Level: AWS CloudFormation abstracts infrastructure resources at a higher level, allowing you to define and manage complex architectures easily using templates. In contrast, Docker Swarm operates at a lower level, focusing on container-level orchestration and management, providing more granular control over container deployments and networking.
Integration with CI/CD Tools: AWS CloudFormation integrates well with AWS's continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) tools such as AWS CodePipeline, enabling automated deployments and updates of infrastructure resources. Docker Swarm can be integrated with various CI/CD tools like Jenkins and GitLab to automate the build, test, and deployment of containerized applications.

In Summary, understanding the key differences between AWS CloudFormation and Docker Swarm is crucial for making informed decisions on managing infrastructure and containerized applications effectively in a web development environment.

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Advice on AWS CloudFormation, Docker Swarm

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

GitHub

GitHub Pages

Markdown

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

12.8M views12.8M

Comments

Timothy

SRE

Mar 20, 2020

Decided

I personally am not a huge fan of vendor lock in for multiple reasons:

I've seen cost saving moves to the cloud end up costing a fortune and trapping companies due to over utilization of cloud specific features.
I've seen S3 failures nearly take down half the internet.
I've seen companies get stuck in the cloud because they aren't built cloud agnostic.

I choose to use terraform for my cloud provisioning for these reasons:

It's cloud agnostic so I can use it no matter where I am.
It isn't difficult to use and uses a relatively easy to read language.
It tests infrastructure before running it, and enables me to see and keep changes up to date.
It runs from the same CLI I do most of my CM work from.

385k views385k

Comments

Daniel

May 4, 2020

Decided

Because Pulumi uses real programming languages, you can actually write abstractions for your infrastructure code, which is incredibly empowering. You still 'describe' your desired state, but by having a programming language at your fingers, you can factor out patterns, and package it up for easier consumption.

426k views426k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

AWS CloudFormation	Docker Swarm
You can use AWS CloudFormation’s sample templates or create your own templates to describe the AWS resources, and any associated dependencies or runtime parameters, required to run your application. You don’t need to figure out the order in which AWS services need to be provisioned or the subtleties of how to make those dependencies work.	Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.
AWS CloudFormation comes with the following ready-to-run sample templates: WordPress (blog),Tracks (project tracking), Gollum (wiki used by GitHub), Drupal (content management), Joomla (content management), Insoshi (social apps), Redmine (project mgmt);No Need to Reinvent the Wheel – A template can be used repeatedly to create identical copies of the same stack (or to use as a foundation to start a new stack);Transparent and Open – Templates are simple JSON formatted text files that can be placed under your normal source control mechanisms, stored in private or public locations such as Amazon S3 and exchanged via email.;Declarative and Flexible – To create the infrastructure you want, you enumerate what AWS resources, configuration values and interconnections you need in a template and then let AWS CloudFormation do the rest with a few simple clicks in the AWS Management Console, via the command line tools or by calling the APIs.	-
Statistics
Stacks 1.6K	Stacks 779
Followers 1.3K	Followers 990
Votes 88	Votes 282
Pros & Cons
Pros 43 Automates infrastructure deployments 21 Declarative infrastructure and deployment 13 No more clicking around 3 Any Operative System you want 3 Infrastructure as code Cons 4 Brittle 2 No RBAC and policies in templates	Pros 55 Docker friendly 46 Easy to setup 40 Standard Docker API 38 Easy to use 23 Native Cons 9 Low adoption
Integrations
No integrations available	Docker

What are some alternatives to AWS CloudFormation, Docker Swarm?

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

Packer

Packer automates the creation of any type of machine image. It embraces modern configuration management by encouraging you to use automated scripts to install and configure the software within your Packer-made images.

Scalr

Scalr is a remote state & operations backend for Terraform with access controls, policy as code, and many quality of life features.

Pulumi

Pulumi is a cloud development platform that makes creating cloud programs easy and productive. Skip the YAML and just write code. Pulumi is multi-language, multi-cloud and fully extensible in both its engine and ecosystem of packages.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

Related Comparisons

Stacks1.6K

Followers1.3K

Votes88

Docker Swarm

Stacks779

Followers990

Votes282

AWS CloudFormation vs Docker Swarm: What are the differences?

Key Differences between AWS CloudFormation and Docker Swarm

In web development, it is essential to understand the differences between AWS CloudFormation and Docker Swarm to choose the right tool for your infrastructure needs.

Orchestration vs. Configuration Management: AWS CloudFormation is primarily focused on infrastructure orchestration, allowing you to define, provision, and manage resources in a template-like manner, ensuring consistency across environments. On the other hand, Docker Swarm is a container orchestration tool that manages and scales containerized applications, handling tasks such as load balancing and service discovery.
Scalability Scope: While both AWS CloudFormation and Docker Swarm provide scalability features, they differ in scope. AWS CloudFormation allows you to scale infrastructure resources such as EC2 instances, databases, and networking components, ensuring high availability. Docker Swarm, on the other hand, focuses on scaling containers within a cluster, distributing workloads efficiently across multiple nodes.
Vendor Lock-in: AWS CloudFormation is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which may lead to vendor lock-in as your infrastructure is tightly coupled with AWS's ecosystem. In contrast, Docker Swarm is an open-source tool that can be used with any cloud provider or on-premises environment, providing more flexibility and avoiding vendor dependency.
Declarative vs. Imperative: AWS CloudFormation uses a declarative approach where you define the desired state of your infrastructure in a template, and CloudFormation handles the provisioning and configuration. Docker Swarm, on the other hand, follows an imperative approach where you specify commands to be executed to manage container deployments and scaling.
Resource Abstraction Level: AWS CloudFormation abstracts infrastructure resources at a higher level, allowing you to define and manage complex architectures easily using templates. In contrast, Docker Swarm operates at a lower level, focusing on container-level orchestration and management, providing more granular control over container deployments and networking.
Integration with CI/CD Tools: AWS CloudFormation integrates well with AWS's continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) tools such as AWS CodePipeline, enabling automated deployments and updates of infrastructure resources. Docker Swarm can be integrated with various CI/CD tools like Jenkins and GitLab to automate the build, test, and deployment of containerized applications.

Advice on AWS CloudFormation, Docker Swarm

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

GitHub

GitHub Pages

Markdown

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

12.8M views12.8M

Comments

Timothy

SRE

Mar 20, 2020

Decided

I personally am not a huge fan of vendor lock in for multiple reasons:

I've seen cost saving moves to the cloud end up costing a fortune and trapping companies due to over utilization of cloud specific features.
I've seen S3 failures nearly take down half the internet.
I've seen companies get stuck in the cloud because they aren't built cloud agnostic.

I choose to use terraform for my cloud provisioning for these reasons:

It's cloud agnostic so I can use it no matter where I am.
It isn't difficult to use and uses a relatively easy to read language.
It tests infrastructure before running it, and enables me to see and keep changes up to date.
It runs from the same CLI I do most of my CM work from.

385k views385k

Comments

Daniel

May 4, 2020

Decided

426k views426k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

AWS CloudFormation	Docker Swarm
You can use AWS CloudFormation’s sample templates or create your own templates to describe the AWS resources, and any associated dependencies or runtime parameters, required to run your application. You don’t need to figure out the order in which AWS services need to be provisioned or the subtleties of how to make those dependencies work.	Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.
AWS CloudFormation comes with the following ready-to-run sample templates: WordPress (blog),Tracks (project tracking), Gollum (wiki used by GitHub), Drupal (content management), Joomla (content management), Insoshi (social apps), Redmine (project mgmt);No Need to Reinvent the Wheel – A template can be used repeatedly to create identical copies of the same stack (or to use as a foundation to start a new stack);Transparent and Open – Templates are simple JSON formatted text files that can be placed under your normal source control mechanisms, stored in private or public locations such as Amazon S3 and exchanged via email.;Declarative and Flexible – To create the infrastructure you want, you enumerate what AWS resources, configuration values and interconnections you need in a template and then let AWS CloudFormation do the rest with a few simple clicks in the AWS Management Console, via the command line tools or by calling the APIs.	-
Statistics
Stacks 1.6K	Stacks 779
Followers 1.3K	Followers 990
Votes 88	Votes 282
Pros & Cons
Pros 43 Automates infrastructure deployments 21 Declarative infrastructure and deployment 13 No more clicking around 3 Any Operative System you want 3 Infrastructure as code Cons 4 Brittle 2 No RBAC and policies in templates	Pros 55 Docker friendly 46 Easy to setup 40 Standard Docker API 38 Easy to use 23 Native Cons 9 Low adoption
Integrations
No integrations available	Docker

AWS CloudFormation vs Docker Swarm

Overview

AWS CloudFormation vs Docker Swarm: What are the differences?