The AWS platform is developing at a rapid rate and is being increasingly adopted across all industries and sectors. As the saying goes, friends don't let friends build data centers. No matter how you look at it, the model of pay-as-you-go computing, networking, and storage is here to stay. It's also becoming increasingly hard to argue against standing on the shoulders of giants, especially when you look at the rate at which features and enhancements are being added to the AWS platform compared to what you'd typically get out of other cloud providers or a so-called private cloud.

We work with many technical professionals who are highly knowledgeable in their domain, but who are often completely new to the AWS platform. Alternatively, they may be familiar with AWS, but are new to automation and infrastructure code practices.

We wanted to write a book for these people.

This book is intended to kick start your journey on AWS by providing recipes, patterns, and best practices across the areas we are often asked to help with on our consulting engagements. All the recipes and recommendations contained in this book are based on our personal experiences and observations from our time helping customers on the AWS platform.

CloudFormation is the AWS-native method for automating the (repeatable and reliable) deployment of AWS resources, and we use it extensively throughout this book. The recipes that follow will help you get well acquainted with CloudFormation and you'll soon be on your way to customizing and building your own templates. With so much power at your fingertips, there's a lot of potential for finding yourself in a rabbit hole. This book aims to steer you in the right direction and help you adopt the platform in a sustainable and maintainable way.